The government cut another 295 hectares of Boeng Tamok to private individuals, with some exchanged for city center land, raising the total area sliced from the natural lake to at least 880 hectares.
Twenty-three families have ostensibly received a vacant plot on the edge of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake — but some locals, including the village chief, suggest people have been paid to thumb-print applications to obtain lake land for unknown outsiders.
The businesswoman who received more than 10 hectares of one of Phnom Penh’s “last lakes” Boeng Tamok from the government, raising questions around transparency and accountability, is the daughter of Land Management Minister Chea Sophara.
About 30 people gathered in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh residence on Thursday seeking his help to secure titles for land on Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s “last lakes,” which in recent years has been divvied up for development on reclaimed land.
Justice Ministry officials need more room, so “empty public land” will be used to store court documents by filling in another part of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s “last lakes” that feeds hundreds of families and protects the capital from flooding.
More than 500 hectares, or about 16 percent, of Boeng Tamok, a natural lake in the northwest of Phnom Penh that is key for flood protection, is slated to be filled in and siphoned off to state institutions and private developers, government documents show.
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