Ministry of Environment hands over rubbish trucks and motorbikes to Kampong Cham and Oddar Meanchey provinces on May 20. Environment Ministry
The Ministry of Environment has provided three waste collection trucks and six motorcycles each to the Kampong Cham and Oddar Meanchey provincial administrations on May 20 to improve their waste collection services.
Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra told The Post on May 22 that some waste storage equipment was also provided to the provinces.
The provision of vehicles and equipment was to help the provinces with street cleaning and waste transportation with the ultimate goal of ensuring the sustainability of waste management and maintaining clean and beautiful cities and towns.
The equipment contributes to the expansion of rubbish collection services so that they can collect waste in a timely manner, he said.
According to Pheaktra, the ministry has already provided 17 heavy waste collection trucks to Kampong Cham, Kandal, Prey Veng, Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk, Takeo, Oddar Meanchey, Kep and Tbong Khmum provinces along with 56 waste transporting motorcycles, 48 big rubbish bins and 100 small bins.
“The provision of this equipment to the provinces is to give them ownership of these services so that they can clean and transport the waste by themselves,” he said.
According to Pheaktra, providing the equipment is also an effective implementation of the government’s policy of safe villages and communes.
Hem Ouddom, an independent environmental expert, said the provision of these vehicles was a positive sign that the environment ministry was attempting to tackle waste issues in the Kingdom.
He said he also wanted to see the ministry pay more attention to changing the public’s behaviour regarding waste to help promote community spirit and encourage people to keep the environment clean.
“It is still necessary to raise awareness about these issues with the people. This can be done through the education and environment ministries and local authorities. We should not put all of the responsibility on the waste collectors,” he said.
To make waste collection effective, he said it should be managed at the local level with the national government providing local authorities with the means and funding to carry out their agenda.
