Trash collectors battling with mounds of garbage

Trash collectors were working overtime Thursday to clean the vast piles of garbage that had accumulated in Phnom Penh this week after their four-day strike for higher wages.

Although workers returned to their duties after agreeing to a pay rise of between $20 and $25 per month on Wednesday, the garbage piles around Phnom Penh had grown so large and plentiful that Cintri, the company that holds the contract to collect the city’s trash, decided to focus on cleaning up central districts. …

More than half of Cintri’s almost 1,000 staff were tasked to focus on Chamkar Mon, Daun Penh, Prampi Makara and Tuol Kok districts, which would likely be cleaned up by the end of the weekend. …

To speed things up, Cintri also asked for the municipality’s permission to dump garbage on abandoned plots of land before taking it to the main garbage dump, located near Choeung Ek, about 15 km from the city center. …

Ben Sokhean and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trash-collectors-battling-with-mounds-of-garbage-51646/