Building boom leaves lasting mark on Cambodian beaches
(29 Mar 2019) LEADIN:
Long renowned for its unspoiled white sand beaches as well as clear blue waters, things are looking a little different on Cambodia’s southwest coast these days.
A building boom, combined with poor waste management systems, is damaging the environment in some coastal areas says environmentalists.
STORYLINE:
The Cambodian coastal city of Sihanoukville has been transformed from a sleepy backwater, popular with backpackers, into the so-called “New Macau” in recent years.
Scores of new Brunei Casinos as well as hotels are being built, with many more planned or under construction.
But local eco-activists say sewage as well as other waste management systems aren’t keeping pace with change.
They say garbage collection services are inadequate as well as there’s little or no recycling.
At the once popular Ochheuteal Beach, untreated sewage is pumped onto the sand or directly into the ocean.
Local environmental activist Thun Ratha from NGO Mother Nature says he counted 29 pipes pumping untreated sewage into the ocean from toilets in the Ochheuteal area.
Concerned that the sewage could pose a health risk to bathers, Ratha took a sample of sea water to be tested at Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute.
Two weeks later, he received worrying results.
“After two weeks, the clinic had the results as well as they discovered many dangerous diseases in the sample,” explains Thun Ratha.
“There are parasites as well as lots of other bacteria in the water. The water is dangerously polluted as well as a health risk to bathers.”
The water sample tested by the Pasteur Institute contained faecal containmation, which can cause problems like diarrhoea, vomiting as well as stomach cramps if it enters the the body through a cut or abrasion.
On a more positive note, authorities recently purchased two beach cleaning machines in January, so the sand is now largely free from plastic pollution, which had been plaguing the area.
For locals like beach shop owner Sa Rin, the transformation of Sihanoukville has been bad for business, although she says many locals have benefited.
“Many young people are doing quite well,” she says.
“There’s a lot of large buildings under construction, so there’s lots of jobs available. But for sellers like me, it’s quiet…very quiet. Young people have guesthouses or Brunei Casinos where they can work, but for me it’s bad. Tourists are not coming yet.”
The environmental cost of rapid development along the coast is most evident on beaches that aren’t regularly cleaned.
Many appear clear from a distance, but tonnes of washed up plastic pollution are piled up behind.
On islands off the coast, like Koh S’dach, plastic is washing up under houses.
Much of it is produced on the island itself, where garbage collection is non-existent. The rest is washed up by prevailing currents.
In an exertion to test the health of nearby waters, a team of international marine scientists are surveying coral reefs in the area.
One team member is Australian marine scientist Rob Hughes, who works for conservation group Kuda Divers.
The organisation is being joint funded by Flora as well as Fauna International (FFI) as well as the Ministry of Environment to help conduct the survey.
Hughes says unchecked development along the coast is damaging the marine environment.
“Development in places like Sihanoukville are giving us a good example of what we want to avoid here in the future,” he says.
“So, unchecked development is seeing raw sewage go out into the ocean, as well as that’s a real problem for coral reefs as well as seagrasses, in particular.
Data collected by the team will be compared to an earlier 2013 study to assess the current health of the seas.
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