The government continued the trend of giving state institutions and private individuals tracts of land on Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake, handing over 70 hectares to state utilities supplier Electricite du Cambodge.
In Brazil’s state of São Paulo, one otherwise ordinary town is known for its extraordinary landfill facility – the largest in the country – which produces renewable energy alongside a stench that has riled citizens and councillors.
Trash bags that were piling up around Arei Ksat have been moved to a temporary location amid publicity, but residents must continue to deal with their own garbage at least until a meeting with local government is held on Friday, the collection company said.
Residents around Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok followed authorities in their boats and protested the filling of the lake, which they said was affecting their fish farm enclosures.
Two residents of Boeng Tamok protesting the filling-in of the lake were questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday, with five others expected in court over the next week.
Among the first real estate offerings on Phnom Penh’s shrinking Boeng Tamok lake are being put up for sale. Marketing materials show only around 5% of the lake remaining as water in the midst of development projects, military and police bases and state buildings.
As mega-developer OCIC completes the filling-in of Phnom Penh’s new island, Koh Norea, nearby Chbar Ampov residents are staring at a mound of sand anxiously unsure if they will be evicted by the development or driven out by real estate speculation.
Between official documents, residents’ accounts and visible evidence of filling, reporters have found five seafilling projects on the Kampot coast — some of them spanning hundreds of hectares. Affected fishers have been told there could be twice as many in all.
A further 20 hectares of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s “last lakes,” is being granted to a private individual, with mapping coordinates appearing to show the plot is on an area that is already being made landfill.
A company with powerful shareholders is creating a new coastline in Ream by pouring an estimated 100 million tons of sand into the Gulf of Thailand. After a year of filling, company and government officials say they’re still in the process of assessing potential environmental and social impacts.
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