truffledog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:30 pm Cambodia is going to need a few new cement plants to cover all the needs of this newly to develop areas. Doubt that a lot of green will be left over.

business-and-finance/new-cement-factory ... 34018.html

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 2:58 pm

truffledog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 04, 2022 11:30 pm Cambodia is going to need a few new cement plants to cover all the needs of this newly to develop areas. Doubt that a lot of green will be left over.

business-and-finance/new-cement-factory ... 34018.html

this one has probably been used to destroy SHV and the new development of Kampot and Kep.

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 5:20 am

truffledog wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:45 am ..and there is no way of stppping that. I still cant believe that Boeung Kak Lake is no more and its been some years since its fillup. PP has definitely changed face since my first arrival.

Now, no crying Boyo's.
'Hard not to, for those of us that lived that first minute or two.



Not only for the memories - but we should also celebrate gratitude too.
It wasn't a bad way to arrive in Cambodia. I reckon we were bloody very lucky to catch this
@4/5 bucks a night.

watched with tears in my eyes...

Long read.
Local Residents Fear Losing It All as Portions of Boeung Ta Mok Lake Become Development Land
According to data released on Feb. 10 by Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT)—an urban land rights NGO in Phnom Penh—a total of 2,018.8 hectares, or roughly 63 percent of the lake, has been granted to public institutions, private companies and powerful individuals.
BY: Teng Yalirozy February 13, 2022 4:10 PM

PHNOM PENH--The Cambodian authorities as of Dec. 2021 have granted for development more than 2,000 of Boeung Ta Mok lake’s 3,239.7 hectares in response to 43 requests from public and private institutions, leaving the future of the lake uncertain.

According to data released on Feb. 10 by Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT)—an urban land rights NGO in Phnom Penh—a total of 2,018.8 hectares, or roughly 63 percent of the lake, has been granted to public institutions, private companies and powerful individuals. The lake had been declared state private property under state jurisdiction through the Sub-Decree No. 20 in 2016.

Seang Muoylay, director of STT’s Housing Rights and Research Project, said that these land grants reflect the injustice and inequality in Cambodian society. The rich and powerful can get 10 or 20 or even nearly 300 hectares of the area, while a community living next to Boeung Ta Mok has been accused of illegally occupying the lake, he said.

“More than 100 families who have been living there since 1996 were accused of illegally living on the lake and were forced to leave,” Muoylay said. “[T]hey [were] not listed in the sub-decree.”

If the government keeps granting portions of the lake for development without assessing the impact on people and the environment, the lake may one day disappear, which will seriously affect many families as well as Phnom Penh, he said.

Boeung Ta Mok is the largest natural lake in Phnom Penh. Located in the northwestern part of the capital along Win-Win Boulevard, it spreads over two districts, six communes and 25 villages.

“If the lake is lost, about 1,000 families who depend on the lake will be affected, losing their jobs and the land they used to occupy,” Muoylay said. “Moreover, Phnom Penh will continue to be flooded, and the reckless development without considering keeping the lake and the green spaces in the city will make the city hotter.”

Seng Loth, a spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management Urban Planning and Construction, could not be reached for comment.

When asked whether the Cambodian government would continue to release portions of the lake for development or preserve the remaining 1,200 or so hectares, Cambodian government spokesperson Phay Siphan referred the reporter to the Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction.

“Previously, the lake was public property, but the lake has become private state property, so it is under the control of the city,” Siphan said. “The Phnom Penh Department of Land Management will surely know about it.”

Sarin Vanna, director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction, said that he did not know about the matter. “The department has never coordinated this,” he said. “[T]he [land] appropriation is [done] from Phnom Penh Municipal Hall. So, the department does not know anything.”

Phnom Penh Municipal Governor Khuong Sreng hung up the phone when asked about Boeung Ta Mok. When called back later on, his phone number became unavailable.

People Living next to the Lake Fear Losing Both Their Homes and Livelihoods
Around the lake, there currently are 300 or so families totalling about 1,000 people with most of them fishing, raising fish, growing lotus flowers, farming or running small businesses, according to the NGO STT data. The houses they live in are not built of durable material, and about 30 percent of them are in fact small sheds. In addition to people, Boeung Ta Mok is home to many bird species.

