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Article

27 Jul 2020

Author:
Christopher Knaus, The Guardian

Cambodia: NGOs' joint report shows that one million Cambodians are under threat from private developments of wetlands

"One million Cambodians under threat from development of vital wetlands – report", 27 July 2020

The destruction of critically-important wetlands by politically-connected developers in Cambodia threatens to flood more than one million Phnom Penh residents, ruin the city’s wastewater system, force hundreds of families from their homes, and trigger environmental devastation, a new report has warned…

But a new report says that in 2004 developers, acting with government backing, began to gradually destroy the 1,500-hectare wetlands, filling them with sand dredged from the Mekong and Bassac rivers to prepare for the construction of a vast 2,500 hectare satellite city, dubbed “ING City”, the largest development in Cambodia.

The damning report released … warns the development associated with ING City and other projects will destroy 90% of the wetlands, causing untold environmental damage and the potential eviction of hundreds of families.

… “It will not just cause problems for the environment and flooding, but also the livelihood of the people who are living around the lake,” Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, told ...

A … analysis of corporate records and government documents reveals that some land at Boeung Cheung Ek was leased to people connected to Hun Sen and his government.

One sub-decree gave 37 hectares of land at Boeung Cheung Ek to a company named Orkide Villa Co Ltd, which lists Hun Mana, one of Hun Sen’s daughters, as a director and chair. 

Sophal Ear, an associate professor at Los Angeles’ Occidental College, said the wetlands were “nature’s way of protecting Phnom Penh”…

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