Avoiding Adverse Health Impacts from Contaminated Vegetables: Options for Three Wetlands in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

This report assesses the cost-effectiveness of several strategies to stop the production of contaminated vegetables in wetland areas near Phnom Penh, Cambodia. These wetlands act as sewage disposal areas for the city and, as a result, the vegetables grown there contain high levels of heavy metal and other toxins. Five options are investigated. Each would stop farmers from cultivating edible vegetables in the contaminated land. They would also either compensate them for lost income or give them alternative ways of making a living. These options are assessed and a cost-effectiveness analysis undertaken to see which would provide an effective solution at the lowest cost. The report finds that the most cost-effective solution would be to relocate the farmers who currently cultivate the polluted wetlands to unpolluted farmland to provide irrigation for the new fields using treated household wastewater. It recommends that the relocation program be accompanied by a public awareness campaign to explain the dangers of consuming contaminated vegetables.