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Floating villages to be grounded
Friday, 10 March 2017

A government minister has sounded the death knell for Tonle Sap picturesque floating villages after outlining a long-term plan to rehome all those living on the lake.
Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon yesterday told Khmer Times he wants to relocate thousands of families living on the lake to improve their livelihoods.

He could not say when the resettlement will take place, but confirmed he has asked officials from provinces around the lake to look at sites where new housing could be built.
“At the moment we have just asked the provinces to locate suitable places for building homes for the residents,” said Mr. Sakhon.

“But it’s a long-term plan we have to implement. We also have a project to eliminate fishing offenses, but that cannot be achieved if we allow people to live there continuously.”

In addition to the problem of illegal fishing, Mr. Sakhon said officials are concerned about pollution and damage to the lake’s ecosystem.

He insisted the plan would eventually ensure a better standard of living for Tonle Sap residents.
“I have told all provinces along the lake to consider and find appropriate locations for people to live more comfortably,” he said.
“We’re not just making the plan today and expecting the move to happen tomorrow or even next year. We have to put a lot of planning in to relocate them.”

He added that he would encourage people not to set up home on the Tonle Sap lake, since they risk being caught up in crackdowns on fishing offenses.

According to an Interior Ministry report, the government received approximately $100 million to help alleviate poverty for people on the Tonle Sap lake over the past five years.
But Mr. Sakhon said those living on the lake were still just as poor as before...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/36334/ ... -grounded/
Can't imagine where the money went.

Also, wondering what this is really about. Unfortunately it's hard to believe that this floating village resettlement plan has the poor people's interests at heart, or that the Agriculture Minister has suddenly become concerned about the environment. Call me cynical, but there are usually ulterior motives behind resettlement of target populations in Cambodia. Would a majority of the population living on the Tonle Sap lake be ethnically Vietnamese for example ? That's just a guess, as a lot of house-boat dwellers on the rivers are ethnic Vietnamese. Or maybe it's just a part of a plan by the government to have total control over the fishing, along with licensing all fishing boats ? Pay fishing rights to the authorities or get out ? https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/post153 ... ng#p153267

I'm all for cracking down on illegal fishing and tackling the lake pollution, but for some strange reason I suspect the authorities are not telling all.

I'm all for cracking down on illegal fishing and tackling the lake pollution, but for some strange reason I suspect the authorities are not telling all.

I might be a cynic but I totally agree. It is not like the government has ever shown much consideration for the unwashed masses, or the environment.

Mr. Sakhon said officials are concerned about pollution and damage to the lake’s ecosystem.



That makes sense ???? Instead of shitting in the lake, they will be able to shit in toilets on shore and it will go down a drain and flow into the lake with all the other rubbish .

I guess thats what we call progress .

Duncan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 11, 2017 7:15 am Mr. Sakhon said officials are concerned about pollution and damage to the lake’s ecosystem.

That makes sense ???? Instead of shitting in the lake, they will be able to shit in toilets on shore and it will go down a drain and flow into the lake with all the other rubbish .

I guess thats what we call progress .

Toilets are coming:
Safe toilets for Cambodia's floating communities: https://cambodiaexpatsonline.com/post162 ... ap#p162338

Whatever, sure as hell that it's not the sanitary needs of the villagers that motivates the MOA.

A few answers here: The idea of moving the floating villages is being "floated" for the moment. There is no definite plan yet, but it seems to involve turning fishermen into farmers in yet another resettlement of the population who are located in the "wrong" place according to the authorities. This is much like the displacement of communities who impede dam constructions, large scale rubber plantations or new satellite city projects.
Easy for the authorities to blame illegal fishing, like illegal logging, on small village populations who survive on subsistence fishing, farming or logging.

Idea to move floating villages floated at meet
Fri, 10 March 2017
Martin de Bourmont and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

A recent meeting of an inter-ministerial committee on combating illegal fishing in the Tonle Sap Lake included a sweeping, if vague, proposal to move residents of the lake’s floating villages to the mainland.