Prak Sophea, who lives near the lake in Samrong Tbong Village, Prek Pnov District’s Samraong Commune in Phnom Penh said that approximately 50 to 60 percent of the lake is now gone, which has affected 108 houses and 205 families. Moreover, removing portions of the lake has caused fish stock to decline and led to many families losing their income, she said.

“We are upset because we cannot do anything since removing the lake is the authorities’ order,” said Sophea. “I don’t want to see development cause tears for people. It is hopeless to ask the government not to remove the lake.”

Sophea said that the authorities have ordered them to leave, offering as compensation of 4-by-18 meter plots of land located far from their current homes. But the families have refused their offer, she said.

The authorities then refused to issue residence papers for her family as well as the others, saying residence documents would only be issued if people had land titles, which they do not, Sophea said.
Full article: https://cambodianess.com/article/local- ... pment-land

Locals Resist Evictions

Cambodia News (Phnom Penh): 1 July 2022, representatives of 250 families submitted a petition to the Ministry of Land, the Office of the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly, pleading for intervention and the provision of legal land titles, as the authorities continue to reclaim the Boeung Ta Mok Lake.

The people represented claim that they have lived and enjoyed the Ta Mok Lake since the 1990s. Ms. Phorn Sokhom, a representative of the Samrong Tbong community in Prek Pnov district, said that her community had 108 houses, equivalent to 250 families, and most of them were engaged in fish farming at Boeung Ta Mok. However, recently, authorities have begun reclaiming land from the lake in her community, leaving residents worried about losing their jobs and shelter.

The people who gathered today resumed sending petitions to HE, because they have seen the authorities have already filled in lakes in other districts of Phnom Penh.
In a recent interview with the media, Phorn Sokhom said that people in the community wanted the authorities to issue land titles in the area where they live, so that after the reclamation, when the area develops, they will have proof of land ownership.
"We have been living here since 1990 (near Ta Mok Lake) and if we go to another place in a remote area, living and doing business will not be possible. If the Ta Mok Lake is developed, we hope to sell this area, because when the lakes are removed we can’t farm fish, but only trade.

Regarding the land issue of Samrong Tbong community in Boeung Ta Mok area, Mr. Seng Lot, spokesman for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said that all requests or petitions of the people are always accepted, but he has not seen or checked them. He said that in general, there are many procedures to resolve, many documents need to be filed correctly according to the legal process, and the necessary legal documents must be provided.

He explained to the media by telephone: "Any protest that is not legal enough cannot be resolved. "Not all requests for resolution are documented. If a proposal does not have sufficient documentation, it cannot be processed."

Regarding the case of demanding the issuance of land titles by the people of Boeung Ta Mok community, Mr. Am Sam Ath, Deputy Director of LICADHO Monitoring Program, believes that the government should study the possibility of issuing land titles to them. As the civil society official observed, in the past, the state has sequestered land and granted it to many private companies and state institutions. Therefore, the people who live and work there should also deserve fair compensation.

Ta Mok Lake or Boeung Kob Srov is the largest natural lake in Phnom Penh with a total area of 3239.7 hectares. By the end of 2021, the government had ceded the area of Bek Ta Mok to private individuals and public institutions at least 46 times, covering 2,094 hectares, or 65 percent of the total lake area. Around the lake, there are about 300 families. Most of them were engaged in fishing, raising fish, growing lotus, and living from other activities connected to the lake.

The Ta Mok Lake carve-up continues...
July 13, 2022
Six more hectares of Tamouk lake granted to private owners

At least six hectares of land in the Tamouk lake area, also known as Boeng Kob Srov, have been handed over by the government to Seng Youan, Director-General of the General Department of Logistics and Finance of the Ministry of Interior, for personal use and ownership.

Prime Minister HE, through a sub-decree dated February 1, 2022, which Khmer Times received, confirmed that the government sub-divided two more locations at the Tamouk lake development site with a total area of 61,836 square metres in Ponhea Poan commune, Prek Pnov district in Phnom Penh and handed the land over to Seng Youan.
Youan could not be reached for comment yesterday.

