Two trash collectors have died and another seriously injured in a traffic incident as workers and family spoke of Phnom Penh’s new waste management companies putting them on unfamiliar shifts, not providing equipment and lacking union representation.
Following years of complaints about poor service, Cintri was put under state management in 2019, and as of July its work split up among three companies. Promises to keep all employees on the payroll were broken when 1,176 workers were terminated as of July 1.
A trash collectors union said its members could be facing unemployment as Phnom Penh began its new collection regime on Thursday, splitting former sole-operator Cintri’s jurisdiction into three areas.
Singaporean and Chinese companies will handle two of three trash collection zones in Phnom Penh under the city’s long-awaited restructuring of waste management, while Cintri will continue to service central and southern city areas, company representatives said.
More than 2,000 sanitation workers in Phnom Penh ended their strike and returned to work on Wednesday afternoon after City Hall and their employer promised to pay them as demanded in February.
Garbage collection workers remain on strike despite a union urging them to accept a deal from City Hall, with the workers saying they want to see payments not promises.
On the front lines of Cambodia’s fight against Covid-19, the five-man team responsible for disposing of all of Phnom Penh’s medical waste says they are poorly equipped, uninsured and at risk of infection, but few recognize the challenges they face.
A canal near Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sangkae Thom market has been filling up with trash over the past year, with residents saying they are struggling
About 10,000 tons of trash is produced every day from houses and factories around Cambodia, 90 percent of it going unrecycled, said presenters at a Waste Summit on Thursday in Phnom Penh.
Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra on Monday reiterated earlier government statements that 83 shipping containers packed with plastic refuse and left at the Sihanoukville port since last year came from the U.S. and Canada — despite Canada saying on Friday that the containers weren’t theirs.
Salt fields on lucrative Kampot coastland are being promised the backing of a new governmental working group to aid in competition against Thai and Vietnamese imports, but salt farmers are skeptical.
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