In The News: Lake Family’s House Collapses into the Water, Filling Blamed

 

Police Block investigators as House Sinks into Lake at Boeung Kak. (c) John Vink / Magnum (from ka-set)

Family’s house Falls into Lake, Pumping Blamed, Legal Investigators blocked from interviewing the family.

 From CambogeSoir:

“On Thursday 27 November, cops prevented Cambodian and foreign investigators from Licadho to meet with a family living on Boeung Kak Lake which is currently being filled in for a major real estate development project.”

In the evening of Wednesday to Thursday, Sun Ratanak’s home on stilt sunk into the lake water. Chea Nara (a Licadho investigator) said that he and his colleagues were prevented from meeting the family of the victims. “We can only get into the location if we ask the authorization from the Phnom Penh governor,” Chea Nara reported.

From Ka-Set:

(Selections of the article translated from French by saveboeungkak)

Original Article in French Here

“Touch Narot, Phnom Penh Police Commissioner says he is surprised that journalists are so concerned by what he considers a small issue.  ’People (journalists) should not all rush to Boeung Kak over a little story like this, the collapse of a little house in this development zone.  The owner of this house should go negotiate compensation with the company…’”

The article also highlighted the use of police to block investigators, and Shukaku’s methods:

“‘There was no reason to send in armed officers of the Intervention Police.  Where is the harm in taking photographs of the damage?  Today we saw how an invisible company used the authorities to harrass people who were doing their job.  No Cambodian law forbids taking photos and filming!’”

“Rather than conducting a mass eviction that would produce strong reactions and resistance, the company prefers to wait until all the houses disappear one after another into the water…’”

-Ka-set, quoting Naly Pilorge,  Director of LICADHO

In the news: Rights groups are uncertain controversial Boeung Kak project will meet the standards of its own environmental report

 

Children at Boeung Kak.

 

 

From the Phnom Penh Post Article (21 November 2008)

Highlights: Local rights groups highlight flaws in Developer’s arguments, question environmental commitment.

“… SHUKAKU Inc, the local developer filling in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake as part of a commercial and housing development, has manipulated its own environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) to justify construction, say local housing rights groups.
“… housing rights advocates have dismissed the argument that filling in the lake constitutes effective environmental management. 

“It’s a completely false argument,” said Hallam Goad, advisor to housing rights advocacy group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut. 

“The lake is polluted, for sure – partly through human effluent and partly through other kinds of waste materials – but you need to clean the lake, not fill it in.”

Goad also criticised sections of the report that claim the development “will not cause negative impacts to infrastructure systems”, or that it “will improve the traffic system in Phnom Penh” and attract up to US$2 billion worth of investment. 

“All I can see is that the $2 billion is the value of the real estate they will create by filling in the lake, which will go straight into their own pockets. In comparison to the key open space in the city, it doesn’t make any sense at all,” he said.

In the News: Phnom Penh Resident Speaks Out in Editorial, “National Geographic Right about Phnom Penh”

From a Phnom Penh Post Ediorial by Moeun Cheean Nariddh (10/4/2008)

“In the article “Phnom Penh rated the second-worst city in the world to visit”, October 22, we feel like this rating by the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations is very correct as far as current development is concerned.

Personally, my family is now badly affected by the double problems caused by the city development, particularly the filling of Boeung Kak.

First, the filling of the lake has disturbed the grave of my eldest sister who was buried on a tiny island in the middle of the lake after she died as a baby some 60 years ago.

Second, the dumping of sewage water from the lake has flooded my and other people’s houses and schools in Russey Keo district. The sewage water brings human faeces, rotting rats and swarms of mosquito eggs into our houses.

One of my neighbours had to hire a crane to lift his car out of the house, because he could not drive through the deep sewage.

One of my sons has not been able to go to school since Monday due to the flooding.”

Actually, we favor any kind of development, but it should be done in a fair and sustainable manner.

Our houses would not be flooded if the developers pumped the sewage water from Boeung Kak slowly until the dry season comes in the next few weeks

To improve the next National Geographic rating, there should be a more sustainable and fair plan to develop Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia.