According to the report by Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) on February 10, 2022, as of December 2021, more than 2,000 hectares of the Tamouk lake development area has been sub-divided by the government and handed over to companies, institutions and other individuals on 43 occasions.
STT added that about 300 families or about 1,000 people depend on the lake for their livelihoods.

In 2016, the government issued a sub-decree to designate Tamouk lake, north of Phnom Penh, as state public property, covering an area of 3,239 hectares.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501111494/ ... te-owners/

Last words from lake residents, farmers and fishers, on the last days of Phnom Penh's Ta Mok Lake ...
July 18, 2022
The end of Tamouk lake

A truck filling in part of Tamouk lake. KT/Taing Rinith
Residents living around Boeng Tamouk are watching in despair as the lake that allow many to eke out a livelihood slowly but surely disappear as developers rush to fill the body of water to make way for housing, businesses and infrastructure. More than 200 farmers, who fish, and grow lotus flowers and vegetables, face an uncertain future as one of the capital’s oldest, largest and last remaining natural lake vanishes. Khmer Times reporter Chhun Sunly and photographer Yorn Sovieth went to the lake and spoke with residents about developments.
Last words: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501114449/ ... mouk-lake/

And to think back in the 2005 / 2010 time a developer had several new houses demolished for encroaching on the lake without "" permission ""

Fisherfolk evicted from Phnom Penh’s lakes by Cambodia’s crony industrialists
Lakes in Phnom Penh are fast being filled in and parcelled off as prime real estate to wealthy and politically connected individuals.
By Gerald Flynn, Vutha Srey, Thomson Reuters Foundation
9 minute read
Oct. 12, 2022

On the edges of Boeung Tamok, Phnom Penh’s largest lake, 25-year-old Kong Khun sheltered from the late June heat in a bamboo hut. Despite clear skies, Khun wasn’t out on the water fishing with his family. There is little point, he said.

An almost endless convoy of trucks carrying sand, rocks and soil paraded around what remains of the lake as part of a land reclamation project that Khun said has decimated the fish population and his income.

“The lakes around this city are almost gone,” Khun said. “This is the last great lake of Phnom Penh, and when it goes, the city will be flooded up to the waist and poor people will have to work in construction or factories, that’s all that’ll be left.”

Long a source of fish and aquaculture, along with providing natural flood defences and wastewater treatment, lakes across Cambodia’s capital are being filled in by powerful tycoons and government agencies.

Khun is one of the few people still remaining in Boeung Tamok, where the government has been evicting the roughly 300 families living off the lake to make way for commercial developments.

These families have relied on the lake for fish and aquaculture farming for generations, but urban land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) warned in April 2021 that as many as 25 of those families were at high risk of eviction now, while a further 204 were at risk of future eviction.

The lake spanned more than 3,239 hectares (8,004 acres) when it was officially demarcated in 2016. But in the past four years its area has been revised at least 55 times, with more than 2,136 hectares (5,278 acres) of its surface already sold to private owners or gifted to more than 12 government institutions, according to STT.

In June and July, hundreds of Boeung Tamok families delivered petitions to government institutions in a bid to save their homes. Sixteen protesters, mostly women, were subsequently summoned to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges of incitement. Seven of the 16 accepted their invitation to court and hearings were held in August, but court officials refused to detail the outcomes when contacted in September.

This lake stores rainwater and protects against floods in the city, it can feed hundreds of families and allow thousands to make a living, but they want to take all of this away.

In the south of Phnom Penh, a similar fear has taken hold among residents living around Boeung Tompoun and the adjoining Cheung Ek wetlands, which look set to share Boeung Tamok’s fate.

In 2008, the government decreed only 520 hectares (1,285 acres) of the lake and wetlands’ 2,500 hectares (6,180 acres) be kept as state-public land. The surface area has since been revised to around 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres).
Of that 1,500 hectares, only 107 hectares (264 acres) will be untouched by development, according to 2020 estimates, while more recent data from STT suggest that only 156 hectares (385 acres) of the 1,500 have not yet been privatised or signed away.

More here: https://www.eco-business.com/news/fishe ... trialists/