The Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the Ministry of Environment, along with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), will hold a meeting with the Kampong Chhnang Provincial Administration and relevant institutions on September 21 to decide on the division of responsibilities and management of a new landfill for Kampong Chhnang town, located in Trapaing Sbov village of Rolea Ba’ier district’s Sre Thmey commune.
Provincial governor Sun Sovannarith told The Post that prior to the meeting with the ministries and ADB, he had chaired an online meeting to review progress on the landfill sub-project in the town, which was completed earlier in September.
“We met [on September 18] to prepare the provincial administration for its upcoming planning meetings with the ministries. We have already built the landfill and we are now just awaiting the division of responsibilities in order to begin operations at the site,” he said.
Sovannarith said that in order to manage the landfill effectively and efficiently, the provincial administration will request that the ministries manage the landfill for one or two years and provide training to the provincial administration officials before handing it over to them.
“It’s just an idea that the provincial side thought would be helpful, but let’s see what the ministries decide. We also asked for environmental and technical advisers and other various forms of support from the environment ministry,” he said.
Seng Vichet, the governor of Rolea Ba’ier district, told The Post on September 19 that the current level of waste collection services in his district was insufficient. On average, about five tonnes of rubbish are being collected by private companies and market officials each day and they are dumping it in a private landfill while most other people are just collecting and burning their rubbish themselves.
“We have two markets in town from which we collect a decent amount of rubbish, but not too much, because now we have a private company contracted to collect it with the market officials in Prey Khmer and Pongro markets. We have not started disposing of the waste in the new landfill because it has not been opened yet,” he said.
As for the new landfill for Kampong Chhnang town, the governor said it was built on an area of more than 12ha with a loan from the ADB under the project to improve the urban environment around the Tonle Sap Lake. The construction began in April 2020.
He added that the landfill will be able to store the provincial capital’s garbage for the next 30 years and can also cover the storage of rubbish collected from throughout the province.
“The whole project includes a wastewater treatment lake, wastewater treatment system, an administration building, a well for water quality control, secured entrance to the landfill, a generator room, drainage system for rainwater and a fence around the landfill and its infrastructure,” he said.
Sovannarith said the ADB loan for the Tonle Sap Lake project was about $30 million, including funds for the construction of the new landfill and also a new dam in that area as well.
