Floods in Phnom Penh likely to worsen

Cars, motorbikes and pedestrians struggle through knee-deep water last May around Phnom Penh’s Kandal market. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Tuesday, 07 August 2012
Justine Drennan
The Phnom Penh Post

During this year’s rainy season in Phnom Penh, new obstacles facing the city’s drainage system will probably outweigh improvements, experts said this week.

Key to that prediction is the recent completion of the scheme to fill Boeung Kak lake with sand, which they say will increase flooding, and the fact that the ongoing drainage project supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency remains years away from completion.

Nora Lindström, advisor at urban NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, which published a 2008 study on the effects of filling in Boeung Kak, said the lake can no longer hold run-off that previously drained there.

Lakeside sand pumping resumes

A woman walks near a house at Boeung Kak lake that was inundated with sand yesterday by controversial developer Shukaku Inc. (Photo by: Meng Kimlong)

Heng Sovan surveys the damage caused to his house after it was flooded with sand and water yesterday on the edge of Boeung Kak lake in Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Meng Kimlong)

Friday, 09 September 2011Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

A group of Boeung Kak lake residents could only stand by and watch as the local developer Shukaku Inc inundated their houses with sand yesterday.

Eventually Shukaku, which is reclaiming land from the lake for a 133-hectare real estate development, agreed to temporarily stop pumping the sand so that affected residents could dig a canal to protect their houses. By that point the damage had already been done, said resident Chan Thoeurn.

He has also been cut out of a 12.44 hectare resettlement area awarded as compensation to 756 families set to be evicted by the project, because authorities claim his house is outside the compensation area.

“Authorities cut my house from receiving a land title in the 12.44 hectare [resettlement area] and now the company pumped sand to fill in the ground floor of my house, clogging my sewage drainage system,” he said.

“Why did the authorities and the company do such a thing to my family?”

Shukaku could not be reached for comment.

Government, Adhoc To Form Land Investigation Team

Phnom Penh city workers demolish wooden houses in Boeung Kak lake as a man in the water collects his belongings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 14, 2011. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 10 May 2011

“We want to provide the authorities our findings, testimony and recommendations for solving land disputes.”

The government’s human rights committee and Adhoc, a local rights NGO, have agreed to establish a joint working group for investigating land disputes, which have become an increasingly thorny problem nationwide.

Om Yentieng, head of the government’s Human Rights Committee, said the working group will investigate land disputes together and issue a joint report, even if both sides are not in total agreement.

“It does not mean that the working group must have only one voice in a joint report, but that the working group works on the same case,” he said, opening a land dispute workshop in Phnom Penh Tuesday.

Boeung Kak Lake Residents demonstrate at the [Lack of] Freedom Park

Lake Protesters Prepare for Freedom Park Sit-In

Children sit on top their inundated homes, where Shukaku, Inc., has been pumping fill into Boeung Kak lake. (Photo: Heng Reaksmey)

Kong Sotharnarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Monday, 03 January 2011

“No one from the authorities or from the government has helped them find a solution.”

About 200 villagers from the embattled Beoung Kak lake community on Monday began the first day of a planned weeklong protest in an ongoing attempt to settle with a city developer.

The group plans a weeklong sit-on protest at Freedom Park, the government-sanctioned assembly plaza in Phnom Penh, in hopes of reaching an agreement with Shukaku, Inc., which has been working since 2008 to develop 133 acres of residential and commercial property on a lease from the city.

Residents say the buyout offer from the company is too low, and they do not want to be relocated to inferior sites outside the city. The company has continued to fill the lake area, despite their protests, forcing many from their homes.

“Please come and negotiate with the residents of Boeung Kak,” said Sam Sovanna, one of the leaders for the protesting residents, on Monday.

Residents say they want $1,500 per square meter, or 15 hectares slotted for themselves in the new development.

Protesters waved international flags for the US, Japan, China and Vietnam, and called for the assistance of Prime Minister Hun Sen and of former king Norodom Sihanouk.

“No one from the authorities or from the government has helped them find a solution,” said Ouch Leng, a rights worker for Adhoc.

Neither Shukaku nor city officials could immediately be reached for comment.

Chinese company involved in Boeung Kak Lake with CPP Lao Meng Khin's Shukaku Inc.

A young barefooted boy looks pensive while behind him workers employed by Shukaku Inc pump a mixture of sand and water into the northeastern edge of Boeung Kak lake. (Photo by: Will Baxter)

China firm in lake deal

Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Vanessa Ko
The Phnom Penh Post

A Chinese company has invested tens of millions of dollars in the controversial development of the Boeung Kak lakeside, in connection with firms linked to a powerful ruling party senator Lao Meng Khin, according to Chinese-language news reports.

The reports from September say that the involvement of the state-owned Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Co dates back to July, when it signed an agreement with two local companies to develop the lake.

According to the reports, the Boeung Kak development – known in Chinese as wanguhu, or “10,000 Valley Lake” – was included in a US$3 billion package of investment deals that also included a 750-megawatt power station in Sihanoukville and the exploration of bauxite in Mondulkiri.

The announcement of the deals followed a September 8 meeting between Wang Linxiang, the company’s chairman, and Prime Minister Hun Sen. At the time, Eang Sophalleth, a personal adviser to Hun Sen, told The Post that the meeting was to discuss the power station project and real estate developments, but did not identify Boeung Kak lake as one of the projects.

The Chinese reports reveal that Hung Jun’s lake development agreement involved both Shukaku Inc – which is owned by Lao Meng Khin – and the Cambodia International Investment Development Group.

The latter firm also appears to be linked to the senator. According to an undated government investment publication available online, the firm runs a special economic zone in Sihanoukville, with Lao Meng Khin listed as the “zone developer”.

Also present at the September 8 meeting between Hun Sen and the Hung Jun representatives, Eang Sophalleth said at the time, was Lao Meng Khin’s wife Choeung Sopheap, the head of local conglomerate Pheapimex.

The reports confirm longstanding suspicions of Chinese involvement in the 133-hectare housing and commercial development.

In January, The Post revealed a long history of Chinese links to the project, following the signing of a US$79 million lease agreement between City Hall and local developer Shukaku Inc in February 2007.

