Capital still struggling with waste
Phnom Penh deputy governor Ieng Aunny on March 28 acknowledged that the capital continues to struggle with waste management despite recent decentralisation measures, laying the blame with districts’ and communes’ lack of awareness of their new responsibilities, as well as what he characterised as contractor Cintri’s ongoing failure to meet the city’s needs. Phnom Penh began to delegate waste management duties to its districts and communes last year, Ieng said during a workshop to review Phnom Penh’s strategy for waste management, with City Hall handing responsibility for the services to the city’s final four districts in December. The delegation of services was stipulated under a 2015 sub-decree by the Ministry of Environment. “We have decentralised it to the communes to control the waste, but we have observed that … waste management, both solid and liquid waste, remain a problem,” he said. “We have not achieved what we wanted … The waste is in the canals and along the streets.”
