As lake disappears, a development dilemma

30 June 2014
The Cambodia Daily
Concessions / Development policy and administration / Environment and natural resources / Floods / Government / Human rights / Infrastructure / Land / Land tenure and land titling / Phnom Penh / Provincial and local governments / Public land lease / Rivers and lakes / Social development / Urban administration and development / Water and sanitation / Water resources
Boeng Kak / Boeng Pong Peay / Boeng Reak Reay / Boeng Snor / Boeng Tompun / Boeng Trabek / Drainage and Sewer Improvement Project / European Commission’s International Scientific Cooperation / Japanese International Cooperation Agency / JICA / Long Dimanche / Phnom Penh City Hall / Togo Uchida

Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom hopes, he and his neighbors in Boeng Tompun commune will have exchanged their property for suitable compensation packages. ... In 2009, Phnom Penh City Hall granted approval for private companies to develop Boeng Tompun lake into a high-end residential development. Since then, construction crews have been burying the 2,600-hectare lake in sand. ... But apart from being home to a few hundred people, Boeng Tompun has another, more crucial role to Phnom Penh. It helps treat much of Phnom Penh’s wastewater and is crucial to efforts to control flooding. Phnom Penh doesn’t have a wastewater treatment center, and relies instead on the natural flow of water through dense vegetation in a series of wetlands to filter the dirty water. ... One solution proposed by City Hall has been to hold on to 500 hectares out of Boeng Tompun’s total area for the purpose of sewage treatment, according to City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche. ... City Hall acknowledges the need for a sewage solution as well, but Mr. Dimanche says that building a treatment plant is not within the city’s budget. ... City Hall has “no plans to give land titles to the people of Boeng Tompun because they live on state land,” according to Mr. Dimanche, the municipal spokesman. Some Boeng Tompun villagers worry that they will become the next Boeng Kak lake community, where more than 3,000 families were subjected to forced evictions and continue to fight for better compensation packages. ...

 Cameron Rhoads and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma-62718/