It remained unclear, however, whether Chinese firms were still linked to the project after one Kunming-based company withdrew from the project after undergoing restructuring.

Chinese news reports state that Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Co was registered in Inner Mongolia in June and has two parent companies, each holding a 50 percent stake.

One of the companies is Erdos Holding Group, based in Inner Mongolia, whose primary businesses are cashmere and energy investment. The other is the Qingdao-based Dezheng Resources Holdings Co Ltd, an aluminium and energy development firm.

The Chinese articles also reveal that the joint venture between Hung Jun and Cambodia International Investment Development Group, which was not named, had registered capital totalling $72 million.

Hong Jun owns 51 percent of the company, contributing cash and equipment, while the Cambodian company owns 49 percent and provides the land and resources.

It is unclear what role Shukaku plays in the deal, though it has been in charge of the Boeung Kak project since work began in 2008.

Since then, the project has come under fire from housing rights groups, who claim as many as 4,000 families will be forced to make way. Protests by lakeside residents have become a weekly occurrence in Phnom Penh, fuelled by complaints of inadequate compensation, the lack of transparency and the flooding of homes due to the filling of the lake.

“It has been difficult for the residents to figure out who they should appeal to,” said Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force. “The government tells them to go to Shukaku, Shukaku tells them to go to the government. They just throw them back and forth.”

Sia Phearum said the Chinese involvement will likely have a negative impact on the residents’ plight. “[The Chinese] care about business more than human rights,” he said.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said there should be tough laws on loans from abroad. “We have to be very careful of those who only look at their own benefit and exploit Cambodian natural resources,” he said. “I don’t know if the Chinese investors have considered the reputation of their company name ... or if they just want to invest in a poor country.”

Chinese Embassy spokesman Qian Hai had not responded to queries as of press time. A Shukaku official declined to comment.

Hun Xen's regime is a "CANCER" scourge for Khmer society and it is spreading fast

Boeung Kak Lake eviction by submersion in sand (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

Lake homes buried as Cambodia's land-grab 'cancer' spreads

Sun, Dec 19, 2010
By Michelle Fitzpatrick
AFP

PHNOM PENH - Standing knee-deep in dirty water, 60-year-old Men Chhoeuy uses a crowbar to dismantle his small wooden house on the edge of a lake in the Cambodian capital.

He is the latest resident to give up the fight against a private company accused of spewing sand into lakeside homes as it fills in the 130-hectare (320-acre) site to make way for high-rise buildings and shopping centres.

"Many neighbours have already left," said Men Chhoeuy as he continued his demolition work on the northern edge of Boeung Kak lake, one of the last large open spaces left in Phnom Penh and once home to about 4,000 families.

The sand-pumping has increased significantly in recent weeks and a number of homes were fully immersed in a matter of days, leaving only the tips of roofs sticking out as startled families scrambled to save what belongings they could.

"The message that is being sent to the remaining residents at the lake is that they should accept the compensation being offered to them or else their houses too will be buried in mud," said David Pred, executive director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, a non-governmental organisation.

The government leased the area three years ago to Shukaku Inc., a private developer headed by a ruling party politician, ignoring residents' existing land claims.

Filling the lake with sand has caused water levels to rise, flooding local dwellings with slurry and creating unsanitary conditions, according to residents and rights groups.

"Shukaku Inc. is forcibly evicting lake residents by pumping sand and mud into their homes," Rolando Modina, regional director of the international pressure group Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), told AFP.

Land disputes are a major problem in Cambodia.

The communist Khmer Rouge abolished land ownership during its 1975-1979 rule and many legal documents were lost during that time and in the years of civil war that followed. Last year, the government approved a new law allowing it to seize private property for public development projects, to the dismay of activists.

"Land-grabbing is a cancer that is eating up Cambodia," said Pred.

"Forced evictions are being driven by rapid speculative investment in the Cambodian real estate market, coupled with endemic corruption and the absence of rule of law," he added.

"The urban poor are being driven from their homes in Phnom Penh, which is becoming an exclusive domain of the wealthy."

The capital is undergoing heavy development after projects stalled during the global financial crisis.

In the countryside, meanwhile, farming land has been confiscated on numerous occasions and granted to large developers such as sugar and rubber companies.

In 2009 alone, at least 26 cases of mass evictions displaced approximately 27,000 people across the country, according to a UN report released in September.

"The manner in which land is managed and used by the government for various purposes continues to be a major problem. Land-grabbing by people in positions of power seems to be a common occurrence," it said.

Shukaku has offered some lake dwellers, though not all, financial compensation of 1,500 to 8,500 US dollars for vacating the site, but critics say the money is not enough.

"I have to accept this money because my home is flooding," Men Chhoeuy said of the 8,000 US dollars he will split with the three other families who shared his home. "I don't know where to go now. With this money we can't do anything."

People are leaving the lake every day but Pred estimates there are still some 1,500 to 2,000 families remaining, many of whom are poor and have nowhere else to go.

Shukaku, which was granted a 99-year lease for the development project, declined to comment.

"Please talk to the government," company spokesman Lao Vann told AFP. "We don't know anything... We are allowed by the state to develop (the area)."

Sok Sambath, the governor of the city's Daunh Penh district, which includes the lake, described the development as "a good thing" for the area and said residents were accepting compensation.

Many of the people living on and around the lake settled or returned there in the 1980s after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

Under Cambodian law, a person who has lived somewhere for five years or more without dispute has rights to that land, "but there have been problems in implementing this law properly," said the UN report.

Lake dwellers have in recent months organised dozens of demonstrations but their protests fell on deaf ears and they were usually quickly dispersed by police.

It's not just the residents who are complaining. Until recently, the eastern edge of Boeung Kak lake was a popular tourist stretch, with numerous guesthouses and bars lining the shore.

The lake now resembles a large sand dune and has lost its allure. Tourists are staying away and hotels are closing.

"Five months ago this was a bustling, thriving area. Now, it's dead calm," said Harry Bongers, who for the last seven years has been running the Simon's II guesthouse.

"I've made my mind up already, I'm going to close in one month," the 59-year-old Dutchman said.

Independence Day at Boeung Kak [-What Independence?]

