The Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese company to cooperate on a feasibility study of the construction of a system of pump stations that will remove chemical pollutants from the Mekong River, contributing to Cambodia’s water sector development.
The online June 1 signing ceremony was attended by Minister of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation Cham Prasidh and Li Daosong, president of Beijing Urben Construction Group Co., Ltd (BUCG).
The function coincided with the 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the One Belt One Road initiative of China, said the innovation minister.
Prasidh added that the project was significant and beyond the capacity of small companies, as it required a large capital sum and advanced technology. The pump station will take water from hundreds of kilometres of the Mekong River and transfer it to water treatment plants.
“Once, we the project is implemented, it will liberate the people from the east of the Mekong River to the Vietnamese border from the dangers of chemical poisons,” he said.
“As we know, during the war of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the US dropped millions of tonnes of bombs in the area – more than it dropped in World War Two. They also employed agent orange, a powerful defoliant that has affected the lives of humans and animals ever since. Toxic chemicals seeped into the groundwater and poisoned much of the soil,” he explained.
Li thanked the ministry for its support and coordination, saying that the Chinese were committed to implementing the project. He noted that the project will benefit the people of Kampong Cham, Tbong Khmum and Kratie provinces.
BUCG is a large Chinese state-owned company and is well-known for building large domestic and foreign infrastructure projects such as airports, stadiums, expressways and water and wastewater treatment plants.
In order to ensure the effective implementation of the MoU, Prasidh will create a ministry working group which will focus on the feasibility study.
