Sarah Kenyon Lischer
Posted: 11/20/2012
As host of the ASEAN summit and the historic first visit of a US
President, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen cleaned up his
act--literally. On the eve of the summit, the road from the airport
boasted gleaming pavements, well-lit streets, and exquisitely landscaped
medians. Most likely, arriving heads of state did not notice. Competent
and responsible governments routinely pick up the garbage and provide a
safe environment for pedestrians. The view from the motorcade probably
seemed pleasant, but not remarkable.
In actuality, this clean, pedestrian-friendly stretch of road was
remarkable. When I arrived in Phnom Penh three weeks before the summit, I
immediately noticed the garbage. On the sidewalks, in gutters, filling
ravines. Trash of every size, shape, and smell. School children,
business people, shoppers, and vendors must pick their way along the
treacherous sidewalk, most often making hazardous detours into the road
to avoid the refuse. This, despite the individual fastidiousness of the
Cambodian people.
The citizens are forced to cope as best they can since the government
apparently does not view the provision of basic services as its
responsibility. Any official efforts at street sanitation seem
half-hearted. I saw the occasional dump truck with workers trying
manfully to shove in a few more bulging bags. The truck would drive off,
trailing debris, leaving the pile of trash practically undiminished.
Ironically, the millions of plastic water bottles clogging the country
create an unnecessary environmental hazard; one area of service
improvement has been in water provision to city dwellers. However,
efforts to educate citizens about civic responsibility and
environmentalism will only succeed if there are enough resources, such
as trash bins and collection services, to implement changes.
Every government owes its citizen basic services such as sewage
provision and trash removal. Even the poorest of Cambodia's poor realize
this. They told me so. I met with members of a remote village
cooperative assisted by a local NGO. As we sat on reed mats and ate
newly harvested peanuts, they asked about my home. "In your country," a
young man ventured, "do the poor people live like this?" He gestured
widely at his surroundings: a small community isolated by dirt roads
made impassible for months at a time, without running water or
electricity, certainly without sewage or trash removal. I admitted that,
no, our poor people did not live like this. The villagers insistently
asked about how the government in my country addresses problems such as
medical care for the poor, pensions for the elderly, education for young
children, relief for farmers in natural disasters. I did not need the
translator to interpret the wistful bitterness in their eyes.
The village leader--practically toothless, with an easy dignity, and
fluent in French--explained the group's goals for 2013. They would like
thirteen kilometers of dirt road graded so that they can reach the
market and the neighboring village. They hope to have another deep well
in the village; the shallow wells have run dry. These are not
unreasonable requests.
Foreign donors finance nearly fifty percent of Cambodia's annual
budget. Thousands of aid workers toil to improve access to health,
education, clean water, agriculture. The country enjoys a bounty of
natural resources and a popular culture which combines initiative,
warmth, and hard work. So why do forty percent of Cambodians live on
less than $1.25 per day? And why are the streets clogged with refuse?
The summit may not resolve the intractable ambiguity of competing
international security claims in Southeast Asia. It may not melt the
long-standing diplomatic tensions between member nations. However, the
summit has demonstrated one very important lesson. We now know the
Cambodian government could pick up the garbage if it wanted to. It is
time for donors to talk trash with Prime Minister Hun Sen.
No comments:
Post a Comment