CAMBODIA. Phnom Penh. 9/11/2010: Development company Shukaku Inc. pumping sand in Boeung Kak lake forces inhabitants to dismantle their house (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

09 Nov. 2010
By John Vink
Originally posted at http://networkedblogs.com/9Js5q

For additional photos from Boeung Kak Lake by John, please click here

Nov. 9th is Independence Day in Cambodia. A country’s independence is supposed to allow its citizens to take care of themselves without outside interference. It supposes a certain degree of responsability, of compassion, of solidarity towards its fellow citizens. All nice virtues which are sometimes hard to find in Cambodia.

Exactly during the 57th ceremonies at Independence Monument gathering all those responsible for the Cambodian citizens, the eviction by Shukaku Inc. continues in the name of ‘development’. The company, backed by Chinese investors and belonging to Lao Meng Khin, Senator and member of the ruling CPP party, keeps on pumping sand in the Boeung Kak Lake, forcing inhabitants to dismantle their house, the offered compensation being ridiculously low.

Independence? From China? From money?

Eviction by drowning: Cambodia's new Pol Pot II regime

The Shukaku Inc. Co. continues to pump sand to drown out houses belonging to Boeung Kak lake residents on Friday (Photo: Sovann Philong, The Phnom Penh Post)

Victims of the drowning try to get their belongings out of their house on Friday (Photo: Sovann Philong, The Phnom Penh Post)

Eviction by drowning: It only happens in Hun Xen’s lawless Cambodia

Sand pumping operation by the Shukaku Inc. led to the drowning of about 30 houses in Boeung Kak Lake area (Photo: Den Ayuthyea, RFA)

Shukaku Inc. pumps in sand to drown houses in Boeung Kak

03 Nov. 2010
By Den Ayuthyea
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

“Our country has good laws, but the government has only one will, i.e. it does not respect the law at all, it rejected the fact that people are living there, it wants the residents to move out far away from the city. All that the government does is to allow the plan set up 100% by the [Shukaku] company” - Ouch Leng, Adhoc official

Residents in Boeung Kak area claimed that at least 30 of the houses there were drowned out by the sand pumping operation performed by the Shukaku Inc. Co. to fill the lake. The house drowning took place even though there is no resolution given yet as to the development of that area.

Boeung Kak residents, who were victimized, told RFA on 03 November with choking voice about their concerns over the loss of their houses. They indicated that neither the Phnom Penh city hall nor Hun Xen would look into their numerous pleas for intervention, nor did they offer any help to the residents. Nevertheless, Boeung Kak residents are still confident that Hun Xen can help them.

Ty Pisey, a woman living in Village No. 24 and whose house was drowned out by the Shukaku Inc. on 03 November, issued a new plea to Hun Xen, asking him to help stop the sand pumping operation immediately and to force the company to return to the negotiation table to provide a reasonable solution to the residents: “The three Samdachs [Hun Xen, Heng Xamrin and Chea Xim], please help resolve the hardship faced by the residents of Boeung Kak area because the residents are currently being drowned out.”

Chhim Navy, an elderly woman, indicated her concerns and issued this plea: “Samdach Hun Xen please help your children and grandchildren and find a reasonable resolution for the residents. The residents are willing to move out, we will not stay, but give us a decent [compensation] so we can buy another house to live in.”

The victimized residents added: “There must be a commission to resolve this problem, the [Shukaku] company should not be allowed to do whatever it wants. In the past, they said that there will be separate resolution for those who live on the lake, and those who live on land. But, now, irrespective of where you live, the resolution is the same, this cannot be.”

The residents indicated that during the Shukaku company’s sand pumping operation to drown out the houses in Beoung Kak on 03 November, there was no government official who came to meet the residents or came to stop this sand pumping operation at all. The residents said that all that they can do is to watch their houses being drowned out because they were helpless and the Shukaku Inc. also brought in numerous armed guards for its protection.

On 03 November, RFA could not reach the city hall to clarify on this pumping operation.

Regarding this problem, Kong Chamroeun, the representative of Hun Xen’s office, said on 15 September 2008 that Hun Xen decided to let the city hall and the Shukaku Inc. Co. resolve the problem for the residents who actually live in the Boeung Kak area, the resolutions would provide three alternative choices for the residents.

Kong Chamroeun said: “The three options are: (1) accept an already built house, (2) accept $8,000 and 2 million riels (~ $500) [in compensation], or (3) remain there so that they will receive another house at the same location. For the sand pumping, if there is no pumping, they will not be able to do anything, i.e. they cannot change this area.”

Ouch Leng, a land dispute official for the Adhoc human rights organization who visited and observed the sand pumping operation by the Shukaku Inc. Co., said that the operation is a serious violation of the residents’ rights.

Ouch Leng added: “Our country has good laws, but the government has only one will, i.e. it does not respect the law at all, it rejected the fact that people are living there, it wants the residents to move out far away from the city. All that the government does is to allow the plan set up 100% by the [Shukaku] company.”

In 2007, the Cambodian government, through the city hall, signed an agreement to lease 133 hectares of land to the Shukaku Inc. Co. for a duration of 99 years. That development plan led to 3,000 families losing their house and they have to be evicted and taken out far away from that area.

The Stink of Corruption in Phnom Penh

(Photo: Angel Garcia / Flickr)

Saturday 13 February 2010
By Anne Elizabeth Moore
t r u t h o u t | Report

A lake development project is fueling thousands of forced evictions in the Cambodian capital.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - There are plenty of guns in Cambodia, but I cannot get used to them being pointed at me, even in jest. After all, I'm just picking at my lunch, staring lazily at Phnom Penh's biggest lake, Boeung Kak, and the massive sandy beach across the water. Two years ago, the area was thriving with fishermen. Now, the beach is moving closer to the spot where I sit, minute by minute. Most of the fishermen are gone.

The man with the gun stands, gesturing for me to follow him. He jerks his chin upwards as he strides down the open deck of the bar and restaurant of a one-time popular guest house in the seedy backpacker area of the city. His ruddy face projects menace, but only in an act of self-protection. "Is not real," he asides of the rifle when we get to the edge of the water.

I look at the gun. It is carved from a solid piece of wood. It could kill someone, sure, but it cannot protect him from what is being stolen from him, even as we stand watching.

