City Hall to Train Guards to Drive Garbage Trucks

City Hall announced on Friday plans to train five security guards from each of Phnom Penh’s 12 districts to drive garbage trucks as back-up in the event of another strike by Cintri workers, part of a three-step solution to tackle the much-publicized shortcomings of the city’s sole waste collection company.

Cintri workers called off their second strike of the year earlier this month after accepting a $10-per-month wage bump. But the threat of further strikes remains, and the walkout once again highlighted the company’s inability to manage the city’s growing waste issue.

City Hall called district governors and Cintri management together for a meeting on Tuesday to try to help the company out of its mess and emerged with a three-point plan it hopes will rectify the company’s failings, according to a press release on Friday.

First, City Hall will notify residents of any future disruptions to the municipal service, while the second step is to prepare district and commune authorities to intervene in the event of a garbage crisis.

“Point three saw City Hall agree to enlist five members of each district’s security forces to be trained to drive Cintri’s garbage trucks,” said the statement, posted on the municipality’s website.

Cintri operations manager Ngoun Sipheng said the company welcomed City Hall’s positive response to the garbage problem and said the company had already bolstered its limited fleet of aging garbage trucks and was training more drivers.

“The company started training 30 drivers from Savimex this week to replace Cintri drivers should they join a strike and we will also help City Hall to train five security guards from each district—all of whom will be paid to work,” he said.

Savimex is a local import and export company dealing mainly in petroleum.

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