News
Pursat prepares relocation area for residents of Phnom 1500 eco-tourism site
Pursat provincial authorities are preparing a new location of over 150 hectares for people who volunteer to relocate from the Phnom 1500 eco-tourism site and have given 30 days to those who have not yet agreed to abide by the government’s land policy and move. ...
Phak Seangly
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pursat-prepares-relocation-area-for-residents-of-phnom-1500-eco-tourism-site
STT report: forced evictions in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Takeo pushed people into debt crisis
A report by NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut Organization (STT) revealed that people who are forcibly evicted from their homes without proper resettlement are burdened with debt, have low access to food, while children experience disruptive education and are subject to child labor. ...
Phon Sothyroth
https://cambojanews.com/stt-report-forced-evictions-in-phnom-penh-kandal-takeo-pushed-people-into-debt-crisis/
Government orders $500,000 fines, relocation, for company polluting Sangke river
After waste from a Battambang-based industrial company polluted the Sangke river, the Environment Ministry imposed fines of around half a million dollars and order the company to relocate 10 kilometers away in a letter issued Thursday. ...
Sovann Sreypich and Runn Sreydeth
https://cambojanews.com/government-orders-500000-fines-relocation-for-company-polluting-sangke-river/
Government orders $500,000 fines, relocation, for company polluting Sangke river
After waste from a Battambang-based industrial company polluted the Sangke river, the Environment Ministry imposed fines of around half a million dollars and order the company to relocate 10 kilometers away in a letter issued Thursday. ...
Sovann Sreypich and Runn Sreydeth
https://cambojanews.com/government-orders-500000-fines-relocation-for-company-polluting-sangke-river/
Thirty Tuol Kork families request change in plans for relocations
Residents from villages 16 and 17 who have been affected by the railway development project in the capital’s Tuol Kork district met with municipal hall officials to discuss the plans for their relocation to Kandal province or Phnom Penh’s Kambol district. ...
Long Kimmarita
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thirty-tuol-kork-families-request-change-plans-relocations
Some Return After Eviction From Coastal Resort Development
Thousands of people have been evicted from their homes to make way for a Chinese development in Koh Kong province. But some of the families have returned to their land, leaving a relocation site they say was insufficient for their needs. For families like those of ...
Despite Law, Minority Rights Receive Very Few Protections
The government does little to protect the rights and livelihoods of the country’s many ethnic minorities who are under constant threat from rapid development, representatives of indigenous groups said yesterday. “We have polices laws and guidelines to protect indigenous people, but we see that it doesn’t ...
Mekong Communities Tell of Hardship From Hydropower Dams
About 200 people from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia affected by hydropower dam projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to share their experiences of how their lives have been adversely affected since the dams were constructed. Speaking at the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-communities-tell-of-hardship-from-hydropower-dams-28793/
Homeowners petition ADB
The occupants of 90 Phnom Penh households whose homes were partially or completely dismantled to make way for the Railway Rehabilitation Project partly funded by the ADB have demanded the bank offer them fair compensation. In a letter submitted to the Inter-Ministerial Resettlement Committee, the ADB, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165738/National/homeowners-petition-adb.html
Work Begins on Controversial Cambodian Dam
As work begins on Cambodia’s biggest dam, those advocating against its construction have warned that the region’s rush for hydropower will have a disastrous effect on millions of people who rely on the Mekong River to survive. Last month, workers began preparing an area in northeastern ...
http://www.voanews.com/content/work-begins-on-controversial-hydropower-dam/1656035.html
Energy Minister Defends Lower Sesan 2 Project
Energy Minister Suy Sem yesterday defended a draft law on the financing of a massive dam project in Stung Treng province which is slated for debate at the National Assembly on Friday. Environmental groups have called debate of the law premature, as no consultation with local ...
Relocation site has villagers worried
Villagers facing relocation from the site of the planned Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province were told last week that they would be moved 15 kilometres from the river they rely on for fishing, a commune chief said yesterday. Seak Mekong, commune chief in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020661210/National/relocation-site-has-villagers-worried.html
Official says resettlement sites are good for development
Widely different interpretations of the government’s land policy were voiced at a conference on Land Security and Housing Rights on Thursday in Phnom Penh, with civil servants defending mass relocations, while rural evictees spoke of being forced into poverty due to loss of their land. ...
Chinese sign deal on dam, villagers fear flooding
The massive and highly controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam project took a major step forward yesterday with the inking of government power purchase agreements and an investment deal between Royal Group and a Chinese company. But details about the contracts, their implementation or the fate of ...
Rebuilding Cambodia's troubled railways
A project to rebuild Cambodia’s decrepit rail-system appears on track for completion, despite delays and difficulties relocating residents The ABC has been told of the $26 million originally allocated through AusAID, just over $14 million remains, and will go towards finishing tracks and building a bridge ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-10/an-rebuilding-cambodia27s-troubled-rail-system/4305676
With Eviction Looming, Cham Fishing Families Live in Fear
Children played along the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula yesterday, while their parents napped under the shade of their bright yellow and blue boat homes. But members of this Cham fishing community overlooking Phnom Penh’s city space said it was a very different scene on ...
Cham Families On Riverbank Told to Leave
More than 100 Cham fishing families who moor their boat homes on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula have been ordered to relocate, with one official saying the fishing boats were spoiling the beauty of the riverbank and the area around the new hotel. “We already ...
Small concession in eviction fight
Authorities have partially backed down on an order forcing 196 residents in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district to move their homes, but refused to scrap the plan completely when confronted at Chaom Chao commune hall yesterday. Phuong Sopheap, one of about 20 residents that congregated ...
Families stand firm on eviction
A group of families whose homes are in the way of a municipal road-widening project rejected an offer from city hall on Friday to relocate and receive financial compensation, representatives from the community said. Located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Tuol Kork district, community ...
Relocation deals unfair, say families
More than 400 families in Kampong Cham province’s Chup commune had filed a complaint yesterday to local authorities over relocation orders issued last week, villagers said. Hom Hon, 55, a retired rubber plantation worker and former employee of Sopheak Nika Investment Group Company, said that on ...
Evictees mark 3rd anniversary of Dey Krahorm
More than 300 demonstrators yesterday marked the third anniversary of the forced eviction of Phnom Penh’s Dey Krahorm community, one of the city’s most violent land evictions. Five international rights groups also sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen urging the government to stop land ...
Borei Keila villagers set to sue
Women from Borei Keila who escaped Prey Speu social affairs centre last Wednesday made another impassioned plea for housing and compensation at rights group Licadho’s Phnom Penh headquarters on Friday. Armed with copies of a Borei Keila construction agreement from 2004 and in tears, they spoke ...
Eviction clock ticks for families in Preah Vihear
More than 130 families in Preah Vihear province who continue to defy eviction orders will not receive any compensation if they do not leave their homes by Friday, the Choam Ksan district governor has warned. Choam Ksan district governor Sok Hai yesterday said police and military ...
Relocated and living on the edge
Years after their eviction from central Phnom Penh, families continue to trickle back into the city from their relocation sites on the city’s outskirts. They search for cheap rental rooms instead of houses like the ones they were driven out of, in some cases, by ...