The capital city's largest remaining natural lake is being filled in with sand to make way for a residential and shopping district. It's sparked a wave of forced evictions known more commonly around the country as "landgrabbing," kicked off by the city's February 2007 agreement with Shukaku Inc., in which the company paid $79 million for a 99-year lease on the land.

A Phnom Penh family, finishes fishing and chores on the banks of the polluted Boeung Kak lake, currently under development. The mass of sand behind them used to line the Mekong River. (photo: Anne Elizabeth Moore)

That is, the land invisible under the water. To make it useful for the development project, of course, Shukaku Inc. had to devise a way of getting to that land. So in late August 2008, a massive drainage pipe began pumping sand into the water at a rate of around 25 square meters per hour. Residents fled. Many had not been notified in advance.

I asked the restaurant manager if tourism would soon be affected, and my armed companion scoffs. "Is already," he says in his rolling Khmer accent, waving the gun toward the sandy beach. As many Cambodians do, he declines to give his name to reporters out of fear of government retaliation.

The back door of artist Leang Seckon's studio overlooks Boeung Kak. Many lakeside residents are unsure when flooding, pollution, or landslides will force them to abandon their homes. (photo: Anne Elizabeth Moore)

This isn't an idle fear, either: According to the local human rights group Adhoc, the number of arrests of human rights activists in Cambodia rose by about 70% in 2009. Most arrests were of people speaking out about housing and land rights.

"Before, this was a beautiful lake and people came from the city to watch the sunset. Maybe a part of this is also the amount of tourists coming to Cambodia, I don't know. But now ..."

He turns back and looks at the paltry number of customers lunching at the establishment. Two men argue over coffee, a young woman shoots pool in the corner. This is high tourist season in Cambodia. Other proprietors I've spoken to, in other tourist areas of town, have seen business pick up again after the previous year's drop.

Part of the problem here could be the smell. Pollution was noticeable, but not overwhelming, when the lake was at its peak. Now, rising levels of rotting garbage, fish carcasses and raw sewage are plainly visible - and malodorous.

"... What to do?" The guest house manager finishes his thought.

In early February, 100 affected residents gathered at City Hall to protest the city's handling of drainage at the construction site. Wastewater was backing up, they complained. One woman's kitchen was entirely submerged, she told the Phnom Penh Post, and it was still the dry season. The city has so far failed to create an adequate drainage system for the construction sites.

In Cambodia, fetid water is not only unseemly. It's also a health risk in a country plagued by malaria and Dengue fever.

Of course, the development project also violates several federal laws. A 2009 report from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an international human rights organization, finds multiple causes for concern. Among them, that leases for state public property cannot change the function of land nor last for longer than 15 years. And, land over which people already hold titles, which have not been bought out in advance of the agreement, cannot be leased by third parties. Additionally, the report charges, evictions are only legally allowable under certain circumstances that do not include private development projects. (Resultant evictions are also found in the report to be in violation of international human rights law obligations.)

Secondary affects of the development project also concern local organizations. In May of 2009, Prime Minister Hun Sen halted all dredging of sand from the Mekong for export purposes due to environmental concerns, yet dredging for domestic purposes continues. A site directly across the water from Phnom Penh's Royal Palace pipes sand into Boeung Kak. The Cambodia Daily reports that some dredging companies pull as much as 2,000 tons of sand from the riverbed daily, but no official records are maintained.

In residential areas near dredge sites, homeowners report riverbank landslides coinciding with sand pulls. Many have been forced to move from their traditional stilted homes, concerned their families will one day tumble into the water. (These figures are not counted in displacement statistics.)

The Ministry of Environment claims that the amount of removed sand is recovered annually. The landslides, it charges, are caused by natural erosion.

It's this kind of official response that has my friend with the wooden rifle frustrated. He's been to meeting after meeting, and signed petition upon petition. All to no satisfaction. "I wish I could go to the government," he says and he looks over at the encroaching sand.

Across from us, three of the last remaining handful of fisherman that work the lake shuffle something small from the water in their bamboo baskets, even as more land piles up behind them. Figures on how many people made their living selling fish from this lake are unavailable, as are the number of people who sustained themselves almost exclusively by eating their catch, or picking the vegetables that grow along the lakeside.

In 2007, city authorities claimed that only 600 people would be affected by the development project; that number has been surpassed. NGOs place the number of persons displaced at between 4,250 and 30,000 people. The city has offered some families three choices: move to the northeast corner of the city, into government-approved housing projects still under construction; take an $8000 lump payment in compensation, far lower than the market value of their property; or wait until alternative housing is built in the neighborhood.

Other families have simply seen their houses crumble, with no advance warning from construction crews or government officials.

Artist Leang Seckon hopes this doesn't happen to him. His studio opens onto the lake thousands of Cambodians have called home ever since the Khmer Rouge regime ended and people started moving back into the city 30 years ago. Born in the provinces, Seckon spent the first ten years of his life in the rice fields. His work often touches on the environmental issues that are close to his heart.

"I need nature, I need water, I need"-here he breathes deeply- "fresh air." He's excited that the government has made recent moves to cease illegal logging and halt some sand-dredging from the Mekong. But he's received no notice about when he's expected to vacate the space he's worked in for 18 years.

His studio sits north of the backpacker district, so he probably has a little more time. He just doesn't know how much. "Now the company buy the lake, and destroy the lake. Soon-I don't know when but soon-they build a city."

Land prices in Phnom Penh have increased tenfold in recent years. Prices are expected to rise even more as high-profile projects like the country's first-ever skyscraper, Gold Tower 42, are completed as soon as 2012. The country may be under development, and it's clear that some are seeing benefits from the boom. But others wonder who is paying the real price.

More upset at the loss of the city's natural resource than the loss of his studio, Seckon considers the matter. "I not feel happy at all," he declares.

Little is known about the company behind the development project, Shukaku Inc. Some press reports have linked it to Cambodian People's Party Senator Lau Meng Khin, also a close friend of Hun Sen. Chinese investment has been linked to the controversial project, but South Korea has denied any involvement. South Korean interests are behind many development projects in the city, including Gold Tower 42.

"It's got to be developed," my weaponed associate proclaims of the city from the deck of the guest house. He then outlines a plan where the lake is cleaned of pollution instead of filled, and the ramshackle guest houses in the rundown backpacker district are funded to make improvements. "It's good for tourism," he offers.

