Source: FN
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Friday to remove waste collection fees from electricity invoices issued by Cambodian national utility company, Electricité du Cambodge, speaking in a cabinet meeting held at the Peace Palace.
Prime Minister continued that after withdrawing license from Cintri, a private company responsible for cleaning and collecting Phnom Penh solid waste since 2002, the government will recruit four different companies to collect trash from the divided four regions in the capital city.
According to Head of the Royal Government, Cinti will receive a suitable compensation and that their assets and human resource will be temporarily under the management of the autonomous agency of state. Soon after, the Government will arrange the bidding for at least four companies to work on effective city cleaning.
The Royal Government hopes the new mechanism will bring more job opportunities for people and the sustainability of city hygiene.
It is worth recalling that over the past few months, many Phnom Penh residents have complained about the company’s low services in collecting trash.
Phnom Penh is expanding in double size from 300 square kilometers to more than 600 square kilometers. The capital city is facing huge challenges in waste management due to population growth, increasing income and consumption levels, expanding urbanization and inadequate waste management including lack of proper waste collection and treatment facilities, technical staff as well as unclear responsibilities among staff members, according to a 2018 report, prepared by GES Centre Collaborating with UNEP on Environmental Technologies (CCET) of Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
The 2018 report released by Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment said that the amount of garbage produced in the country has surged at a rate of about 10% each year, all caused by population growth, changes in lifestyle and packaging, and the lack of understanding on how to sort waste.
It added about 1.5 million tonnes of waste or 41 percent of the total annual waste collected annually were sent to dumpsites.