Sotheavy At, founder of Think of Plastic, a Facebook page with videos that reach about 1 million people every week, said she started her social media campaign to encourage her audience to reduce plastic use.

She saw lots of plastic waste everywhere in Cambodia and was concerned about its impact, so she wanted to do something that could lead to change, she said.

Her view was that instead of​​ complaining, people should work together one by one to reduce plastic.

Sotheavy started to make and edit videos by herself earlier this year. However, she knew her campaign alone would not be enough, so she has promoted other people who have similar views to share their knowledge about the impact of plastic waste, she said.

Most of her videos encourage people to use eco-friendly products and give people some tips on how to reduce plastic in their lives. Her most popular video so far has been about lemongrass straws, and was posted in September last month. She currently makes about eight to nine videos a month.

“Every day I’m trying to reduce plastic by not buying plastic materials and so on. It’s not bad to do it alone, but I believe there were various activists doing the same thing. Therefore, I want to run this campaign in order to promote those activities and discuss the impact of plastic,” Sotheavy said.

People feel comfortable using plastic because it makes their lives easier, she said. So she doesn’t think it would be helpful for them to be pressured to stop using plastic immediately.

She wants to see people gradually reduce their plastic use out of their own will, she said.

“I believe in the power of individuals. If everyone has an understanding, they will make small changes,” Sotheavy said.

Sotheavy expects that in 10 years, Cambodians’ behavior will have changed about plastic waste. People will understand how to deal with plastic properly, and Cambodia will be cleaner. In 20 years, she hoped, Cambodia will have reduced plastic use on a large scale.

She said her campaign probably wouldn’t still be going in 20 years, but she hopes her videos today will lead people to start thinking about plastic more and more.

“I don’t expect my action will change people’s behavior by tomorrow, but I expect in the long term people will change,” Sotheavy said.

Her target audience is everyone in Cambodia, even children, she said.

So far, the feedback on her videos has been supportive, she said. People have told her they have started to use fewer plastic bottles whenever they drink coffee or water by bringing their own bottles, especially bottles that are not made of plastic.

“Since I started making these videos, there is only 0.01 percent bad feedback. Besides that, most of the comments I’ve received are positive and about their commitment to engage in order to reduce plastic,” Sotheavy said.

The majority of her audience is in Cambodia, though the campaign has also reached Cambodians living abroad around Asia and in the United States and Australia, she said.

She added that her audience was about 57 percent women and 43 percent men.

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation said last month that Cambodia produced 10,000 tons of waste every day, and Phnom Penh about 2,000-3,000 tons, including about 600 tons of plastic.

In 2017, the Environment Ministry issued a sub-decree saying all Cambodians have a duty to reduce plastic use as much as they can by reusing bags or using biodegradable ones. It also required supermarkets to start charging for plastic grocery bags.

Koh Ker village, in Kulen district’s Srayang commune, falls under an area protected by the National Authority for Preah Vihear, which means trees cannot be cut down to clear the way for better roads.

Koh Ker primary school principal Phat Dily said parents and teachers worry about the safety of students on their commutes to school, especially during the rainy season when the damaged roads fill up with water.

Many students fall off their bicycles on their way and need to go home, Dily said.

“Every year when there is heavy rain, students find it difficult to go to school. For example, this year the rain keeps falling down and their clothes were stained. Some students returned home, and some still went to class with dirty uniforms,” he said.

Because they missed classes, students had difficulty catching up on the lessons at school, and their scores were decreasing, he said.

Sometimes, the local department of education complains about the student’s results when they look at their records, Dily said.

“Teachers cannot teach the same lesson that they taught the previous day​. Otherwise, they will not be able to complete the program for the year. Therefore, our education quality is going down,” he said.

The education department and foundations that help with school supplies, books and other resources were “not happy with falling students,” he said.

Choeun Salin, a 40-year-old resident in Koh Ker who has been living in the area for more than 10 years, said the damaged road made life difficult for locals.

“My motorbike was broken because it fell into a deep hole. I spent about $80 to fix it, and my income decreased,” she said. “It’s not only me that fell. There were other people also.”

Village chief Doem Doeun​​ said Koh Ker has faced this problem for many years without a solution.

A stretch of road where most of the village’s houses are located was fixed about five years ago. But the road into and out of the village is full of potholes and has trees blocking its path.

