Redevelopment site of the old Smokey Mountain Rubbish dump

The old site of Smokey Mountain Rubbish dump in Steung Mean Chey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is now valuable land for property development. Its being allowed to settle down and the toxic gases released, until in several years time they will begen a program to redevelop the site. Phnom Penh Cambodia

Smokey Mountain was Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump. Thousands worked there, some 600 minors and 2000 adults, recycling the city's rubbish, dumped there by garbage trucks every day. The dump was notorious as many very young children worked there. People ate and slept overnight in the rubbish and fumes, under plastic tarpaulins or in the open air. They worked 24 hours a day, like miners, with headlamps at night, collecting plastic, metals, wood, cloth & paper, which they sorted and cleaned, weighed and sold, to be carried away for recycling. A day's work typically brought less than a dollar per person. One and a half to two dollars per day per family. The overpowering, acrid odour of grey smokey fumes blowing across the dump, from which the place got its name 'Smokey Mountain' used to be smelt miles away. The shantytowns and squats, the recycling worker's homes butted onto or are inside the dump itself. There was no running water, sanitation and many were ill. Children often worked with friends or relatives. Religious and ngo's helped some children, but this is often resisted by families who needed the extra income they generate.

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Contained in galleries: Smokey Mountain Redevelopment of land

The old site of Smokey Mountain Rubbish dump in Steung Mean Chey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is now valuable land for property development. Its being allowed to settle down and the toxic gases released, until in several years time they will begen a program to redevelop the site. Phnom Penh Cambodia<br />
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Smokey Mountain was Phnom Penh's municipal rubbish dump. Thousands worked there, some 600 minors and 2000 adults, recycling the city's rubbish, dumped there by garbage trucks every day. The dump was notorious as many very young children worked there. People ate and slept overnight in the rubbish and fumes, under plastic tarpaulins or in the open air. They worked 24 hours a day, like miners, with headlamps at night, collecting plastic, metals, wood, cloth & paper, which they sorted and cleaned, weighed and sold, to be carried away for recycling. A day's work typically brought less than a dollar per person. One and a half to two dollars per day per family. The overpowering, acrid odour of grey smokey fumes blowing across the dump, from which the place got its name 'Smokey Mountain' used to be smelt miles away. The shantytowns and squats, the recycling worker's homes butted onto or are inside the dump itself. There was no running water, sanitation and many were ill. Children often worked with friends or relatives. Religious and ngo's helped some children, but this is often resisted by families who needed the extra income they generate.