Lim Kean Hor: Riverbank collapse was not due to sand dredging

Thursday, April 3, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Click here to see John Vink's photo of sand dredging
250m downstream of the collapsed riverbank...
---Thanks John!---

On Wednesday, Lim Kean Hor, the minister of water resources and meteorology, said that the riverbank collapse at the Samaky village, Russei Keo commune, in the afternoon of Tuesday was due to the construction of houses on top of trash, and that it was not due to commercial sand dredging. Lim Kean Hor told reporters that the riverbank collapse which took down several houses into the river was due to housing constructions that do not follow the technical standard, i.e. these houses were built on lands which contain trash underneath and sand was dumped on top of it to expand the area for housing constructions. Ground instability, along with the heavy weight of rice and merchandises stocked in these houses, caused the riverbank slide and brought down the houses into the river. He said that this was not due commercial sand dredging along the river bottom. Earlier, the villagers suspect the riverbank collapse was due to sand dredging just like previous other riverbank collapses. However, the authority and experts rejected the villagers’ suspicion.