Phnom Penh’s main garbage collector warned Thursday that rubbish piles may once again gather around the city if the municipality does not improve its dumpsite in Meanchey district.
“If City Hall does not build roads, there will be trash in the streets,” Cintri Ltd’s Director General Seng Savy said Thursday. “It is not our job [to build roads]. When the public does not know the truth, they will blame us,” he said.
Seng Savy said that with no paved roads inside the dumpsite about one dump truck a day tips over, a problem that will intensify as rainstorms increase.
Because the trucks must constantly drive over trash, punctured tires and other damage are frequent problems.
For about 10 days last month, trash piles gathered on the streets because of the same problems with the Stung Meanchey dumpsite, which, Seng Savy said, has reached capacity.
On May 20, Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema threatened to have municipal workers dump garbage at Cintri’s headquarters if the company didn’t meet a deadline for removing the piles of garbage, but he later backed off the threat as collection services improved.
Seng Savy said at the time that Cintri has requested to be given control of the dumpsite and rights to upgrade it, but the city has requested too much money in return for granting permission. He would not comment on how much was requested.
Municipal Deputy Governor Pa Socheatvong said Thursday that the city has allocated funds to build a concrete road to the dump site.
“We are working right now to construct the road,” he said, but would not comment on roadways or maintenance inside the dumpsite. He added that Cintri should increase the size of its fleet of trucks.
Seng Savy said that fixing the road to the dumpsite will not solve the problems, as the dump needs roads inside. He added that Cintri doubled the number of trucks it uses to 100 in the last month.
Cintri signed a 49-year contract with the municipality in 2002 to collect 90 percent of the city’s garbage.
