The World Bank has recently awarded ESC the Cambodia Solid Waste and Plastic Management Improvement Project. The proposed development aims to improve solid waste and plastic management and capacity in selected cities and nationally in Cambodia.
According to the World Bank, Cambodia has experienced rapid growth in recent years with increased urban development and tourism in particular. Solid waste is more and more seen as a critical bottleneck for Cambodian cities and districts. This issue has become a high-priority national agenda that may also affect Cambodia’s key tourism destinations including Siem Reap where the Angkor Wat temple complex is located, Phnom Penh, and coastal tourism.
Studies show that inadequate disposal of solid waste has major environmental, public health, and economic impacts including air, soil and water pollution from burning and wind-blown waste, and uncontrolled leachate discharge, while uncollected dumps lead to increased pests and diseases. Plastic waste pollution also forms a major source of solid waste in Cambodia that endangers local rivers, lakes, and marine ecosystems.
For this project, ESC has been commissioned to carry out the pre-feasibility that will provide:
- identification and suitability analysis of potential landfill sites for five selected municipalities (Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Speu, Sihanoukville, Kandal)
- assessment of waste generation, composition, and landfill and treatment needs
- pre-feasibility assessment for new landfill and/or closing/rehabilitation of old landfill
- assessment of the potential of simple and low costs waste treatment facilities
- conceptual landfill design options and other waste systems for three cities
- waste collection and transport planning,
- Institutional systems assessment, planning, and development,
- costs assessments, financial analysis including tariffs and institutional/operational options for three cities
The project team is led by Nigel Landon, who has an in-depth understanding of systems and procedures for donors, national governments, and the private sector. ESC has been working in the donor sector on World Bank, KFW Development Bank, European Union (EU), Australian Government (DFAT), Asian Development Bank (ADB), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), projects since 2005. Nigel has reported that: “Through this project, the WB had recognized the need to address problems throughout the solid waste management cycle. In particular by focusing equally on infrastructure, institutional development, fee recovery, and effective management, monitoring, operation, and maintenance. This project represents an important step towards putting in place genuinely sustainable solid waste management systems in Cambodia”