Illegal disposal of hazardous wastes in Sihanoukville City,

December 1998 Dumping 3,000 tons of Hazardous Waste in Sihanoukville

Up to the 1990s, there was a lack of effective control regarding the importation of hazardous waste into Cambodian territory. For instance, nearly 3,000 tons of mercury-bearing wastes imported from overseas were disposed in a parcel of private land located in Bettrang Communune, on the outskirts of Sihanoukville City in early December 1998.

Picture 1: hazardous wastes were disposed in Bettrang Communue, Shihanoukville City (pictured by MOE 1999)

Picture 2: Mr Heng Nareth, Director of the Department of Environmental Pollution Control, indicated different layers of disposed hazardous wastes (pictured byMOE 1998)

Picture 3: Line agencies and international community representatives participated in the event of hazardous waste re-packing (pictured MOE1998)

Phenomena

The waste, with high concentrations of inorganic mercury derived from a Chloralkali manufacturing process, was reported by the representative responsible. The waste was a mixture of “stabilised” material in a Portland cement matrix and other finer-grained particulate matter (Peter R.Feldman − Expert of World Health Organization).

The local communities and local authorities were concerned about the disposal of this hazardous waste. Meanwhile, due to the waste disposal local chaos occurred and spread through the City. This incident could clearly emphasise their feelings of concerns, and the local communities requested to the Royal Government and local authority to take effective actions to solve the problem.

Local NGOs and international communities were surprised, by the problem and took follow-up actions. For example, to assist the government of Cambodia in solving this problem, the local NGOs and international communities assigned their technical officers to the hazardous waste dumpsite to observe local response, support and assess the environmental and human health risk and hazard, etc., based on their respective duties.

Policy response

The Royal Government of Cambodia paid a great deal of attention to this matter. It decided a firm practical countermeasure and took urgent action to halt and eliminate any potential risks to the environment including relevant water resources, occurring from this hazardous waste in communities.

Picture 4: Hazardous waste packing and storing in containers (pictured by MOE 1999)

A plan of removal of hazardous waste from the dumping site and its transportation back to its original country were quickly set up and agreed on by the Cambodian Government and the owners of the hazardous wastes. Afterwards, this task was assigned to both parties as according to an agreement by on 25 February 1999. The agreement mainly focused on: (i) waste repacking; (ii) site cleanup and transportation of wastes out of Cambodia; and (iii) the compensation to victims if the cases they were involved were proved with transparent evidences.

Pursuant to the agreement, the staff of institutions concerned including local authorities started to repack these hazardous wastes on 9 March 1999 under the control of the Government and the international witnesses. This important task was finished on 31 March 1999 and 4,488.014 tons of wastes including a covering of topsoil were repacked. (Department of Environmental Pollution Control, Ministry of Environment,2000). Significantly, those repacking wastes were transported out of Cambodia on 2 April 1999.

Picture 5: Groundwater sampling at the hazardous waste dumped site (pictured by MOE 1999)

Although the dumping site was cleaned up according to the work plan, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of the Environment still doubted that soil and water were still contaminated. Therefore, with the collaboration of the World Health Organization, the staff at the Ministry of Environment took water samples from both surface and ground water to identify whether local people can use water sources in this area or not.

Water sampling was conducted four times by staff from the Ministry of Environment with the World Health Organization’s experts on June 1999, November 1999, January 2000, and April 2000. The water samples taken from the site were sent to the National Institute for Minamata Disease for analysis. With reference to the analysis outcomes releasing from the National Institute for Minamata Disease, the World Health Organization’s experts concluded that the mercury concentration in water sources in the areas around the former hazardous waste dumping site were lower than the national effluent quality standard and World Health Organization’s standard. Therefore, the communities can use water sources in these areas as required.

Based on the worst experience from above unreasonable and illegal disposal of hazardous wastes in Sihanoukville territory, the Royal Government of Cambodia recognised that there was a lack of environmental legal instruments, which is one of the key factors of failure in the environmental quality management, especially that of water environment. The government also considered that the lack of environmental legal instruments would become a major obstacle to carry out the poverty alleviation policy or the country. Hence, the Royal Government approved the four main environmental legal instruments, namely (i) Sub-Decree on Water Pollution Control (6 April 1999); (ii) Sub-Decree on Solid Waste Management (27 April 1999); (iii) Sub-Decree on Environmental Impact Assessment Process (11 August 1999); and (iv) Sub-Decree on Air Pollution and Noise Disturbance (10 July 2000).

The expenditures for the repacking of the hazardous waste at the site were charged to the owners of the hazardous waste. A figure of the expenditures for this event was not revealed by the person responsible.

Result of the waste disposal analysis carried out by the National Institute for Minamata Disease, Japan, the mercury concentration in the waste was 675μg/g. It was a high concentration that could pose harmful effects to human health and the environment as well.

The geographical feature of the hazardous waste disposal site was a high land area surrounding by natural streams/creeks connecting to the natural reservoir, Kbal Chhay − a major freshwater source for Sihanoukville City. There was a concern that organic mercury contained waste could be washed out and flow into the streams/creeks and/or permeated into the ground, and would provide damages to communities which depend on the natural water reservoir.

References

• Ten year Achievements and Water and Soil Quality Management Version in Cambodia 2003-2007
• Environmental Challenges of Cambodia, April 2000; Prepared by Mr. Chrin Sokha – Deputy Director General, Ministry of Environment of Cambodia
• Final Report: Technical Assistance to World Health Organization - Cambodia on the Sihanoukville Toxic Waste Site
• Prepared by Peter R.Feldman, Consulting Hydrologist; December 1999
• Report of the Department of Environmental Pollution Control 2000

Data and information as indicated in the Section of Background was provided by senior officers of the Environmental Provincial Departments, and some parts of them were quoted from documents of which printed for general dissemination.

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