This should count for something. Alongside the construction/real estate sector, tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. It's the justification for a handful of new public works projects in the city, such as Watermusic, a light show and fountain timed to blaring pop songs that draws local-and tourist-crowds every weekend night.

The guest house proprietor's revitalization plan, he says, has been incorporated into various official proposals for years. Still, it's gotten nowhere. Rather, as my armed companion explains, the powers that be just don't like it.

"I'm sure the government don't think the same," he says, using the Khmer phrase more properly translated as, "agree with us."

But there is more than a difference of opinion at stake. He rests his prop gun against a table and refuses to comment on the friends and neighbors who have already been forced to move. Where they are, how they're adjusting, what businesses they've gone into: he doesn't want to say, for fear he'll be labeled a political agitator.

Or maybe his fear is more personal. Soon, he'll have to close down the guest house and join them, he says.

"We'll see," he says, when asked what he'll do next. "We'll see."

Areas Near Lake Development Now Flooded

Flooding in Russey Keo in 2008 (Photo: Heng Chivoan, The Phnom Penh Post)

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 October 2009

Sitting on a wooden bed above knee-high water, Bo Socheata gazed at the stagnant floodwater invading her home.

“Since before Pchum Ben, the water has made it difficult for my children to go to school,” said the 30-year-old housewife and mother of three, who lives in the capital’s Tuol Sangke commune, Russey Keo district. “And the smell from the flood is terrible.”

Eight communes in two districts north of Phnom Penh have been inundated with floodwater for the past month, with some residents forced to abandon the ground floors of their homes and schools temporarily closed.

Many resident blame the flooding on a contested development plan that filled nearby Boeung Kak lake, claiming it had acted as drainage for rain water. Authorities said the flooding was the result of heavy rains, not the multi-million dollar project.

The lingering floodwater has damaged roads, floors and entire houses.

Pat Pao, 40, spent a recent day adding small, cement levies to his floors in an effort to prevent his house being flooded. Any tasks he had to do, he moved onto his bed, “and sleep with them,” he said with a sigh.

The flooding has affected 5,000 homes across multiple communes: in Russey Keo’s Tuol Sangke, Russey Keo, Kilometer 6, Chrang Chamres I and II, and Svay Pak; and in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmei and Toek Tla.

Residents blamed the filling of Boeung Kak lake, its 133 hectares under a 99-year lease for commercial and residential development by Shukaku, Inc. (At least one report in 2008 warned that filling the lake would lead to flooding.)

However, Lao Meng Khin, president of Shukaku, denied the flooding was caused by the filling.

“You look whether all the streets are flooded,” he said. “Not just Cambodia but any country in the world will flood.”

Municipal officials could not be reached for comment. But Kau Sles, a deputy governor of Russey Keo district, said rains caused the flooding, not the Boeung Kak project.

“The pumping from Boeung Kak I and II is just a small contributor,” he said. “The main reason is the rain flowing from Kampong Speu and Kandal” provinces.

Local authorities have been pumping the floodwater from the area, he said.

However, residents say the pumping only just started, despite the weeks of inundation, and they warn that without proper drainage systems, the problem is not likely to end.

Freedom of Expression in Cambodia is deteriorating: Civil Society

CCHR – CLEC – IDEA – KKKHRA – LICADHO
Joint Media Statement
For Immediate Release
Phnom Penh, June 11, 2009

Freedom of Expression in Cambodia is deteriorating

We, the undersigned organizations, are strongly concerned about the perilous state of freedom of expression in Cambodia. Since the end of April 2009, Cambodian government officials have filed complaints of defamation, disinformation or incitement against several Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmakers as well as a lawyer, a journalist and an NGO president. In addition, Phnom Penh authorities have taken harsh action to suppress freedom of expression by residents of Boeung Kak lake. Such events have serious negative impacts on the freedom of expression in Cambodia.

On June 08, 2009, the Phnom Penh Municipality reportedly sent armed forces to close the Lazy Fish guesthouse in the Boeung Kak area after its owner agreed to rent the premises to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) for a public forum on ‘Human Rights and Development’ on June 12, 2009. The intimidation culminating in the temporary closure of this guesthouse caused CCHR to decide to suspend its forum.

On Thursday June 4, 2009, Soung Sophorn, a law student, SRP activist and a resident of Boeung Kak, was arrested after he had painted ‘Absolutely fighting against communist policy,’ and ‘People Suffer due to Cheap Government and Company’ on the walls of home. Detained in police custody for two days, he was then taken to Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday. Despite this being a non-working day for the court, he was hurriedly placed on trial, convicted of defamation and sentenced to pay 5 million riels compensation to the government.

These actions of the Phnom Penh Muncipality, police and court in the above two cases were clearly unjustified and aimed at suppressing the freedom of Boeung Kak residents to discuss and express opinions about the pending loss of their homes due to the government giving a private company a 99-year lease to the lake area.

In addition, recent months have seen a total of four defamation, disinformation or incitement complaints filed against three SRP lawmakers, Mu Sochua, Ho Vann and Sam Rainsy, by the government or individual high-ranking officials. Similar complaints were also filed against Mu Sochua’s lawyer, Kong Sam Onn, and Khmer Machas Srok newspaper director Hang Chakra.

Several other lawsuits have also been filed. A disinformation suit was lodged by a government lawyer against Mr. Moeung Sonn, the president of Khmer Civilisation Foundation, for comments he made about lights being installed at Angkor Wat. Mr. Moeung Sonn subsequently fled to France; his departure is understandable in the context of past cases of disinformation in which a non-independent judiciary decided the fate of defendants. It is also worth noting that Mr. Moeung Sonn himself had sued Mr. Soy Sopheap, the commentator of Cambodian Television Network (CTN), for defamation and disinformation as well.

The pattern of complaints of defamation, disinformation and incitement filed by high-ranking officials, and the intimidation of residents at Boeung Kak lake, poses a serious threat to the right to freedom of expression in Cambodia. In particular, Article 62 (Disinformation) and Article 63 (Defamation and Libel) of the UNTAC criminal code continue to be used to silence the voices of Cambodian people and to prevent public participation.

