Solar future for Cambodia

FRIDAY, 09 JULY 2010 15:03

Source: Phnompenhpost

By: JEREMY MULLINS

Experimental aircraft Solar Impulse, with pilot Andre Borschberg onboard, flies above Payerne’s Swiss airbase during the first around-the-clock sun-driven journey. The breakthrough solar-powered flight opens a new chapter in aviation history.(Photo by: AFP)

Khmer Solar marketing sales manager Nob Makara stands behind some of his company’s panels at the office in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.(Photo by: Julie Leafe)

CAMBODIA’S rural electrification fund is planning a bulk purchase of 12,000 solar panel systems next month to help spread green power to rural villagers who are not connected to the national grid, its executive director said.

The REF – a World Bank-supported public institution aiming to provide electricity to every Cambodian village by 2020 – plans to sell the solar panels to rural households on a monthly payment basis, executive director Loeung Keosela said.

Foreign and domestic vendors will be invited to submit bids next month to supply the REF with 12,000 sets of solar panels, batteries and wiring, he said, which will then be sold individually to rural Cambodian households.

“If we procure in bulk sizes, hopefully the cost of individual systems will come down,” he added.

To obtain the new solar equipment, Loeung Keosela said rural families would be required to make a down payment, as well as monthly payments of around US$3 or $4 depending on the size of the system.

Many rural households already spend a similar amount per month on batteries or diesel generators, he said.

The project is funded by the World Bank’s $67.92 million Rural Electrification and Transmission project loan, which is set to expire on January 31, 2012.

The REF previously experimented with grants directly subsidising the cost of solar panels for households, he said, but the plan had limited success. “Only about 90 systems were sold,” he said.

Privately owned supplier Solar Energy of Cambodia director Mao Sangat said that private companies are increasingly selling solar power equipment in Cambodia, taking over from nonprofit organisations who began to provide renewable energy about a decade ago.

“Over the last decade, it seems demand for solar home systems are growing,” he said.

At the first Asian Solar Energy Forum held in Manila earlier this week, Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials said Asia’s developing nations were in a perfect position to harvest power from the sun, and added that assistance from development institutions was crucial to growing the industry.

Margaret Ryan, part-owner of the Kingdom’s oldest solar firm, Khmer Solar, said she welcomed nonprofit assistance from development bodies, provided it was well-structured. That firm has already extended $300,000 in credit from its Battambang office for households to purchase solar panels.

Crashes fall, fatalities level out

FRIDAY, 09 JULY 2010 15:02

Source: Phnompenhpost

By: CHHAY CHANNYDA

ROAD collisions decreased nationwide in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year as a result of

Two motorbike drivers receive assistance after colliding on Russian Federation Boulevard late last month. New statistics from the Interior Ministry indicate that crashes have fallen this year, though fatalities have remained level.(Photo by: Pha Lina)

stricter traffic law enforcement, though fatalities stayed level and compliance with the helmet requirement was low, an official said yesterday.

Preap Chanvibol, director of the Land Transport Department at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said figures released this week from the Interior Ministry’s Department of Public Order – which collates road accident data from police reports – showed a 7 percent decrease in the number of collisions between January and June of this year and the same period last year, with totals dropping from 3,257 to 3,040.

But the number of fatalities fell by just three, from 934 to 931, he said.

He added that compliance with an amendment to the Land Traffic Law requiring motorbike drivers to wear helmets had not increased sufficiently, particularly in the provinces.

The amendment, implemented in January 2009, introduced a fine of 3,000 riels for helmetless motorbike drivers.

“In Phnom Penh, around 72 percent of people wear helmets, while in the provinces only 46 percent of people comply with the helmet rule,” he said.
“Traffic police have to strengthen law enforcement on this point to reach 100 percent implementation from 2010 on.”

Preap Chanvibol said officials would continue to emphasise the importance of nighttime traffic policing – which was increased early this year – in an attempt to bolster compliance with the helmet law.

“More people do not like to wear helmets at night when they know that traffic police are not working,” he said.

