Pollution and waste

A delegation of Cambodian officials told attendees at seminar at the Global Green Growth Institute’s Green Growth Week conference yesterday that waste management was the biggest environmental challenge facing Phnom Penh. The seminar heard examples from 10 countries – Cambodia, Columbia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Mongolia, the Philippines, ...

A Japanese firm, Gomi Recycle 110, plans to invest in a factory in Svay Rieng province to recycle plastic waste into finished products for local markets. Yusuke Okumura, director of Gomi, met with Cambodia’s Minister of Environment Say Samal on Tuesday seeking support from the government ...

A study of drinking water sources in Kandal province found widespread contamination from human excrement, posing a health risk to residents that likely mirrors the situation across Cambodia, the authors say.   ...

A start-up initiative aimed at reducing plastic waste in the Kingdom is asking locals and expats to live plastic-free in July. The goal of the campaign is relatively simple: eliminate plastics’ harshest offenders from daily consumption. That means plastic straws, bags, bottles, cups and Styrofoam, or ...

The government has proposed slugging shoppers 500 riel for plastic bags in a bid to reduce environmental pollution. A draft prakas on plastic bags that would include the fee was reviewed yesterday in a Department of Environment workshop attended by government representatives along with mall and ...

Sihanoukville officials have prioritised cracking down on businesses that allow sewage to drain into the sea, deputy governor Chhin Seng Nguon said yesterday.   ...

The government has allocated $5 million across the Kingdom’s 46 sub-districts and towns to help with waste management by national and local institutions. ...

About 60 families in Battambang town gathered yesterday to demand that the owner of an ice-making factory stop releasing polluted water into the creek that runs through their neighborhood in Romchek village 5 as well as on their land. ...

Cambodian airports are preparing to install a satellite-guided performance-based navigation (PBN) system that will save carriers time and fuel, and reduce air pollution, according to the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation. ...

Cambodia is suffering disproportionately from the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from more developed nations, according to a new study published in the journal Nature on Friday. ...

As airline passenger numbers in the country rocket, Cambodia has taken its first step toward greener air travel by earning the initial level of accreditation from a body that monitors the carbon footprint of airports. ...

UNESCO and the ministries of Tourism and Environment this weekend will launch a campaign aimed at ridding the capital of the plastic waste currently choking its waterways and piling up in its landfills.The campaign, starting on Friday, will seek to educate Cambodians about how to ...

A stern warning to clean up or pay up was issued to litterbugs yesterday, with Interior Minister Sar Kheng announcing fines for improper waste disposal across the country. According to the sub-decree, people who do not follow guidelines on separating waste, or who dump or ...

The Ministry of Environment has called on local authorities in Pailin province to find a new location for a 34-hectare dumpsite currently planned for a protected forest.Environment Minister Say Sam Al, who led a team to inspect the site on October 3, wrote to Pailin ...

Phnom Penh’s ever-growing garbage problem is not going away, but on Friday its scope became clearer as the Asia Foundation presented two years of research into the city’s present and future solid waste generation, along with suggestions on how to cope with the mess. ...

The government could be forced to shell out more than $120 million [≈ Finance industry 2011 political donations] to build new landfills over the next decade unless it invests in preventing Phnom Penh’s current site from reaching capacity, according to a pair of new reports. ...

Environmental groups in Southeast Asia are urging governments of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to present a united and ambitious climate action plan for the upcoming climate conference in Paris this December. ...

Ever since its designation as a UNESCO heritage site in 1992, the Angkor Archaeological Park has been a tourism magnet for the Kingdom. In the high season, it isn’t uncommon to see tuk-tuks, private taxis and busloads of tourists flooding the temple complex, causing traffic jams ...

In anticipation of World No Tobacco Day on Sunday, Phnom Penh’s City Hall called upon tobacco companies to stop the illegal advertisement of cigarettes and for district officials to start enforcing non-smoking zones, in an event at Wat Phnom on Friday. ...

The filling in of a canal in the capital’s Chbar Ambpov district has prompted local villagers to push back against looming displacement, district officials and community representatives have told the Post. ...

Many visit Siem Reap province’s Angkorian-era temples for the views and the atmosphere, but the Apsara Authority wants to find out if that atmosphere is toxic. ...

A torrential downpour that lasted over three hours yesterday morning has left many in the capital struggling with flooded houses, businesses and travel conditions, sparking outcry that authorities have not done enough to manage the rain’s effects. Flooding took place in virtually every district in ...

Prey Sar prison officials are carting thousands of liters of water to the prison each day because a construction company smashed a water main and has yet to fix it. According to prison officials, inmates are rationed 3 liters of clean water each day, which is ...

The destructive threat posed to Angkor Wat by pollution is being taken seriously, the Apsara Authority said in a statement it released Friday in response to recent media coverage of the issue. Responding to an article initially published by GlobalPost under the headline “In Cambodia, toxic ...