Kandal Commune Chief Outraged by Privatization of Lake

A slew of new government decrees has privatized seven public lakes and waterways in Kandal and further carved up Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok. One local commune chief is threatening to resign over the sudden handover of a lake his residents rely on.“This is a state lake. How can it be like this?” said Oum Chhun Sreng, Russei Chroy commune chief in Kandal’s Mok Kampoul district.

“We are lower and we don’t know anything. Why do they make this private? Do they not have a place to develop and so they come to develop on other people’s lakes?” Russei Chroy’s Boeng Chon Len lake is one of seven plots of state land in Kandal — alongside four in Phnom Penh and another in Kratie — that have been privatized in the latest release of governmental sub-decrees.

“If you have any evidence to send to me, I will send it to my people,” Chhun Sreng said. “This is my people’s lake. … How could they take people’s land that they have used since their ancestors? Do they not want water to flow? Who decided to build on this?”

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