Sem Panhavuth, project manager for the Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS), which collects data from traffic police and health facilities, said figures for the first six months of this year and last year were not available, but noted that RCVIS often records higher numbers of accidents and fatalities than those documented by the Interior Ministry.

“Sometimes the police are not involved, and traffic accident victims go straight to the hospital,” he said.

He noted, though, that RCVIS figures for the first three months of this year had also shown virtually no change in fatalities – 493 this year compared with 492 last year – despite a dramatic drop in the number of total crash casualties, which fell 32 percent from 6,732 to 4,662.

He said the number of traffic collision casualties had been in decline since the introduction of the Land Traffic Law in 2007, and that he expects to see the trend continue as enforcement of the law is strengthened.

“In 2009 the number of casualties had decreased since the previous year,” he said. “If traffic police continue to enforce the law, I think fatalities will decrease.”

He also reiterated long-standing calls from road traffic activists for the government to focus on increasing helmet use. According to RCVIS
statistics released earlier this year, motorbike crashes accounted for around 70 percent of traffic fatalities last year, and 80 percent of the dead
succumbed to head injuries.

Officials at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said last month that they had finalised a draft of amendments to the Land Traffic Law that includes a proposal to raise helmet fines to 21,000 riels (about $5).

On Thursday, however, Preap Chanvibol said the draft ammendments had not been sent to the Council of Ministers for approval, as the details were again being discussed.

Woman held in murder plot

FRIDAY, 09 JULY 2010 15:03

Source: Phnompenhpost

By: CHRANN CHAMROEUN

Seng Chanda, the wife of businessman Khaou Chuly, leaves Phnom Penh Municipal Court with her lawyer after questioning late last month. On Wednesday, the court charged her with plotting the murder of the wife of a former minister. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

THE wife of a prominent businessman has been charged with plotting the rape and murder of Suv Chanthol, the wife of a former government minister, a judge at Phnom Penh Municipal Court said yesterday.

Te Sam Ang said he ordered the suspect, Seng Chanda, to serve pretrial detention yesterday morning, one day after he charged her with attempted premeditated murder under Article 3 of the Law on Aggravating Circumstances.

“I have issued a detention warrant to order Seng Chanda to serve pretrial detention behind bars pending investigations,” he said.

The charge stems from a June 16 complaint filed by Suv Chantha accusing two men and two women of attempting to rape and murder her and her daughter.

Sun Chantha is the wife of Suv Chanthol, vice chairman of the Council for the Development of Cambodia and a former minister of public works and transport.

In the complaint, she alleged that the foursome – Chan Sokha, 37, Neang Sinath, 25, Yan Sothearith, 25, and Sok Lat, 30 – approached the family’s house in Sen Sok district’s Toek Thla commune in the early morning hours of June 13 after drugging the family’s guard dogs. According to the complaint, they fled after Sun Chantha woke up.

The four suspects were charged in late June. Their lawyer, Dun Vibol, said at the time that three of the four had told police they were hired to carry out the crime by Seng Chanda, who is the wife of Onkha Khaou Chuly, the chairman and founder of Khaou Chuly MMK Co Ltd, a construction and engineering company.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court questioned Seng Chanda for nearly two hours on June 29 before releasing her.

Te Sam Ang said yesterday that she had been brought in for a second round of questioning on Wednesday, after which she was charged and placed in the custody of the Interior Ministry overnight. She was sent to Prey Sar prison yesterday.

Her defence lawyer, Kar Savuth, declined to comment on the case when reached by phone yesterday afternoon.

Dun Vibol said yesterday that the three suspects who originally said Seng Chanda had ordered them to kill Suv Chantha have since retracted their confessions, saying they were issued under duress. They now maintain that they had no involvement in any plot.

The other suspect, Yan Sothearith, has not issued a confession at any point after his arrest, and has said that he was receiving medical treatment at his home for a minor knee injury when the plot was allegedly attempted, Dun Vibol said.

Seng Chanda faces at least 15 years behind bars if she is found guilty, Te Sam Ang said yesterday. He added that no hearing date in the case had been set.