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No paradise island: waters off Cambodia’s Koh Rong a giant sewage dump
By Digital Editor on May 17, 2019

Those planning on travelling to Cambodia’s Koh Rong, might be best advised to make sure that their Hepatitis B vaccination is up to date first, putrid raw sewage pouring unchecked into the water at Koh Toch, the island’s main tourist area.

Less than a month after Cambodian environmental campaigners Mother Nature published a video showing Sihanoukville’s Independence Beach awash with sewage, the group has released fresh video of the environmental damage being caused through unchecked development and weak enforcement on Cambodia’s so-called ‘paradise island’, Koh Rong.

In the video dank, black water is seen being discharged from a large pipe which Mother Nature says is located under the Koh Toch pier. Water taken from the pipe and tested at Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute, they say, reported high levels of the parasites Trichomonas intestinalis trophozoite, strongloides stercoralis larva, and diphyllobthrium latum eggs.

Similar to the water sample taken from Sihanoukville’s Independence Beach last month, this latest test reportedly also found escherichia coli (e.coli) “too numerous that the enumeration was not possible”. AEC News Today was not able to independently verify the source of the water that the reports relate to.

The latest video comes despite Cambodia’s Prime Minister Prime Minister HE ordering last December that “we must ensure that all the polluted water will not flow into our sea”.

The video take s a clear shot at Cambodian Minister of Environment Say Samal, the presenter saying that he” appears unaware of his role and responsibility to solve this problem. How long he is (sic) wants to let this problem fester, perhaps until the whole of Cambodia’s sea has been ruined?”

On March 13 provincial authorities in Sihanoukville ordered the Jin Ding Hotel and Casino on Koh Rong Somlem closed following complaints from residents and inspections by authorities into raw sewage being discharged into the sea.
See: newsworthy/koh-rong-sanloem-beach-casin ... g%20sewage

https://aecnewstoday.com/2019/no-paradi ... wage-dump/


NOTE: This video was previously posted here post334573.html?hilit=sewage#p334444 on the Raw Sewage Problem Sihanouville thread, but as the mainland and the islands face slightly different problems in dealing with waste, this is a separate thread for keeping track of the situation on the islands, principally on Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem.

Hep A is for shit in your salad, Hep B is for banging filthy prozzies.

Cambodia’s islands are under threat. This woman is trying to save them.
Why We Wrote This
A culture of environmental care doesn’t always emerge organically. On the Cambodian island of Koh Sdach, one woman has taken it upon herself to plant the seeds of environmental stewardship.
June 17, 2019
By Peter A. Ford Contributor

Koh Sdach, Cambodia
The handful of market stalls lining the narrow concrete path that serves as the island’s main artery offer the usual assortment of goods found across rural Cambodia: cheap noodles, stacks of Coca-Cola bottles, fake soccer jerseys, household cleaning products – and the plastic bags to carry them home.

Littering the floor between piles of squeezed sugarcane and empty clam shells is an ocean of plastic wrappers, bottles, cups, straws, and empty bags. Swept out of the way, but not out of sight, it’s a stark reminder of the challenges residents of Koh Sdach island and the surrounding archipelago face in living harmoniously with their environment.

Just a five minute boat ride from mainland Cambodia, Koh Sdach is surrounded by clear blue waters that have sustained fishing communities for generations. But decades of overfishing and indiscriminate waste disposal have taken a steep toll on the environment.

“It is well known that plastic waste harms our oceans,” says Marianne Teoh of Fauna & Flora International (FFI), a nonprofit environmental organization supporting coastal communities and partners in Cambodia to strengthen coastal resilience. “Cambodia is no exception, with trash littering the shore and sea turtle nesting beaches, and plastic bags and discarded plastic fishing nets smothering coral reefs. But the plastic problem in these island communities is not just environmental. Plastic pollution is a social issue that threatens the health and livelihoods of vulnerable communities that are often dependent on natural resources.”
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pa ... -save-them