More than 50 families scheduled to be relocated by the city demonstrated in Chamkar Mon district Monday, saying the relocation site is not suitable.
The families, currently living along Road 199 in Tumnop Tuk commune, say they will not move unless the city builds a sewage drainage system there and raises the land to avert flooding, Kim Sokvanna, the Sam Rainsy Party commune chief, said Monday.
“The water would be up to their knees right now,” Kim Sokvanna said, referring to the land in Prey Sar commune, Dangkao district, where the city wants to move the families, because it is widening Road 199.
Kim Sokvanna said the families refuse to move until November, when the drainage system has been completed and the land raised. The families have been ordered to move by Sunday.
Chamkar Mon district Deputy Governor Kuch Chamroeun said the families had promised to move to the Prey Sar relocation site during a meeting with the city on Aug 29, and that the families were given three sites to choose from. All of the families chose the Prey Sar site, he said.
Kuch Chamroeun accused Kim Sokvanna of convincing the families not to move, delaying the relocation even though some said they wanted to relocate.
“I want to move [the families] to the site early because I want the families to start developing their communities,” Kuch Chamroeun said, adding that he has not received any complaints.
One resident, Sok Chamroeun, 34, said he recently examined the Prey Sar site and was dismayed by what he found. The site was flooded, there was no toilets and the area lacked adequate drainage. “This order to move is not a move toward development, it is an eviction order,” he said.
Thach Sopan, 42, who paid $5,000 for her house before the relocation order, said the city must improve the site.
“If I move now, it will seem like they are leading me to a death place,” she said.
