Rokakaong 1-Muk Kampul: people of several families living along riverside and monks living in Keo Muny Cheat pagoda in Rokakaong 1 commune, Muk Kampul district, Kandal province complained about dumping of trash along riverside that send out bad smell to pagoda and villages and even pollutes water because trash collected from Rokakaong market and heaped up on the riverside and flows into the river that decontaminates water.

The 2nd deputy commune chief of Rokakaong 1 Mr. Tim Houen said dumping trash on the river has been done since 2004 and had never been removed to elsewhere. The trash collected from inside the market had been piled up on the riverside and let it flow into the river water. He added a contractor Mr. Hem Chhieng, a trash collector and also a timber seller has had a contract to collect trash for about one year. Before 2004, trash was collected and heaped up on Rokakaong 1 creek, but when strongly protested by people, the commune authority banned the dumping of trash any longer and then it happened on the riverside. The people and Keo Muny Cheat pagoda committee used to ask the commune authority for help in solving this problem, but the commune authority didn’t take any action to stop dumping of trash at all.

A head of Keo Muny Cheat pagoda monks Thu Morn complained that trash adversely affected his pagoda because it was piled up next to the pagoda gate emitting bad foul smell and on the other hand, it is very difficult using river water because pagoda pumps river water for daily use and the water pumping site is near the pile of trash. A head of monks added the pagoda committee used to ask commune authority not to throw trash there, but they didn’t solve this problem.

A trash collecting worker Mrs. Chhorn Khoeun said she had collected trash there almost 10 years and received a wage of 70,000 riels per month. She carried 5-6 carts of trash a day and threw it down along the riverside so that it flew into the river.
One of teachers of Svay Ampea junior high school and a Rokakaong villager Mr. Sum Chamroeun said his family as well as all the villagers had difficulty using river water because it was unclean and dirty and sometimes water pumped for use contained medical gloves, plastic bags and so on. This factor came from trash dumping on the riverside and it flew into the river water and due to carelessness of trash collecting contractor and commune authority on environmental impact. The villagers used to protest and request the commune several times, but it was good for nothing. In the past, Seila program came to educate people on environmental issues, but it stayed the same; nothing changed. People had a meeting with Seila program on environmental issues and the program said they would help work it out, but latter on, nothing happened. In the end, the teacher appealed to NGOs, authorities and various environment-related departments for intervention in this environmental problem.

The reason why trash was thrown on the riverside was that there was no place storing it and this had happened a long time. People and pagoda committee have opposed the trash dumping on the riverside, but couldn’t be solved because commune development project he submitted to relevant departments wasn’t supported due to lack of funds, Rokakaong 1 commune chief Mr. Men Sum said, adding that a market tax contractor Mr. Hem Chhieng has had contract from the provincial financial department to the value of 5-6 million riels per year and the reason why there was complicated problems was that the business people didn’t pay market tax that caused difficulty for market management. In order to solve the above problem, the commune authority would plan to make trash-burning kiln and this project would be submitted to higher level for support.

Rokakaong business people said they pay 100 riels per day regularly to tax collector.