Boeung Tumpun in Phnom Penh - Photos and Video by Theary Seng

Boeung Tumpun-tur​ned sewage system for capital, growing fish and vegetables for the capital -- the heart (center) of Phnom Penh. The smell is so thick and tangible, that it will take a long shower to wash away the poisonous odor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvt0KYwuCiw

What you see in the video:

Man fishing in poisonous wastes of Boeung Tumpum (All Photos: Theary Seng)

Poisonous wastes of Boeung Tumpum of Phnom Penh--the stink of the sewage enough to make a person faint

Black sewage wastes of Boeung Tumpum where thousands of families live, Phnom Penh

Filling up Boeung Tumpun, the other "Boeung Kak" also in Phnom Penh, and without creating sewage system for the capital--t​his Thursday

Filling up Boeung (lake) Tumpun

Vegetables and fishing in the black sewage lake (or, what is left) of Boeung Tumpun, immediatel​y across the street from other photos where land being filled in the once natural lake-turne​d massive sewage system for the capital

The water is as black and almost as thick as crude oil--the vegetables and fish are feeding the capital

Poisonous open sewage in the heart of "The Charming City" of the Kingdom of Extraordin​ary Wonder (Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew!) near Tuol Sleng this Sunday morning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEtfHGjg1v0

Cambodia faces safe water, sanitation challenges

March 22, 2011

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) – While Cambodia is working hard to improve the access to safe water, the issue remains its challenge, a statement from UN office in the country said Tuesday.

"Some 85 percent of the population having access to safe water, among which 76 percent in urban areas," the statement said.

However, it said the situation is not as good for those living in urban slums where they have difficult access to state supplied water.

Furthermore, some 90 percent of population in the country have access to sanitation and 81 percent have toilets, according to the UN office in Cambodia.

Cambodian sanitation ranks last in region

Tuesday, 09 November 2010
Rann Reuy
The Phnom Penh Post

Fewer people in Cambodia have access to adequate sanitation facilities than in any other Southeast Asian country, according to a new report from the Ministry of Rural Development.

Only 29 percent of Cambodians had access to sanitation facilities as of 2008, said the report released on Monday, which draws on figures from the World Health Organisation and the UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation.

By comparison, 96 percent of people in Thailand, 75 percent in Vietnam and 53 percent in Laos had access to such facilities, according to the JMP 2010 report, which was released in March.

Furthermore, 67 percent of Cambodians living in urban areas had access to sanitation facilities in 2008, compared with only 18 percent of people in rural areas.

Chea Samnang, director of the Rural Development Ministry’s Department of Rural Heath, said on Monday that the number of toilets in the Kingdom’s rural areas was increasing at about 2 percent annually.

“We see it is increasing, but it is so slow,” he said.

He said he did not believe that the lack of progress in rural areas could be attributed to poverty levels, arguing that many people who did not own a toilet, which would cost about US$20-30, owned other “modern electrical items” such as motorbikes or telephones.

They Chanto, hygiene promotion officer at the ministry’s Rural Hygiene Education Office, said a substantial number of Cambodians defecate in the open, meaning that about “3,000 fresh stools were scattered into the environment each day”.

Lack of Clean Water, Sanitation Costs Millions: Group

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
03 August 2009

The lack of clean water and sanitation is costing Cambodia around half a billion dollars every year in poor health and a loss of tourists, a study has found.

In a discussion titled, “Water is Medicine,” Jaehyang So, manager of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, said that a study commissioned by the organization on economic impacts caused by the lack of water and sanitation shows that Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam lose around $9 billion every year.

“All of a sudden, the lack of sanitation became not a problem of the poor person that doesn’t have access to sanitation, but it became a real constraint to economic growth in the country,” she told an audience of health experts and policymakers last week in Washington.

In Cambodia, knowledge and access to sanitation and clean water are limited, while less than 30 percent of rural population has decent latrines. But advocates say their knowledge about sanitation has increased in the past year due to many campaigns to raise their awareness.

“Nowadays we focus our campaign on three points: firstly, building rural toilets; secondly, washing hands with soap after going to the toilet and eating food; and finally, drinking safe water and keeping their water at home safely,” Chea Samnang, director of the Ministry of Rural Development’s rural sanitation department, told VOA Khmer by phone Thursday.

Diarrhea is still the main disease caused by a lack of sanitation and clean water and is a leading cause of death in Cambodia and other countries around the world.

So said poor health, disease and the loss of tourists who won’t come to a country without proper sanitation cost Cambodia $488 million a year.

“With this information the government could truly understand that in addition to providing sanitation for every household and every citizen of Cambodia…they could not afford not to provide that sanitation, because without sanitation Cambodia was losing seven percent of GDP,” So told VOA Khmer.

Experts estimate that the lack of sanitation and clean water kills some 1.5 million children every year worldwide, while even small investments to counter the problem can save lives.

Nurse: Disease will claim lives if Cambodia-Thai temple talks fail

Aug 17, 2008
DPA

Preah Vihear, Cambodia - Personnel near an ancient temple on the Thai-Cambodia border warned Sunday that if talks over disputed borders fail, lives will be lost - but to disease, not war.

Nurse Keo Neang from the Preah Vihear district health department said malaria, scurvy and also diseases spread by poor sanitation had all begun taking a toll on locals and troops alike.

Troops on both sides were moved back from the border Saturday ahead of Monday's talks scheduled for the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin, but could be redeployed at any time if the talks fail.

'We have received drugs from the government and the royal palace, but we will need more if troops move back in: basics like (paracetamol-based) Mixagrip for fevers and vitamin C,' Neang said.

'If Thailand does not permanently withdraw its troops after these meetings, we are looking at some serious potential epidemics on the border as well as some very big sanitation issues.'

