The Phnom Penh Municipality Wednesday met with poverty activists to settle a three-month dispute over the fate of more than 2,000 squatters relocated to an area outside the city which the UN says is “unsuitable for human settlement.”
The dispute arose in December, when officials from Cooperation Services International urged the government to build a dike to protect a small camp of 436 families who lost their homes when fire swept through their Tonle Bassac community in late November.
Without the dike, the 2,000-plus residents in the new village of Anlong Kong, located southwest of the city near Prey Sar prison, most likely will be submerged under two meters of flood water during the rainy season, a CSI official said.
“The city has ignored all of our proposals and has not responded to three or four requests to build a dike,” said Mickey Sampson, CSI director of water and education development.
“The village is in a flash-flood area, and it may already be too late to construct a dike in time for the rainy season,” Sampson said.
He said his group sent at least four letters to the government during the last three months urging officials to build a dike as well as provide better sanitation and drinkable water to the families. The government did not answer, he said.
The NGO has hired engineers to conduct a feasibility study for the dike project, Sampson said.
The engineers requested some meteorological information from the government, such as annual rainfall in the area. Sampson said there was no reply.
But Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara disputed Sampson’s account. He said the city already has developed two plans to build a dike and will begin construction in 10 days.
“We must protect our people,” Chea Sophara said.
He did concede, however, that it may be too close to the rainy season to build a dike.“I’m still not confident that a dike will prevent the waters from destroying the village,” he added.
During the meeting Wednesday, a report surfaced that Municipal Cabinet Chief Mann Chhoeun had agreed to move the villagers from the site while the city developed it, but it was unclear whether the city will return the squatters after development.
Although construction of the dike is the most pressing issue, the new village has been besieged with problems since former Tonle Bassac residents started moving there in December, Sampson said.
Unlike the Anlong Kngan relocation site, a village 15 km north of Phnom Penh which the city set aside for property owners in the Tonle Bassac neighborhood, Anlong Kong was designated for people who were only renting homes, Sampson said.
While the city has provided the 3,500-plus families at Anlong Kngan with housing material and some supplies, the municipality has ignored the villagers at Anlong Kong, Sampson and Anlong Kong villagers claim.
The city did not build any sanitation facilities or wells at Anlong Kong. CSI finally built six wells and 221 concrete-housed toilets—about one toilet for every 10 families, Sampson said.
UN activists also say the Anlong Kong residents were given no other choice for where to move, even after UN Development Program Resident Representative Dominique McAdams wrote to Chea Sophara that Anlong Kong village is not suitable for human settlement.
Chea Sophara said he placed the former Tonle Bassac residents in Anlong Kong because the land was free.
Tep Vantha lives in Anlong Kong. Sitting on a straw mat outside her stick-and-tarpaulin home, she said the city has not provided anything for the villagers despite requests from the village chief.
“Only Hun Sen gave us anything,” Tep Vantha, 39, said. “He gave us 30 kg of rice and 50,000 riel (about $12.50).”
Even with the six wells and the new toilets, the village still lacks adequate water, electricity and sanitation.
The village, which sits on a flat plain, also lacks a drainage system.
When asked what she will do when the rainy season starts, Tep Vantha replied: “The water will rise to at least two meters. I don’t know what we will do because we just got here, but if it gets bad, we will return to Phnom Penh.”
