Sihanoukville: Building momentum in the construction industry in Sihanoukville is expanding, The Kingdom is witnessing massive growth in this sector, especially the boom of housing market and its rapid development of urban infrastructure, problems related to garbage and solid waste management becomes a tremendous challenge for the beachside tourist town which causes flooding too during rainy season.

Finding a solution to this problem, the Preah Sihanouk provincial administration held a meeting to present a framework for implementing a new urban solid waste management system and to turn fifty hectares of land for use as a new landfill site, but the first phase of construction would only take up 17 hectares of the area.

Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun has voiced out during the meeting that in order to solve the problems of waste management and solid waste for Sihanoukville they need to developed a new strategy that would deal with waste quickly and sustainably. The province has reached the point of crisis with garbage in Sihanoukville. Although rubbish collection companies pick up and haul away the garbage around the coastal city, collectors continue to face messy improper waste disposal.

The governor further says that he problem is that there are no technical standards being enforced and garbage is collected around the city and then dumped in unsuitable places. The problem is not really solved but just transfer it somewhere. He was enlivened to announce that Preah Sihanouk province had now established a new landfill in Prey Nop district with orders given to the waste management companies to dump all garbage there. The Sihanoukville’s new dumpsite is ready and officially opened and all garbage can be transported and dumped there from Friday, 5 November.

He added that he has instructed the Ministry of Environment to set up a waste management company to help Cambodia learn to manage its landfills more effectively. His administration initially attempted to dissuade people from illegal dumping by posting signs that included a warning about fines from $5 to $100 imposed on anyone who improperly disposed their garbage on the beaches or public roads.

Undersecretary of state at the environment ministry Heng Nareth says that the government has laid out policies to improve waste management and increase the cost-effectiveness of the system and these policies represented the will, commitment and ownership necessary to ensure the building of capacity in this sector and bring about an era of bold new achievements in garbage and solid waste management. The solution to the garbage problem also requires educating people so that they will have a deeper understanding of waste management and he asked the people to sort their garbage properly,keeping wet and dry wastes separately, so that dry can be recycled and wet waste can be composted.