Precarious Construction in Phnom Penh
By Alex Consiglio
Photo essay for Vice News here.
Labourers from the countryside pour into Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh to live and work on the countless high-rise construction projects changing the city’s landscape.
Mostly treated as disposable, temporary workers, they lack the protection of any safety guidelines and many are maimed or killed in workplace accidents.
Construction workers on the upper floors of a 23-storey office building return to work after their lunch break on Tuesday, November 29 in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
Two construction workers, 15-storeys high and without using their harnesses, hang tarps on Tuesday, November 29 at what will be a 25-storey condominium in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 3 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A construction worker, 11-storeys high and provided with a helmet but no safety harness, reaches for a piece of aluminum on Monday, November 28 while balancing at the edge of an apartment building being built in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A construction worker sleeps on Tuesday, November 29 in a hammock on the roof of an 8-storey office building under construction in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
Two female construction workers struggle to dislodge a support beam being transferred from the 7th floor to the 8th on Tuesday, Novemeber 29 in preparation for concrete pouring at an apartment building in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
Two construction workers rest on Thursday, December 1 in their living quarters while watching videos on YouTube during their lunch break on a condominium construction site in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 3 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A group of construction workers eat lunch next to their living quarters on a condominium construction site in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 3 commune on Wednesday, November 30. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
Two elevator technicians weld slabs of iron together on Monday, November 28 as they prepare an elevator for operation at a condominium project nearing completion in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 3 commune. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A construction worker and his employer prepare a rappelling rope attached to a swing for him to sit on as he descends an 8-storey office building under construction in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 commune on Monday, November 28. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A construction worker, sitting on a swing without a safety harness, sands the outside of an 8-storey office building under construction in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 commune on Monday, November 28. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
A group of construction workers watch the sunset from the roof a high-rise building under construction in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh commune on Monday, November 28. / Photo by Alex Consiglio