Given this concern and threat to human rights and freedom of expression in Cambodia, we urge the Cambodian government to:

• Reconsider its lawsuits over defamation and disinformation, in the interests of ensuring that all Cambodian people have the opportunity to express their points of view and to freely participate in debate about government policies and practices.
• Respect the principles of freedom of expression as stated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international covenants, to which Cambodia is a party, and also in the Cambodian constitutional law.
• Encourage high-ranking and elected officials to build stronger democratic institutions which guarantee a greater separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.
• Protect the constitutional rights of the Cambodian people and ensure the independence of the judiciary so that it respects the rights of all parties involved in litigation cases

For more information, please contact:
-Virak Ou, President,
Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), (855) 12 404051
-Virak Yeng, Executive Director,
Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), (855) 12 801235
-Pao Vorn, President,
Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA), (855) 12 534796
-Chanrith Ang, Executive Director,
Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Association (KKKHRA), (855)12 934802
-Naly Pilorge, Executive Director,
Cambodian League for the Protection and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO), (855)12 803650

Lake Residents Want Development Canceled

Hun Sen's cronies: Lao Meng Khin (L) and his wife Choeung Sopheap (R). Lao Meng Khin owns Shukaku Inc. (Photo: Global Witness)

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 May 2009

Residents being pushed out by a lake development in Phnom Penh called on the National Assembly and two government ministries to intervene.

Thousands of residents living near Boeung Kak lake, in the north of the city, have not reached an agreement for compensation from a developer to move from their homes.

The city signed a 99-year, $79 million lease agreement with Shukaku, Inc., in February 2007, for the development of 133 hectares of the lake area.

Shukaku, which is owned by a ruling party senator, began filling the lake in July 2008, having reached agreements with many homeowners in the ramshackle area.

Remaining residents said Thursday they would not leave, and they called on the government to cancel the deal.

“We submitted our complaint to the National Assembly, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior, for intervention in the termination of the land deal…following no compensation solution for Boeung Kak residents,” Be Pharum, a representative of the citizens, told reporters Thursday.

More than 4,200 families living around the lake are facing eviction, having refused to accept what they see as unfair compensation from the government, Choung Chu Ngy, a legal representative for the residents, said.

Shukaku is now filling in the lake, with plans to build a modern hotel, commercial buildings, hospital, university and entertainment complex on the site.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Man Choeun referred questions to the city’s cabinet director, Noun Sameth, who declined comment.

Boeung Kak lake: A widow threatens to take her own life

Boeung Kak Lake: A house fell into the lake from the pumping operation performed by the Shukaku Inc. company owned by CPP tycoon-senator-cum-land-grabber Lao Meng Khin (Photo: ALG, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

19 March 2009
By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

Kao Malai indicated that the Shukaku Inc. company only paid her $200 in compensation for her house which fell into the lake, and the company did not offer any relocation at all.

Kao Malai, a widow and mother of two children, indicated that she would like to end her life because of the Boeung Kak lake land dispute.

Addressing a meeting of villagers involved in land disputes on Thursday 19 March in Phnom Penh, she indicated that the Shukaku company only paid her $200 when her house fell into the water (from the filling of the lake by the Shukaku company).

“My house fell down because of the pumping operation in the lake!” she said angrily. “They did not allow me to repair it, they just gave me $200 as compensation to get rid of me.”

Furthermore, several residents were angry at the pro-CPP TV station Bayon (owned by Hun Mana, Hun Sen’s daughter) which claimed on 24-25 February that “more than 70%” of the residents accepted the offer made by the Shukaku company, however, in reality, only 820 families out of a total of 4,250 families accepted to leave their homes based on the conditions imposed by the Shukaku company.

According to the residents, the “70%” claim was attributed to Lav Van, the brother of the CPP tycoon-senator Lao Meng Khin, the owner of the Shukaku company.

In fact, the compensation amount is not very clear: even though $8,500 was promised to residents with small homes on the lake, for the other residents, they claim that they do not know what if the exact term of the compensation to be provided by Lao Meng Khin’s Shukaku.

The residents announced that they will gather on 25 or 26 March at a “public forum.”

New report warns of Boeung Kak flooding

A young boy plays in the abandoned, partially submerged house of his former neighbour in one of the Boeung Kak communities worst affected by the filling-in of the lake. Since local developer Shukaku Inc began pumping sand into the lake late last year, hundreds of families have been forced to abandon their homes. (Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG)

THURSDAY, 12 MARCH 2009
Written by Sam Rith and Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

Group calls for municipality to take action to mitigate coming loss of natural catchment areas caused by lake's filling.

THE reclamation of Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake will increase the level and frequency of wet season flooding in areas in the city's north, according to a technical report released Wednesday.

The Boeung Kak Area Drainage and Flooding Assessment report, prepared by a team of Australian drainage and flooding engineers in 2008, found the filling of the lake for a 133-hectare commercial and housing project would eliminate a major rain catchment area, leading to
"significant impacts on property" in areas adjacent to the lake.

"While the lake is a closed system with little catchment contribution beyond the lake itself, the proposed development area is large enough to generate large volumes of run-off," the report stated.

"The anticipated increase in peak flood levels and flood frequency that would result without mitigation is considered unacceptable."

The team of engineers, commissioned by local housing rights group Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), conducted hydraulic modelling of the
Boeung Kak area, concluding that the rain runoff from the proposed development would overwhelm the current poor drainage infrastructure in Russey Keo district to the north.

"The areas of greatest impact are immediately to the north of the Boeung Kak area on both the east and west sides of the railway embankment, and approximately 1.5 kilometres to the north," the report said, adding that significant increases could also stretch as far afield as the proposed Camko City development in Russey Keo.

‘Vague' assessments

The drainage assessment report claims the August 2008 Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) completed by project developer Shukaku Inc "did not appear to be based on sound engineering", and that it included only "vague" plans for the construction of a 20-square-metre canal to mitigate the increased runoff.

It also states that City Hall's 2020 Phnom Penh Master Plan had not conducted the detailed hydraulic modelling needed to predict the drainage impacts of the city's expansion.

STT adviser Hallam Goad said the results were unsurprising to anyone who witnessed the chronic flooding in Russey Keo during last year's wet season.