“It’s hard for us to travel​ because it gets muddy with water and it is easy to slip and fall,” Doeun said.

Kha Hor, deputy chairman of the National Authority for Preah Vihear’s department of forestry, environment and water in the Koh Ker conservation zone, said he had decided on June 26 to allow residents to fix the roads by filling the holes with stones and gravel.

However, they are not allowed to cut down trees or use heavy machinery like tractors during the road repairs, Hor said.

“Because this area is a conservation zone, so we can allow the holes to be filled but not to cut down trees,” Hor said.

He added that the area was expected to soon be recognized as a national heritage site due to the many temples around the village.

Commune chief Krouch Srob said a lack of budget also made it difficult to improve the roads in Koh Ker.

The commune had already improved about 1 km of the road near residents’ homes, but there would not be money to work on other parts of the road for two years, he said.

“We have a budget for other villages, but for Koh Ker we have to wait two years,” Srob said, explaining that the commune needed to provide for 14 villages.

There are 713 people in Koh Ker village, according to Doeun, the village chief.

Koh Ker was once an ancient capital of Cambodia between 928 and 944 during the reign of Jayavarman IV. It is 127 km northeast of Siem Reap, and has at least 180 temples. However, most of them have not been restored and are in areas of the forest that once contained landmines. Twenty of the most significant monuments are safe and are located along a ring road between the village and Siem Reap.

Near the market, the canal is completely covered with plastic bags, polystyrene foam, kitchen waste and more that are blocked from flowing further north by a mass of overgrown grass.

Not only is the trash pile-up creating bad smells across the neighborhood, but huge numbers of mosquitoes have started to swarm around the area, resident So Cheat said.

“There are a lot of mosquitoes that come from this canal every evening. My 6-year-old child got dengue five months ago because of those mosquitoes,” Cheat said. She has to be very careful about what the child wears and where she goes, she said.

Local authorities have sprayed insecticide on the trash, but it has not been enough — large numbers of mosquitoes still emerge from the pile every evening, Cheat said.

Porn Sophy, who has been living on the canal’s banks for more than 10 years, complained of emissions from the canal causing bad smells and respiratory problems, including triggering her allergies.

“I’ve gone to the hospital and the doctor told me to live in a better environment. But I can’t,” Sophy said, pointing to her home and small motorbike-washing business on the ground floor.

“I really want the authorities to clean this canal,” she said. “But not like last year.”

About a year ago, city workers took the trash out of the canal and put it on the road, blocking traffic and bringing the waste nearer residents, Sophy said.

Chim Sopheap, another resident living along the canal’s banks, insisted that the trash was flowing in from further upstream.

People in the immediate area were properly disposing of their trash, he said.

“Residents here always prepare their trash well because [waste management firm] Cintri comes to collect every day at 6 to 7 p.m.,” he said.

Instead, the trash came from surrounding areas, he said.

“When it rains, trash always flows down to here,” Sopheap said. Other people “do not dispose of their trash correctly.”

Residents wanted more cleanups and would be eager to help out, but they needed help from local authorities, who only act when the canal becomes completely clogged and blocks the flow of water, he said.

“It is not enough because there is a lot of trash. As a resident here, I would be happy to participate in the cleaning because it would be like cleaning my house,” Sopheap said. “But I cannot do it alone.”

Toul Sangkae commune chief Reach Phavoeun, however, blamed residents for the problem. She said commune officers cleaned the area every Saturday, but could not keep up with residents’ littering.

There are “large piles of this trash because people throw it there — sometimes along with religious materials such as coconuts and statues,” she said.

“We are tired every Saturday from cleaning the environment there, but people never help us. We collect [the trash] and put it in a big package, and leave it for Cintri to take,” Phavoeun said.

She added that commune authorities do not yet have a solution for the problem, but are trying to educate people instead of fining or prosecuting them.

Mean Phorp, a physician who studied at the University of Health Sciences, said trash piles near residences were a serious health concern.

They contained dangerous mixtures of bacteria and amino acids, which combined to produce carbon dioxide and methane and could cause various diseases, Phorp said.

“It affects our health through many means, including by air, via insects and your pets whenever you touch them,” he said.

“Trash also destroys the ecological system by causing water pollution,” Phorp added. “We will have health problems if we eat fish that live in that polluted water.”

