Siem Reap provincial authorities have launched a campaign to clean up the environment in Siem Reap town after the international New Year celebrations held there in order to maintain its beauty and to raise public awareness about environmental issues.
At the opening ceremony of the “clean town, good environment, good health” campaign following the town’s heavily-attended New Year celebrations, Siem Reap provincial deputy governor Ngan Phirun said that the campaign to clean up afterwards was very important and what made Siem Reap town special was its clean environment, good atmosphere, healthy green plants and colourful flowers.
Phirun added that the campaign was also to help with raising awareness about environmental hygiene to the public in order to improve the environment because cleaning living brings good health.
“Therefore, organising this campaign is important to encourage all walks of life to participate in sanitation, as well as to inspire a movement to clean up the environment around their homes and in public places through the proper disposal of garbage,” he said.
Phirun urged everyone to help out with the revitalisation of town by ensuring that visitors would find a clean environment and villages without litter.
He stressed that getting people to switch from using plastic products to other options was also very important, because plastic pollution was accumulating to an alarming degree and seriously threatening the planet’s eco-systems.
“We all have a responsibility for protecting the environment and working together to properly dispose of rubbish,” he said.
Siem Reap provincial Hall spokesman Liv Sokhon told The Post that the campaign was to further inspire the public to get involved in proper waste disposal.
“After the New Year celebration, there was a lot of garbage all over the place and the province always cleans up after the big festival events. In fact, there are companies who we could contract to do the cleaning, but we do this additional work to strengthen the morale of the people and get the community to pay attention to the environment because Siem Reap is a province that relies on culture and tourism,” he said.