Phnom Penh municipality has rewritten the details of a 49-year agreement with the city’s primary trash collection firm, but city officials declined Tuesday to reveal information regarding the changed contract, which has not yet been seen by Cintri.
The restructured contract with private firm Cintri Ltd, which signed a 49-year agreement in 2002 to collect 90 percent of Phnom Penh’s garbage, was approved Tuesday, Municipal Governor Kep Chuktema said.
The contract will now be sent to Cintri, the governor said, before final approval by the Finance Ministry.
Kep Chuktema declined to provide details of the changes to the agreement.
“I am positive the firm will sign on the reformed contract since we have tried to understand each other already,” he added.
Cintri Deputy Director Seng Chamroeun declined to comment Tuesday.
Cintri’s relationship with Kep Chuktema has long been stormy.
In May, Cintri Director-General Seng Savy complained that the municipal dump site in Meanchey district was full and that it did not have proper road access. Cintri trucks were experiencing frequent flat tires and flooding on the access road had caused a truck to tip over.
As Cintri’s vehicles were out of commission, trash began to pile up on the city’s streets, leading Kep Chuktema to threaten to dump garbage at Cintri’s Monivong Boulevard office.
Municipal officials never carried through with the threat and the piles disappeared within a week.
Kep Chuktema said Tuesday that many of the problems Cintri faced have now been solved.
“We have everything: asphalt roads and a new dump site,” he said. “Previously the company tried very hard at working but it is still not enough,” he said. “[Cintri] needs to make more efforts to clean.”
Sao Kun Chhon, director of Phnom Penh water management office, said the municipality now expects results from Cintri. “They must find new ways to make sanitation conditions better and better.”