In the News: Radio Free Asia, Voice of Residents’ Eviction Fears

From the Article: “Lake Families Fear Eviction” (Radio Free Asia: 2008-11-06)

“I’m very worried. Under the Pol Pot regime we lost everything. Under the Lon Nol era, we also lost. Since 1979, we’ve had only what we have now, and if we lose this we will be finished. We don’t have anything to depend on,” Ros Sem said.

Some 4,000 families now live around Boeung Kak Lake, which is Phnom Penh’s main catchment for monsoon rain. This includes several hundred residents living on the lake in houses supported by stilts, many of them in disrepair.

Many have had their water supply shut off since September and some wonder if this is part of a bid to force them out, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Boeung Kak, Source: RFA

“We fear losing our homes, and we fear there will be violence,” said one, who asked not to be named. “[According to the law], anyone who has lived on the land for five years or so will be granted a legal title.”

“We haven’t received a title but we have suffered emotionally. We have voted for [these officials] through all four elections and they should be considerate towards us.”

In the News: Radio Free Asia Features Boeung Kak in Excellent Online Slideshow

Click Here to Visit the RFA website and view the sideshow.

In the News: 200 Residents Protest, take letter to South Korean Embassy

“Around 200 residents from among the 4,000 families that live at the Boeng Kak region in Srah Chak, Daun Penh, came on the morning or 27 October 2008 to protest in front of the South Korean Embassy in Cambodia, to ask the Korean ambassador to intervene with the Shukaku Inc. company to stop dredging sand to fill the Boeng Kak Lake, and to solve the compensation for houses and land of the residents through market prices.

“A letter of the Boeng Kak residents at Srah Chak, Daun Penh, Phnom Penh, on 24 October 2008, to the Korean ambassador in Cambodia, stated their concerns over their eviction from the Boeng Kak region.

“In the letter asking for an intervention by the South Korean ambassador in Cambodia, all residents at the Boeng Kak region said that they have lived in this area starting between 1979 and 1982, and they are recognized by the local authorities, having family books, residence cards, birth certificates, identification cards, house numbers, defined residential groups, villages, communes, and districts; furthermore, residents at the Boeng Kak region have access to clean water and electricity, and they have jobs such as working at guesthouses, shops, cosmetics, car maintenance, garments shops, hairdressers, washing and ironing shops, hardware shops etc.”

The letter details the request:

“To ask the Shukaku Inc. Company to stop dredging sand using it to fill the Boeng Kak Lake.

To ask the Shukaku Inc. Company to come to solve the effects on the land and on the houses of the residents living on the land and on stilt houses above the surface of the water, directly with the citizens, according to market prices.”

-Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3599, 28.10.2008, Translated by The Mirror

The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 584

In the News: Lake Flooding Forces ‘Volunteer’ Exodus

From Voice of America, October 27th: “It is right to say either: we volunteered or were forced, because the company dredged to flood us,” she said. “We must leave. How can we stay? Speaking frankly they’re driving us away.”

More from the story:

Ny Chakrya, chief of the monitoring section for the rights group Adhoc, said the displacement was similar to those along the Tonle Bassac, except residents here were being forced out by floodwater and not gunpoint.

“It is not a principle of volunteering,” he said. “Volunteer removal means a negotiation in which neither side was put under pressure of any kind. Once one side acted to put another side aside; with no choice, it becomes a non-voluntary agreement. If it was to be a voluntary agreement from the people, [authorities] should not have created an impact on the daily living conditions of the people.”

Resident Neth Sophana and her family said they were being forced to leave under a “volunteer principle” espoused by Phnom Penh authorities and Shukaku.

“It is right to say either: we volunteered or were forced, because the company dredged to flood us,” she said. “We must leave. How can we stay? Speaking frankly they’re driving us away.”

Despite floodwater creeping into her house, forcing her to build small wooden walkways through the living room, resident Houth Srin said she would wait for a better offer. Borei Santepheap 2 was too far from services, she said, and the itchy feet caused by the dirty water was a small price to pay to hold out.

Meanwhile, she said, people who owned smaller houses were being separated from those with large houses by the city’s buyout plans. Those with small houses could take the money, but those with larger houses, like hers, would wait. That meant a unity of voice against the displacement was divided, she said.

Click here for the full story.

Click here for the story in Khmer audio.