The floating communities in Phnom Penh have been allowed three more years on the water, but the majority ethnically Vietnamese families say they have few options on Cambodian land.
Both Nhung, 61, and Sok, 46, have lived their whole lives in Cambodia except to escape Khmer Rouge purges against ethnic Vietnamese. Now, alongside hundreds, they have been evicted from floating homes here, some told to cross a border blockaded by Vietnamese ships.
If authorities do not see empathy as reason enough to halt the eviction of hundreds of families on Phnom Penh’s rivers, they should do so because it is what’s best for the health of the city, and the health of the country at large, writes Quinn Libson.
Floating fish farms floated 5 km north temporarily, those without fish worked to dismantle their homes, and some moved onto a wooden platform on shore, as the deadline for Phnom Penh floating communities’ evictions passed this weekend.
After City Hall threatened to evict residents living on floating houses with less than two weeks of notice, the families are torn on what to do, some rapidly disassembling their floating houses and others stalling for time ahead of Saturday’s deadline.
In a floating village in Battambang province, children are enlisted to help their families catch fish, with many dropping out of school to support their family’s livelihoods.
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