New projects and land disputes (4 articles)

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Airport families seek PM’s help

Tue, 28 October 2014

Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Alice Cuddy

Villagers faced with losing their homes to the planned expansion of Phnom Penh International Airport and left in the dark about compensation sought help from Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday.

About 30 Por Sen Chey district villagers, representing hundreds of affected families, gathered near the National Assembly in the morning to file a petition with the premier, calling on him to demand that $2,500 per square metre be awarded to the evictees and that land certificates be given to those who are allowed to stay in their homes.

“We need proper compensation … so that we can use it to buy land and build houses that we can live in with dignity,” said 78-year-old Chhem Seng.

The group was prevented from reaching the doors of the National Assembly by police officials and Daun Penh district security guards, but after more than an hour, a cabinet official received the petition.

In April, houses near the airport began to be marked for demolition and partial destruction to make way for a “buffer zone”, which authorities say is needed to bring the site in line with international standards.

Private company Green Goal was tasked with conducting a census of the area to establish how much compensation should be awarded to those affected.

But villagers yesterday said they had been kept in the dark about its results.

“The company’s silence makes us very concerned about losing our land and houses as other communities have when companies have grabbed their land without awarding any compensation,” said community representative Chhray Nym.

Tem Sareivouth, general manager at Green Goal, told the Post yesterday that the company completed its census last month, but results could not yet be revealed to the villagers.

“We are now doing data entry, and we need to show the government the results first,” he said.

Sareivouth added that in addition to information on compensation, the company was compiling an impact assessment on the expansion.

“We need to have as little impact as possible,” he said.

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Laos dam could threaten dolphin

Tue, 28 October 2014

Phak Seangly

While deaths of the Mekong River's critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin have been decreasing for years, government officials and conservationists warned yesterday that Laos’s controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam could hinder efforts to protect the species.

Phay Somany, an administration official at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Fisheries Department, said the annual average number of deaths of the Mekong dolphin has dropped from 11 to six over the past four years.

“The latest death was caused by old age,” Somany said.

But, he added, in addition to threats including fishing and diseases, the construction of the 260-megawatt dam could put the species in jeopardy.

“We are worrying about effect of the Don Sahong dam construction. It is a new threat facing the dolphins and it is very controversial,” Somany said.

“When the construction takes place, the effect [on the dolphins] occurs when [builders] blow up the rocks. [The dam] will influence fish movement and lead to a loss of habitat through the irregular and unsustainable mud flow,” he added.

Somany’s comments came after around 200 villagers, government officials and activists from WWF gathered in Kratie province yesterday morning to mark International Freshwater Dolphin Day.

Chhit Sam Ath, country director of WWF-Cambodia, said the event was aimed at drawing attention to the dangers facing the Mekong dolphin.

“Dolphins are culturally, economically, and ecologically vital,” Sam Ath said.

Sam Ath said that while only 85 Mekong dolphins are estimated to be left in Kratie and Stung Treng’s parts of Mekong River, he explained that “education, promotion, legal implementation and conservation activities” were working.

So far this year, four dolphins have died, while seven calves have been born, he said.

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Protest in Koh Kong over arrest

Tue, 28 October 2014

Pech Sotheary

About 60 people protested outside Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday after one of their community representatives was questioned then detained over a land dispute with a Ly Yong Phat-owned company.

Phorn Nol, 48, was charged with the theft of materials from the SEZ Company in Kiri Sakor district.

Yong Phat, a tycoon and ruling party senator, owns SEZ, which is locked in dispute with 135 families over land in the area.

Long Lun, a lawyer that rights group Adhoc provided to Nol, said the court had placed his client in pretrial detention to prevent him committing “further” crimes and to pressure witnesses.

He said his client is physically disabled, “so he doesn’t have the ability to pressure anyone or affect the court’s investigation”.

Nol’s fellow community representative Rout Sophal said the incident in question had involved villagers seizing company materials as they tried to erect fences on their land in January.

They will continue protesting today.

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Road project part of ADB loans deal

Tue, 28 October 2014

Taing Vida

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance signed some $99 million in grant and loan agreements for three development projects yesterday.

The loans will partly finance the Rural Roads Improvement Project II, the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Sector Development Program, and the Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project.

The six-year, roads-improvement project, which aims to pave 729 kilometres of rural roads in nine provinces, will receive $66 million in financing.

ADB is also providing a $30 million loan for the TVET program expansion, while $2.5 million will be poured into introducing disaster-management planning support for 54 communes in six Cambodian provinces.

“These initiatives will improve the quality of life for poor and vulnerable people … in the country,” said ADB country director Eric Sidgwick.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national