The March 7 meeting – which brought together representatives from the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Justice, and vice governors from Pursat, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Kampong Chhnang and Kandal provinces – included a report by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Undersecretary of State Sao Vannsereyveuth, who sees moving villagers out of the floating villages and onto the mainland as one solution to overfishing.

“If the Tonle Sap is the biggest lake in Southeast Asia, it has major cultural and socioeconomic importance,” Vannsereyveuth said yesterday. “Sixty percent of the freshwater fish Cambodian people eat comes from the Tonle Sap; this is cultural.”

Now, he continued, “more and more people come to the Tonle Sap for their livelihood and mostly, they fish”, leading to overfishing.

“Day by day there is degradation,” Vannsereyveuth said, adding that with more people on the lake comes pollution, including “oil from machines”, which leaks into the water.

But Vannsereyveuth insisted he “just propose[d] the idea to the committee for the long term”, noting that his ministry would need other government bodies’ support.

According to Nao Thuok, director of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Department, the government should “create jobs to move people out of the lake”. These jobs, he said, can include “planting and processing cassava and sugarcane; those jobs should earn more money than fishing . . . so that people will not fish,” he said.

Thuok said several ministries could cooperate to this end, “like the Ministry of Land [Management], to build social land concessions and the Ministry of Industry to build processing plants . . . [for] crops”.

Still, there is no guarantee this strategy will alter entrenched norms in floating villages, where many residents’ marginalisation based on their ethnicity had effectively forced them onto the water in the first place.

“Most of the families who live in the floating houses are Vietnamese minorities, Cham minorities and some Cambodians,” said Chhou Chandoeun, Kampong Chhnang’s provincial governor.

“They are fishing families, so when they move onto the land, they want to live close to the river and the lake so that it is easy to [go] fishing or raise fish.”
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/i ... oated-meet

The order has been given to begin the resettlement of the inhabitants of the Tonle Sap floating villages next Monday, 1 October 2018.


Kampong Chhnang, Cambodia News: Mr. Sun Sovannareth said, on September 24, 2018, that authorities will begin moving Vietnamese families from one thousand floating houses in Kampong Chhnang on to land on 1 October.
This is the first part of the implementation of the province’s 5-year plan, which will remove all floating houses in Kampong Chhnang’s Chong Tong district, Boribo district, and Koh Thuc commune, Peam Chak, Chakryi District, Seab and Tesach Districts in Kompong Tralach and Kampong Leng District.

The government has cited environmental concerns as the predominant reason for the removal of all the floating communities in these districts.
40 hectares of land has already been granted by the government for provincial authorities to resettle those families who have agreed to move out of the Tonle Sap Lake immediately.

Lets crunch some numbers here .
.
.
1000 floating houses with a average of 4 persons, sitting on 40 ha of land ,,, minus land for roads, police station etc. Each family will have ? sq m of land . Free or rented .

Well after they send 99% back to Vietnam then there are not as many to re house.

Then they lease the lake to China and they build artificial islands in the lake and casinos and bordellos and fence it all off with a big wall and have a mini China with a moat around it.

A government minister has sounded the death knell for Tonle Sap picturesque floating villages after outlining a long-term plan to rehome all those living on the lake.
He insisted the plan would eventually ensure a better standard of living for Tonle Sap residents.
“I have told all provinces along the lake to consider and find appropriate locations for people to live more comfortably,” he said.
“We’re not just making the plan today and expecting the move to happen tomorrow or even next year. We have to put a lot of planning in to relocate them.”

that sucks, will destroy thousands of families, not to mention the tour operator's that run tours (if it includes SR) out there, the boatmen, the restaurants on the lake, etc

Another well planned fuck up where someone will make a killing off of

Heres some pics of Kampong Phluk near the top of the lake in high and low season.
https://phuket.zenfolio.com/p552344657

Tonle Sap Vietnamese ‘reluctant’ to move
Publication date 03 October 2018

While more than 100 ethnic Vietnamese families out of the 300 living in floating houses on the Tonle Sap River in Kampong Chhnang province are willing to be relocated, a small number are holding out.

A Vietnamese national who wished to remain anonymous said the remaining families were hesitant to move as the new location is too far, making it difficult to earn a living and for their children to go to school.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ctant-move