02 Oct 2008By N.S. Cambodge Soir Hebdo Translated from Khmer by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the original article in French
On Thursday 02 October, at the courtyard of the Phnom Penh city hall, a large ceremony was held to receive small Japanese gifts. Kubota, the Japanese public works company, was handing over to the city governor, 10 plastic portable toilets and ten pruning scissors.
Kazuhito Sato, a representative of Kubota which works in partnership with the city hall in the rainwater drainage project, recognized that the gifts were merely a “tiny one.” On the other hand, Kep Chuktema, the city governor, indicated that these toilets will “be placed in public places. They will be very useful during the water festival and during major popular holidays.” Kep Chuktema then proceeded to ask his team to launch a TV campaign to inform the public about the use of these toilets.
The governor took the opportunity for the occasion to announce that the city will acquire 50 additional toilets at a cost of $2,500 a piece, and that they will be placed in the downtown area before next 7 January holiday [commemoration date of the decade-long occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam]. No one knows for sure if at this price, these toilets will come with free rolls of toilet paper or not…
Nevertheless, these additional 50 toilets will supplement the other 200 public toilets already in place in the city. However, most of them lack proper upkeep or they have been hijacked by traveling vendors who used them to store their stalls [at night].
Kazuhito Sato, a representative of Kubota which works in partnership with the city hall in the rainwater drainage project, recognized that the gifts were merely a “tiny one.” On the other hand, Kep Chuktema, the city governor, indicated that these toilets will “be placed in public places. They will be very useful during the water festival and during major popular holidays.” Kep Chuktema then proceeded to ask his team to launch a TV campaign to inform the public about the use of these toilets.
The governor took the opportunity for the occasion to announce that the city will acquire 50 additional toilets at a cost of $2,500 a piece, and that they will be placed in the downtown area before next 7 January holiday [commemoration date of the decade-long occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam]. No one knows for sure if at this price, these toilets will come with free rolls of toilet paper or not…
Nevertheless, these additional 50 toilets will supplement the other 200 public toilets already in place in the city. However, most of them lack proper upkeep or they have been hijacked by traveling vendors who used them to store their stalls [at night].
3 comments:
$2500 each??? Damn that's too much. THe khmer can't build themselve just buy looking at these free ones from Japan? It's not that hard to make.
They should have these in the rest stops, at bus stops that is.
thank you japan for donating. portable toilet are good for construction sites and outdoor events. the more the better. also, i hope cambodia will take the evolution of modern toilet into the development of cambodia as well. please build more, good, clean, public toilet all over cambodia like we see in singapore, the western world, japan, etc... cambodia needs it. this can help to alleviate some preventable diseases as well. thank you.
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