Government spokesman Phay Siphan yesterday called the failure to prevent the arrival of 83 rubbish-filled containers at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port last week a “weakness” that has to be addressed.
According to officials, the 83 containers came from the United States and Canada.
Kun Nhim, director-general of the General Department of Customs and Excise, said the containers arrived over a period of time beginning in October last year.
Mr Siphan yesterday said during a press conference that Cambodia lacks the equipment to scan containers.
“We monitored and opened the containers,” he said. “This is a new issue our country has met – we are still weak on the issue and we acknowledge this.”
“However, we will increase our capacity and work on this because there are a lot of tricks,” Mr Siphan said. “We already know the original sources of the rubbish – the US and Canada. Our next step is to send them back.”
Mr Siphan said the banned plastic rubbish were labelled under unspecified goods.
“It is a weakness because we did not have a machine to correctly scan [containers],” he said.
Environment Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said in order to prevent the import of unwanted rubbish in the Kingdom, authorities will strengthen law enforcement.