"This report confirms what many have suspected - that the development at Boeung Kak is being undertaken without full regard to the environmental impacts," he said in a statement Wednesday.

Lao Meng Khin, the president of Shukaku Inc, could no be reached for comment Wednesday, but Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun rejected criticisms that the municipality's approach to the issue was insufficient.

He described the ESIA as an "inter-ministry" effort, which included input from the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, among others.

"The Boeung Kak development plan will not have any impacts such as flooding," he told the Post Wednesday.

But Be Pharom, 56, a representative from Boeung Kak's Village 22, agreed with the study, saying that more and more villagers were losing their homes as the lake's reclamation continued to drive up water levels.

"The study is right. Other observers have also said that pumping sand to fill in the lake has created floods," she said.

"And during the rainy season, it not only floods around the lake, but also in other areas such as Phnom Penh Thmey, Russey Keo [and] Tuol Sangke."

Goad said he hoped the conclusions of the report - technically more detailed than anything released by the municipality - would force decision-makers to take action to mitigate the effects of flooding resulting from the Boeung Kak project.

"My impression is that the municipality is just not open for business when it comes to Boeung Kak," he said by phone.

"But if the report creates some discussion, they might have to do something about it."

Cambodia For Sale - SBS Australia Video

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Video Journalist David O'Shea reports from Cambodia, where locals are now faced with a new peril - rampant land developers literally smashing entire communities, leaving thousands homeless.

Massive relocation displaces Phnom Penh's poor

Monday, March 02, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

As the price of land has soared in Cambodia in recent years, tens of thousands of urban and rural poor have been evicted from their land and their homes.

Human rights groups and civil society say that - despite the passing of a Land Law in 2001 - the situation continues to worsen as the powerful indulge in a scramble for land at the expense of the poor.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: "Channy", Village Six evictee; Kek Galabru, founder of human rights group Licadho; Peter Jipp, land special with the World Bank in Phnom Penh

CARMICHAEL: Phnom Penh has changed markedly over the past decade. Where there were once large slums providing homes and work for tens of thousands of people in central locations, there are now tracts of fenced off, empty land, or freshly-painted modern buildings. It's all part of what the municipality calls its 'beautification' programme - but it has come at a price, often paid by the poorest. I am standing at Village Six in the north of Phnom Penh. It's part of the latest threatened area - a low to middle-income suburb surrounding the city's Boeung Kak Lake. Last year, in a multi-million dollar land deal that local human rights groups say was crafted illegally, a powerful politician was granted the right to fill in the lake and develop the land on and around it.

The Boeung Kak lake development will see 30,000 people evicted in the coming months in what will be one of South-East Asia's largest land evictions in decades. Some families have lived in the area since the Khmer Rouge were driven out of power in 1979. One of the residents faced with eviction is Channy. She is using a false name for fear of retribution. Channy moved here in 1990 and has raised a family in her home - a respectable two-storey building, tiled and well maintained. She says the municipality and the company haven't bothered to come and discuss the development with residents. Instead, they heard about it through the media.

She is angry that the compensation offered is so meagre - around eight thousand US dollars per house, no matter what its real value. Channy says that residents aren't being greedy - they simply want a fair deal.

CHANNY: What we can accept is this: We have to get the price that our houses are worth on the open market. The government and the company have to do this exchange for a reasonable price so we can buy another house in the city, not twenty kilometres outside the city in the countryside.

CARMICHAEL: Amnesty International says at least 150,000 people are at risk of eviction in Cambodia - that's one per cent of the population. Dr Kek Galabru is the founder of human rights group Licadho. She says the Boeung Kak Lake case is the latest in a long line of land grabs and evictions that generally target the poor and powerless.

She says the problem is getting worse.

GALABRU: I don't think this is better - we don't see the sign. Because we see the number of the victims that come to us, come from the province, everywhere.

CARMICHAEL: The World Bank is involved in a program to issue land title documents. The Bank's land specialist, Peter Jipp, says almost one million land title documents have already been distributed to people across the country. The target is to issue 1.5 million land titles before the program closes at the end of this year.

JIPP: This is really the first time since the Khmer Rouge that formal titles are being issued. And there have already been almost a million titles that have been issued to land owners in Cambodia under the program. I would have to say that this is a very significant step for Cambodians to have formal title. This is a long process and with almost a million titles having been issued, there still are another 11 million parcels out there that need to be titled, so there is still a long way to go.

CARMICHAEL: But while legal title may be important, the courts that were specially created to hear land disputes are widely seen to have failed. Licadho's Dr Kek Galabru.

GALABRU: It didn't work because most of the people who are in the conflicts - you know, the ones that want to grab the land of the poor - they have power. And in Cambodia if you have power and you have money, you always win.

CARMICHAEL: For its part the government denies accusations that it is working against its own poverty alleviation strategy. Information Minister Khieu Kanharith acknowledges there have been high-profile cases where things have gone wrong, but maintains that the situation is not as bad as is sometimes painted. That is cold comfort to Channy and her neighbours at Village Six - they stand little chance of resisting eviction in the coming months.

The only certainty is that Channy and her family will soon be forced to leave their home, which will then be demolished to make way for offices and expensive houses. At that point she will become just the latest in a long line of powerless Cambodians who have been evicted in the country's unending scramble for land.

Economic Success Comes At A Price In Cambodia

Chum Savoeun lives in a squatters shack in Anlong Kro Ngyan, outside the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. She is among the tens of thousands of poor residents forced out of the city by urban development. (Michael Sullivan/NPR)
In Phnom Penh's center, Boeng Kak Lake is being filled in to create a commercial and residential complex. Some boys use the site as a temporary soccer field near the Canadia Bank Tower, the city's tallest building. (Michael Sullivan/NPR)
A boy sits atop pipes that will be used to pump sand into the lake. (Michael Sullivan/NPR)

February 22, 2009
By Michael Sullivan
National Public Radio (USA)

Click here to listen to the audio program in English

All Things Considered, February 21, 2009 · The tiny Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia is trying to put its grim, war-torn past behind it and — economically, at least — it's succeeding so far.

The economy grew at a record 9 percent in 2007 and would have done almost as well last year had the global financial slowdown not hit.

That growth has brought big changes to the capital, Phnom Penh.

