A Latin American charity has sent $20,000 to help buy land for 297 families made homeless by the March 12 fire at the Block Tanpa rooftop squatter village near Phsar Thmei.
The money, sent by the nonprofit Selavip organization to Peter Swan of UN-Habitat, was handed over Wednesday to municipal officials, who will use it to help pay for a 5-hectare site near Pochentong Airport called Kraing Ang Kaung.
The land is 11 km from Phnom Penh and close to settled areas and electric and water grids, making it preferable to another plot of land 18 km from Phnom Penh that was proposed earlier for the squatters. People will start digging temporary wells at the site next week, Swan said, adding that the land could be hooked up to electric and water services by the end of the year.
Swan and Phnom Penh officials are meeting this week with visiting mayors from the Philippines to discuss urban management issues. On Friday the group will visit a resettlement area populated by former city squatters who lost their homes in a fire last year.