The canal and others around Phnom Penh were built as part of the city’s development in the 20th century in order to drain the swamp land into surrounding lakes via a system of dikes and canals, according to CityLab. Some have been covered over to become underground sewers, while the others have festered.

Every day, Phnom Penh produces about 3,000 tons of trash, most of which is not recycled, according to a video released by the Environment Ministry earlier this month.

San Daravit, leader of the environmental group Trash Youth, which has attempted to clean up the similarly polluted Boeng Trabek canal, said he hoped to one day see Phnom Penh free of trash.

“People who live near the canal are badly affected by the smell of sewage — especially children. It causes them to have difficulty breathing because it affects their lungs,” Daravit said.

Some children he knew struggled with shortness of breath, he said.

The group did not have immediate plans to try again to bring about change for the city’s canals, but hoped to eventually turn Boeng Trabek into a visitor site, he said.

Over Khmer New Year in April, local authorities prevented the group from hosting an event at Boeng Trabek to raise awareness of the city’s waste problems, saying the area was too dirty and that the group planned to use a raft on the canal that did not belong to them.

City Hall spokesman Met Measpheakdey did not respond to questions.

This story was also published on VOD.

This story originally appeared on VOD: https://en.vodhotnews.com/heat-flooding-disease-phnom-penhers-share-their-climate-concerns/

Almost 80,000 students across the country finished high school this year, and there is a lot of demand for student living spaces in Phnom Penh, especially for women.

Sunarith Thavry is a student who just finished high school in Siem Reap. She wants to continue her studies at a university in Phnom Penh, but she does not have enough money, and she is concerned about her security.

“My mom tells me that she does not have enough money, and I have to work to get money to support my living if I go to study in Phnom Penh,” she said.

“My dad worries about me if I go to stay at Phnom Penh because he thinks that it is not safe all the time,” she continued.

Because of these problems, she decided against coming to study in Phnom Penh. Instead she will study in Siem Reap.

Dy Romdoul is studying social work at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). She lives with two of her friends in a rented room, and each person spends $30 a month for room, electricity and water.

“I spend $30 every month only for housing. It is not enough if I include daily spending such as gasoline and food,” she said.

Because of this problem, she has to work full-time, which she said affects her studies. She takes classes in the mornings and works in the evenings until 9 p.m.

“Because my major is social work, I have to go to rural areas to do research or trainings, and sometimes attend make-up classes” outside usual class hours, she said. “But I don’t have time to go because I have to work full-time, so I’ve failed sometimes.”

Dy Srey Len is a second-year student at RUPP, and lives in a rented room with her sister.

She said that just last week her motorbike was stolen from her residence. This situation makes her worry about her security.

“I put my motorbike in front of my room, and a thief stole it on the 10th of this month. After that, I don’t feel secure anymore. It’s hard for me to continue living here,” she said.

She wants to live in a dormitory, saying that if she could she would not worry about security anymore. But she can’t because dormitory space is limited.

Pen Sophany, the manager of female dormitories at RUPP, said the university had three buildings for Cambodian female students. These three buildings can house 480 students.

Around 300 students apply every year for only 120 spaces to replace senior students who graduate, she said.

“We don’t have enough places for them, so we are strict when choosing students to live in our dormitories,” she said.

She can only provide beds to students who are disabled, very poor, from very remote rural areas, or whose parents have been in the front line of battle, she said.

The students need to work at night to support their daily spending, so providing housing helps them a lot, she said.

If the university didn’t provide a place for them to live, some would not be able to study at a university in Phnom Penh, she said.

Moul Somneang, manager at the Harpswell Foundation, which provides housing for female university students, said she understands the difficulties female students face when they pursue university studies far from home.

“I see that they have a problem with living spaces,” Somneang said. “Parents want them to continue their studies but security is a serious concern when they leave home, especially if they don’t have relatives in Phnom Penh.”

Harpswell accepts 15 to 20 new students every year. The foundation has two dormitories currently housing 70 students, she said.

According to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, 207,434 students were in university in 2018, 48.37 percent of them female.

Female dormitories at RUPP have housed 5,208 students since 2007, according to a document provided by Sophany, the dorm manager.

A spokesman for the Education Ministry had not responded to questions at the time of publishing, saying that he was currently overseas.