Two years ago, there were just two cell-phone providers; now there are six. And the streets of the capital are now surprisingly clean, after the city hired a Canadian firm to keep them that way. There's a fresh coat of paint on Wat Phnom, in the heart of the city. And the steep stairs to the pagoda at the top have been repaired, too.

Most of the vendors and beggars have been removed from the park below Wat Phnom, but people can still buy a songbird to take up the stairs to release, for luck, if they make it to the top.

Across the street from Wat Phnom, there's a new playground that would look at home anywhere in the United States.

And while there's no Starbucks — not yet anyway — the Kentucky colonel has continued his march across Southeast Asia. Cambodia is the latest domino to fall; a gleaming new KFC has landed on Monivong Boulevard, just around the corner from the art deco central market. The market, too, is getting a makeover.

Phnom Penh has its first serious skyscraper, too: the 27-story Canadia Bank Tower. Workers are scrambling to finish the health club and restaurant on the 25th floor in time for a scheduled May opening.

"Every day," says architect and project manager Chea Vuthy, "we come to work and have the cleanest air. And nicest view in the city."

Below, the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers spread out to the east and the iconic Boeng Kak Lake to the west.

Chea Vuthy says it's a good thing for the city to have skyscrapers like this one, to help illustrate the pace of Cambodia's development. Ground has been broken on two more buildings that will be even taller.

But all this development comes at a price. Boeng Kak Lake, for example, is being filled in with sand to make way for a new, high-end commercial complex.

Be Pharon belongs to one of 4,000 families being evicted from their homes on the lake to allow for this new development. She says the $8,000 developers are offering for her one-room house won't even begin to pay for something comparable elsewhere in the city, where residential property can go for as much as $3,000 a square meter.

"Nobody wants to leave here," she says. "It's close to the school and the hospital. And if we accept the developer's offer and move, we'll have to go far away — farther from work, farther from school, farther from everything."

Choung Choug Ngy is the lawyer for the families being forced out. In Phnom Penh, he says, development is a synonym for eviction. He says the project planned doesn't benefit anyone but the investors.

He says he'll keep fighting until the families get a better settlement. But that's a risky proposition in a country where the rule of law often takes a back seat to the desires of those with power.

"Basically, the mindset is, they want to move these people out and they're going to do it any way they can do it — and if people don't accept the packages, they could find themselves with nothing," says Sara Colm, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Phnom Penh.

She says tens of thousands of urban poor have been forced out of town in the past five years, and that makes life very difficult for them.

Anlong Kro Ngyan is one of those faraway places outside the city limits. It's a place where there's no electricity and no running water.

But it's a place Chum Savoeun calls home. She and her neighbors were among the first batch of squatters forced from the city center a few years back after a suspicious fire gutted their homes. Bulldozers moved in a few days later to clear the land for development.

Chum Savoeun and her neighbors were brought to Anlong Kro Ngyan and given small plots of land to build on.

"Things quickly turned bad," she says, after her husband got sick with HIV. She was forced to sell their small plot to pay his hospital bill. He died not long ago, and now she finds herself a squatter among former squatters – and HIV positive herself, with three small children to feed. She supports the family by picking morning glory — a kind of water spinach — from a nearby lake and selling it to her neighbors, for about a dollar a day.

Chum Savoeun's biggest fear, she says, is getting kicked out again and forced to move even farther out — as the city continues to expand. Things will be much harder then, she says, but there's nothing she can do but wait.

The poor pay for a property boom

Be it ever so humble (Photo: Reuters)

Jan 29th 2009
PHNOM PENH
The Economist

THE fading colonial charm of the French-built Renakse Hotel in Phnom Penh has faded for good. The last guests have been pushed out and the windows boarded up. A property boom in the Cambodian capital has brought a whirl of demolition of old buildings, plans for new high-rise developments, and speculative investment in satellite towns.

The victims of this have been Phnom Penh’s poor. Last week police and private security guards roughly evicted 120 families from Dey Krahorm, a slum in the centre of the city, on the orders of Phnom Penh’s governor. The firm developing the area, 7NG, is linked to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, the CPP, led by Hun Sen, the prime minister. The company plans to turn the site into an upmarket retail park. Nearby, a famous park area known as the Boeung Kak lake is also to be developed, bringing the eviction of 4,500 residents. Many had been living around the lake for 20 years. They have been offered only paltry compensation, and have been relocated to the city’s outskirts with no amenities or obvious way of making a living.

The controversial plans involve filling in 90% of the lake. The CPP has ditched past commitments to conservation and environmental protection, as the boom has driven prime-land prices in Phnom Penh up tenfold in two years, to $5,000 per square metre. The municipal government has granted a 99-year lease on 133 hectares (330 acres) of the Boeung Kak site to a CPP senator, Lao Meng Khin, who is also a director of a company called Shukaku, for a mere $79m—a fraction of its estimated true market value. In April 2008 Mr Khin signed a deal with a Chinese company to turn the lake area into a posh residential and recreation development, to be dubbed the “New City of the East”. A Korean company is building a similar city, known as CamKo, on Phnom Penh’s outskirts.

Critics say the Boeung Kak deal is illegal. Cambodia’s 2001 land law declares all lakes public property that cannot be leased for more than 15 years. The authorities say the deal was legalised by a 2008 decree from Mr Hun Sen’s cabinet, reclassifying “state-public land” as “state-private land”.

Mok Mareth, the environment minister, initially raised concerns that filling in the lake would do serious damage to Phnom Penh’s drainage system. This, he argued, would violate a 1996 law ordaining that Cambodia’s natural resources should be conserved, developed, managed and used in a rational and sustainable manner.

Indeed, since August 2008 when developers started filling the lake in, some houses have already started sinking. An independent report released earlier this month by an Australian assessment team gave a strong warning against the project. It concluded it would lead to an increase in flooding, and would endanger water quality and public health.

Two decades ago, children paddled boats on the lake, families enjoyed picnics, and Mr Hun Sen used to entertain foreign visitors at a modest but picturesque bamboo restaurant. But today, as the bulldozers are poised to raze old Phnom Penh and plug its favourite lake, the urban poor are starting to feel nostalgic for a time when a park really was a park and not a so-called “state-private development zone”.