Kampong Chhnang's first state-of-the-art water treatment plant to be built at a cost of over $20 million in the province is scheduled to break ground on construction in September as the government demarcated a site that includes a large lake to build the facility.
On July 4, representatives from the ministries of Public Works and Transport, Interior, Economy and Finance, and Environment as well as relevant authorities and the project technical working group held a meeting on its construction and on the management of landfills in the province.
Also discussed was the Urban Environment Management Improvement Project around Tonle Sap Lake under the concessional loan of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) implemented in the province; the construction of a landfill, which is now completed; and the construction of a sewer system and wastewater treatment plants.
Provincial governor Sun Sovannarith confirmed to The Post on July 5 that the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant will begin in September and is scheduled to be completed in the next two years.
"We will build this plant at Boeung Thom point in Kampong Chhnang town over the next two years by setting up a system according to ADB standards," he said. "This wastewater treatment plant will be built underground, and above that we will have a garden and public administration buildings, as the pool will have a disinfection system before discharging water into the river."
Boeung Thom is a lake with a large volume of water in the rainy season, stretching from the point of the so-called French dam in Kandal village of Kampong Chhnang town’s Phsar Chhnang commune to Tuol Ampil in Damnak Popul village within the same polity.
Sovannarith also said that ADB and the public works ministry have already received bids to construct the plant and are now just waiting for the construction bidding deadline to pass.
He added that when the wastewater treatment plant is completed, it will help prevent the discharge of wastewater into the river and the plant will also help solve the problem of flooding currently faced by residents of the area.
"This is the first state-of-the-art water treatment plant in Kampong Chhnang with a sewer system connected to people's homes in the province for about 40km around, which we have never had before. The sewer system connected to people's homes will prevent the wastewater flowing directly into the river," the governor said.
Sous Cham, a resident of Kampong Chhnang commune and town, said he was happy that a wastewater treatment plant will be built.
He expected that once the new wastewater treatment plant and sewage system is completed, problems faced by residents such as flooding will end and environmental problems in the river will be reduced.
"I will be very happy if they build it, because in our provincial town the water is flowing everywhere and making the drainage system obstructed. The flooding is a problem that we have been experiencing for two to three years now because of the small size of the drainage systems. They get obstructed and it floods," he said.