Sergeant Nguon Samnang, on the frontline of Cambodia's defence, agreed that fighting was far less of a peril than disease for troops.

'We have plenty of food, but it is all dried or tinned and there are no fresh vegetables,' he said.

'If the talks fail and we have to dig in again, there are going to be casualties on both sides from poor nutrition and of course malaria; some have fallen ill already.'

Malaria is endemic to areas around both Preah Vihear temple, an 11th century temple around 300 kilometres from the capital, and the Ta Moan group of temples, 150 kilometres to its west.

Thai troops occupied areas around both sites after UNESECO granted Cambodia World Heritage status for Preah Vihear over Thai objections early last month. Cambodia matched the troop movements.

Cambodia says the land is sovereign but Thailand disagrees, causing major strains on the formerly friendly bilateral relations between the neighbours and even fears that fighting may break out.

Two Years After their Eviction from the Center of Phnom Penh Villagers are Still Living in Squalor

Inadequate sanitation services exacerbate the dire living conditions at Andong (Photo: Licadho)

June 6, 2008
Licadho

See also
• Photo Album: 'Tonle Bassac Eviction'
• News: 'Frenzied development in Cambodia pushes its people out of the capital to squalid conditions'

On June 6, 2006, more than 1000 families were violently expelled from their homes in Sambok Chap village in inner city Phnom Penh. The eviction was conducted by police and military police armed with guns, tear gas, batons and riot shields, and resulted in physical injuries, significant psychological trauma, and loss of property. The residents were forced onto trucks and taken to be dumped in an open field at Andong, 22km from central Phnom Penh – their new 'home'. There was no shelter, electricity, running water, schools, health services or readily-available employment nearby. The low-lying site was prone to flooding in the rainy season. With no choice but to live there, the evictees started to build simple houses, usually made of only tarpaulins and pieces of wood. Soon they were living in ankle-deep contaminated water.

Today 6 June 2008 marks the two year anniversary of the eviction, the site of their former homes in Sambok Chap – slated for commercial development by a private company – remains bare and unused, while the evictees continue to live in squalor at the Andong relocation site.

Water & sanitation issues
There is no source of drinkable water available to Andong residents, according to a March 2008 water and sanitation analysis done by Future Cambodia Fund NGO. All onsite wells are contaminated with bacteria and unacceptably high levels of mineral and heavy metal content. So too is the water in large UNICEF-donated water tanks at the site; villagers have to pay for the tainted water in the tanks, which is supplied by a private company. Only two communal latrines function in Andong, but are heavily soiled. Most people openly defecate and urinate in the surrounding area. There is no sewage or waste collection service. Residents throw dirty waste water, and burn or dump household rubbish, on the ground around the site.

Medical issues
Most common health problems for residents include malnutrition, typhoid, dengue fever, hepatitis A or B, hypertension, respiratory tract infections, gastro-intestinal illnesses including stress-related ulcers, depression and anger management problems. There is a high rate of miscarriage, hemorrhaging and anemia due to a lack of care for pregnant women. Unless an NGO helps them, most pregnant women give birth at the site because they cannot afford to go to hospital. Many children suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, diarrhea, dysentery, malnutrition, and skin diseases (from infected wounds or poor hygiene). Between June 2006-December 2007, Licadho's Medical Team provided 14,748 medical consultations at Andong; more than 5,000 were of children aged under 5, and more than 4,700 were of adult women.

Legal issues
No evictees at Andong have been given land titles, despite authorities' promises in 2006 that they would receive them. Only about 440 families have officially received plots of land at the relocation site (but were told they would not receive titles to them for five years) Hundreds of other families remain at the site in a complete legal void – the authorities do not recognize that they came from Sambok Chap or that they have any right to land at Andong. (Because authorities did not do any registration of evictees during the June 2006 eviction, there is no official record of how many families were expelled from Sambok Chap and relocated at Andong. Authorities have given widely varying statistics for this, and for how many people currently live at Andong.) All of the people at Andong have no clearly enforceable land rights, and could be evicted again at any time.

The Sambok Chap eviction, and the continuing treatment of the evictees at Andong, grossly violates the human rights protections for Khmer citizens contained in the country's Constitution, as well as international human rights law. This is just one case in a wider pattern of rapid, unregulated and often illegal development across Cambodia which threatens the health, welfare and economic security of countless people. It is exacerbated by a culture of corruption and impunity and, all too often, by an international donor community which turns a blind eye to such abuses.

Market Suffers Sanitation Problems in Rain

By Kong Soth, VOA Khmer
Battambang
28 April 2008

Residents have complained to their commune council to have sanitation problems at Domnak Sdav Market in Battambang province’s Rattanak Mondul district cleared up.

Local authorities have failed to do anything about the mud and garbage, which piles high in the rainy season, in a market that sells produce, including for export, vendors say.

The stench is terrible, they say, while health workers are concerned the market could make people ill.

Hun Sadeng, a spice vendor at Domak Sdav, wears a mask to help keep the stink at bay.

“In Sdav Market, there’s no sanitation,” she said. “The smell of garbage affects my house, near here, and there is no place to dump garbage, and there has not been a drainage system since I came to live here five years ago.”

“I want to have clean sanitation, to avoid, when it rains, puddles of waters that have mosquitoes,” she said.

Garbage is never collected on time, vendors say, and they worry about their health.

Representatives from the local Cambodian Youth Council, a civic group, have sent a petition with 600 thumbprints to the commune council to have the market fixed.

Commune Chief Puch Peng denied such conditions at the market and said he had not received the Youth Council petition.

The director of the market could not be reached for comment, but Puch Peng said market management was not to blame.

“They collect garbage everyday, and never leave it for four or five days,” he said. “There is nothing left over to make it smell. But the main problem is that there is no drainage system, because it is caused by people having a pig farm.”