Soukhouma Area Program

Soukhouma District is located in the South-West of Champassack Province, in the South of Lao PDR. The district borders Thailand in the West and the Mekong in the East.

There are 62 villages, divided into 6 administrative zones with a total population of 45,500. There is a significant disparity in poverty and access to resources across the 6 zones.

The proximity to the lower Mekong delta area makes the district highly vulnerable to flooding in the rainy season. Each year thousands of hectares of productive farmland are flooded by the Mekong and its tributaries, destroying valuable crops. The rains make many of the villages inaccessible during the wet season. Poor roads and no means of crossing the many rivers mean that less than 23% of the villages are accessible during both the wet and the dry season. Less than half of the villages are accessible during the rainy season. Conversely, the district is also prone to drought during the dry season. The district's average rainfall of 1,822 mm per year falls almost entirely from May to October. No rain falls from November to April making dry-season cultivation impossible without irrigation. District information indicates that 67% of villages are regularly affected by drought.

11% of the land area is cultivable land, and 84% is forest cover. Many villages are completely inaccessible during the rainy season.

Food Security

District Authority statistics indicate that 25% of the population is short of rice for up to 8 months per year. A shortage of productive land and poor yields due to recurrent drought and flooding make food security one of the most pressing problems in the district. Some villages reported losing 90% of their rice crops due to severe flooding.

Education

Access to formal primary and secondary education in Soukhouma district is critically low. 5 villages (8%) have no primary school in the village. Only 37% of villages have primary schools with the full 5 grades. 55% of villages have primary schools with only 3 grades. Where primary classes are not available in a village, villagers report that their primary-aged children cannot walk long distances to schools in neighboring villages.

Health

The health status of Soukhouma district is very poor. Common, preventable diseases are often life-threatening. Access to basic health services is very limited in most villages. The capacity of the district health service is low, compared to the needs and the challenging context.