Pollution and waste

Contaminated water from a river in Kratie province has been blamed in the deaths of at least 10 ethnic Phnong people as of late Sunday, with nearly 140 others hospitalised and hundreds more families fleeing their homes for fear their ancestors are “angry” at them, ...

Contradicting measurements showing pollutant levels exceeding international guidelines, the Environment Ministry on Friday issued a statement claiming “there is no serious air pollution yet” in Phnom Penh. ...

Customers at shopping centres and supermarkets will be charged 400 riel per plastic bag beginning April 10. Heng Nareth, the director of environmental protection at the Ministry of Environment, said the aim is to reduce wasteful use of plastic bags. ...

The kingdom’s first wastewater treatment plant will be built in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, with $27 million in assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Sam Piseth, director of the municipal department of public works and transport, told reporters on Saturday that the treatment plant would ...

A Cambodian representative to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said yesterday that new guidelines for hydropower development agreed to late last month don’t fully address threats to the health of the imperiled waterway. ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities on Friday shut down an illegal sand dredging operation on the Sesan River and confiscated equipment after having warned the company to cease operations since December, officials said yesterday. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng bemoaned Phnom Penh’s sewage infrastructure and criticised the Ministry of Environment for allowing untreated waste water to flow into the Mekong and Bassac rivers in unscripted remarks on Monday. ...

The owner of a garbage collection company that recently took over trash pick-up in Sihanoukville admitted shortcomings in collection efforts yesterday, while pledging to improve services, following a petition by residents calling for the company’s contract to be rescinded. ...

Cambodia’s solid waste collection has increased more than 40 percent over the last five years, according to an official and the Ministry of Environment’s annual report released on Monday. ...

Sihanoukville residents are benefiting from cheaper rubbish collections after Preah Sihanouk province changed the price of waste disposal services amid complaints it was too expensive. ...

Even as floodwaters pour into their villages and encroach upon their resettlement sites, villagers displaced by the controversial Lower Sesan II Dam in Stung Treng province say they are now facing shortages of potable water. ...

The Ministry of Environment has fined a Chinese garment factory in Takeo province $7,500 after villagers complained the factory was polluting nearby streams with untreated waste. ...

Chamkamorn district authorities have been collecting garbage out of the Boeung Trabek canal this week, hauling nearly 200 truckloads of trash over two days and appealing to residents to stop discarding rubbish in the waterway. ...

Move over, Cintri – there’s a new garbage collector in town. For the first time in a dozen years, Sihanoukville has a new waste management company, and it has already started collecting trash ahead of the Pchum Ben holiday. ...

Responsibility for cleaning garbage from neighborhoods will be put in the hands of district officials under new guidelines released on Tuesday as part of the government’s plan to decentralize waste disposal. ...

Siem Reap is littered with trash and local young people have had enough. Once a month since March, monks and youth volunteers from NGOs, businesses and public schools have joined together to clean up their neighbourhood and promote awareness of how rubbish affects people’s lives. ...

The first readings of the capital’s PM2.5 concentration, a major indicator of air quality, show that levels of the harmful particulates are “still low”, said Thiv Sophearith, chief of the Ministry of Environment’s Air Quality, Noise and Vibration Office, though an environmental specialist yesterday challenged ...

Phnom Penh’s sole garbage hauler says it will need another week to collect thousands of tons of fetid garbage that piled up over the weekend when workers left the capital to vote in Sunday’s commune elections. ...

The government is looking at ways to tackle Cambodia’s waste problem with a $1 charge on airline tickets touted to raise the cash. The move comes after footage emerged showing the capital’s canals remain clogged with rubbish a year after video of the pollution was shown ...

In a tributary in Phnom Penh’s Phum Prek Toal district that flows into Boeng Tompun, a mountain of plastic, garbage and waste has built up to the point where it stifles the water from flowing. Embattled residents who live next to the pile of waste ...

Experts from the Institute of Standards of Cambodia (ISC) inspected Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company’s factory this week after suspicions that its runoff had caused last month’s mass fish deaths in Preah Vihear. ...

The Environment Ministry is studying water samples from Preah Vihear province to find out what has been killing thousands of fish in the Stung Sen River, where villagers are reportedly blaming a sugarcane plantation. ...

Phnom Penh deputy governor Ieng Aunny yesterday acknowledged that the capital continues to struggle with waste management despite recent decentralisation measures, laying the blame with districts’ and communes’ lack of awareness of their new responsibilities, as well as what he characterised as contractor CINTRI’s ongoing ...

Kampong Chhnang provincial authorities have outlined plans to relocate thousands of families living on the Tonle Sap river in an effort to curb water pollution.   ...