Workers collect rubbish in Chak Angre Leu commune in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district last month. Hean Rangsey
A meeting was held at Phnom Penh municipal hall discussing the establishment of a phone app for the solid waste management system.
Phnom Penh municipal deputy governor Huot Hay headed the meeting on February 15 which was attended by representatives from Optistech Co Ltd and other stakeholders.
Nuon Samnavuth, the municipal hall’s Solid Waste Management Authority, told The Post that the meeting was held to discuss the establishment of a rubbish management system through a phone app for consumers.
The app would allow consumers to check on rubbish collection services and to monitor their service and ease the task of managing waste disposal across the capital.
“This app provides them with an easy way of paying their service fees on their smartphones. Through the app they could check their bill and get other informaton relating to rubbish collection services,” he said.
Because the app is newly established Samnavuth underscored that when the working group concluded their discussions on the matter they will then announce more detailed information regarding uses for the app in the future.
“We are working on this app right now and the details haven’t yet been formalized. When we finish the planning for it decisions will have to be made at the upper management levels,” he said.
The Phnom Penh municipal hall announced on February 5 that Singaporean and Chinese companies had put in successful bids for the rights to collect and manage rubbish in two areas of the city. The waste collection company Cintri retained the right to continue to provide service in a third area.
The Phnom Penh municipal hall said that the three companies will provide the rubbish collection services in their respective areas beginning in May and that each company expressed a determination to serve the needs of their clients.
On October 22, 2019, Prime Minister Hun Sen revoked the monopoly rights held by Cintri for rubbish collection and disposal in Phnom Penh and the city’s municipal administration took over temporary management of waste collection until a new company could be found to replace Cintri.
After the revocation, the Phnom Penh municipal hall also introduced reforms to service provisons such as moving the billing for rubbish collection fees from the electricty invoices and instituting the use of service payments through modern technological means.
Tuol Kork district resident Vichhay said on February 15 that the change has been for the better.
He said that the behaviour of the waste collectors and service providers is now better, though that doesn’t mean that it is perfect. He expects that when the three companies start to work people will receive even better service.
“We are notified in a timely manner and we’ve had no problem at all with the monthly payment services. They have collected rubbish without leaving any behind. If the authorities want to create the an app system for the rubbish collection service, I guess that’s good,” he said.
The government has decided to divide Phnom Penh into three areas for managing the waste collection services and they contracted three separate companies to manage these areas.
The first area consists of the districts of Tuol Kork, Russey Keo, Sen Sok, Chroy Changvar and Prek Pnov and the second area consists of the districts of Dangkor, Por Sen Chey, Kambol, Daun Penh, and Prampi Makara. And the third area, to be managed by Cintri, consists of the districts of Chamkarmon, Meanchey, Chbar Ampov and Boeung Keng Kang.
