Dear Editor,
We are tourists from Germany and just spent six impressive and lovely days in Siem Reap and surroundings.
It is a bubbly city, and its people are friendly and hospitable, making Combodia a wonderful country to visit.
What is sad, though, is that a lot of sewage water and rubbish is dumped everywhere.
The city is growing fast, the income from tourism must be huge – from Angkor Wat ticket fees, as well as hotels and restaurants in town.
Yet the local government relies on NGOs to donate money for wells, schools, etc.
Why doesn’t the government channel tax income from hotels and income from Angkor Wat to improve infrastructure, build sewage plants and provide clean drinking water?
Where does all the money go?
If the government waits much longer to improve things, people will simply stop coming.
Tourists are a very sensitive and transient mass – if they do not like it somewhere, they will go somewhere else.
Many places in the world have experienced this. And sewage smell and mounts of garbage certainly do not attract tourism.
Caring tourists Rita and Amer
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