One hundred new Chinese-funded rubbish bins are being installed along Phnom Penh’s riverside, officials said yesterday.

“We started installing them a few days ago. Today we put in 19 bins, but there will be 100 in total,” said Kouch Chamroeun, governor of Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, adding that there will be separate bins for dry and wet rubbish.

The bins were given to the city by the Xicheng district of Beijing, Chamroeun said. The district governor visited Xicheng district last year, and said he had a good relationship with his counterpart there, leading to the donation of new bins – valued at about $209 each.

“The rubbish bins look nice and we hope they will help people classify the rubbish as dry and wet,” Chamroeun said.

The decision to install the bins was unrelated to criticisms during the recent Water Festival that a shortage of rubbish bins had caused excessive littering, he added.

Authorities also came under fire for viral images appearing to show workers sweeping the litter directly into the river.

“Actually, I had received those bins before the Water Festival . . . because I knew there could never be enough,” he added. “But I didn’t install them during the Water Festival because I thought they’d get broken.”