Technical Cooperation

Upon Conclusion of the JICA Grassroots Project “Improvement of Solid Waste Management in Phnom Penh Capital‚ Cambodia” new!

Jun.1‚ 2023

Ken SAWADA‚ Senior Technical Expert

Photo after "Handover Workshop"

After being interrupted for two years and three months by the COVID-19 pandemic‚ travel to Cambodia resumed in May 2022 and Phase Two of the project began.
The final disposal site team held the long-postponed workshop in July and discussed topics such as water quality issues‚ countermeasures against fires‚ life-extension measures‚ and stabilization. Six people‚ including the vice governor‚ the director of the Department of Environment‚ and staffs involved in disposal sites‚ were invited to Kitakyushu City in December for a training course on disposal sites in Japan. After a lecture on "The Fukuoka Method‚" the semi-aerobic landfill by Professor Emeritus Higuchi of Fukuoka University‚ the participants visited disposal sites in Kitakyushu City‚ Fukuoka City‚ and Miyakonojo City in Miyazaki Prefecture‚ and learned about the current state of solid waste management‚ including water treatment. They also went on field trips to Shinmoji Incineration Facility and Onga Nakama Relay Center‚ as well as learning about sorted collection and recycling of recyclable waste at locations such as the Eco Town Center.

In the capital of Phnom Penh‚ the amount of waste being brought in is increasing rapidly; the current Dangkor landfill is almost full‚ and construction of a new disposal site is urgently required. The participants told us that this training course was timely and extremely helpful. An operation manual covering topics such as daily operations and the inspection and maintenance of heavy machinery are essential to improve the management level of a disposal site‚ however they did not have such manuals in place. They therefore learned about the important points in drawing up a manual during their training course in Japan‚ and personally created the first Final Disposal Site Operation Manual upon their return to Cambodia. The fact that they started to carry out daily management with pre-work meetings and checklists was also a great accomplishment in terms of human resource training and skills transfer as well.


The first operation manual for final disposal site
The residents' awareness raising team confirmed that most of the action plan jointly created during Phase One had been accomplished‚ and that there had been a dramatic decline in illegally dumped waste in the Trabek Canal and nearby roads as the result of reforms carried out during the period when international travel was suspended. (These reforms included the establishment of a public waste company‚ the switch from the waste collection and transportation company CINTRI (Cambodia) Ltd. monopoly to three companies decided by international bidding‚ consistent regular times for garbage to be put out and collected‚ and the commencement of sorting garbage into wet and dry waste.) Furthermore‚ based on the results of interviews at the site and a questionnaire answered by 500 residents in the target area‚ it was found that nearly 90% of the residents felt that waste management had been improved. Accordingly‚ an updated action plan (AP2) was drawn up with a second paragraph added that covers recycling and reduction of waste‚ and the lateral expansion of this initiative throughout Phnom Penh.


Photo after the certificate of appreciation ceremony
During the final trip in March 2023‚ we cleaned up the area together with local residents‚ and a “handover workshop” was held at an auditorium in the metropolitan city hall attended by 160 participants from all over Phnom Penh. The metropolitan government of Phnom Penh gave a presentation on the success of this project‚ after which Vice Governor H.E Huot Hay expressed his determination to implement AP2. With this‚ the five years of activity in this project drew to a close.
Cambodia truly is now an economically developing country‚ and I sincerely hope that waste management will be further improved based on this grassroots project.