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THE PHNOM PENH SURVEY: A Study on Urban Poor Settlement in Phnom Penh

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This report aims to add to the body of research and information on urban poor settlements in Phnom Penh. There have been several major studies that have been conducted on the urban poor and their dwellings in Phnom Penh’s inner and outer Khans. Using various methods, these studies have collected data on urban poor settlements and families, information on evictions and threat of eviction, land titling, and land categorization as well as general socio-economic conditions.

The number of Urban Poor Settlements has been decreasing from 410 in 2009 to 340 in 2014 and 277 in this 2018. Settlements have decreased for a variety of reasons, including development and eviction to elsewhere, and Phnom Penh’s current 277 urban poor settlements still face many challenges especially as the majority of them don’t have land titles, documentation for land titles, or access to land rights information. Further, nearly half of all urban poor settlements are located on or near canals, lakes, or rivers, which are state public land and can not be privately owned. Thus, many communities are susceptible to eviction and live with tenure insecurity as a daily fear.

You can download full report as PDF files here: Khmer | English

Contact for more information:
Mr. Soeung Saran, Executive Director of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT)
Email: director@teangtnaut.org
Tel: 089 666 013
Mr. Isaac Daniels, Program Adviser of Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT)
E-mail: advisor@teangtnaut.org

Thousands march on World Habitat Day, authorities accept petition

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5 October 2015

On World Habitat Day 2015, authorities accepted a petition from hundreds of protestors who marched to demand housing rights and an end to forced evictions in Cambodia.

On the morning of 5 October, community members, monks, children, tuk-tuk drivers and civil society organizations gathered at Dey Krahorm – a former eviction site – to march to the National Assembly. The crowd wore black tshirts and hats made from palm leaves, a traditional housing material in Cambodia. Representatives of more than 150 urban and rural communities and civil society organisations were invited to take part.

Outside the National Assembly, community members delivered speeches and monks offered a blessing asking for an end to forced eviction. Helium balloons were attached to model houses and released to highlight the importance of housing as a human right. Children displayed their own model ideal houses amidst banners and songs.

Police blockades prevented protestors from continuing their march to the ministry buildings. Instead, officials from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Land Management and Municipality of Phnom Penh came to the protestors and accepted the petitions in front of the National Assembly. Representatives of the National Assembly came out to accept the petition. Authorities from Chamcarmon district district also accepted a model house.

The march participants included many people personally affected by forced evictions. As one participant expressed, “I am here to demand housing rights. I was evicted and now don’t have a house, this right to has been denied for me.”

Others shared what the event meant to them.
“I am happy to be here to affirm our human right to housing”.
“I want to request of companies developing land: don’t abuse the rights of the people.”
“I want to ask the government: do not evict people and send them to a far away place.”

STT’s Executive Director, Mr Ee Sarom, spoke to media about the right to adequate housing and forced evictions in Cambodia. “People here are those who affected by land and housing right issues. They were forcibly evicted from their land and housing,” he said. “They have come here to show the government about their problems and seek a solution.”

The march commemorated the 30th anniversary of World Habitat Day, first designated in 1985. As one participant expressed: “I feel encouraged to be here, because today is an international day. It is not just about Cambodian communities abused by the Government, we celebrate with people all over the world.”

Urban Poor Community Alternative Design Intervention Workshop

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On 25th- 26th July and 02nd August 2015, Sahmakum Teang Tnuat (STT) has been organizing student workshop on “Urban Poor Community Alternative Design Intervention” . The workshop has being participated by groups of architectural and engineering students from public and private universities in Phnom Penh cooperated with Aphiwat Thmey and Svay Chek Thmey community to identify community problems in order to prepare alternative plan and present the plan to residents.

New Year, Same Issues

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Nick Jones (February 5th, 2015)

Last month, Surya Subedi ended his six-year mandate as the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia. During his final news conference, he stressed that Prime Minister Hun Sen must make a more concerted effort to make government institutions—such as the judicial courts—more independent. “Many of the state institutions responsible for upholding people’s rights are unfortunately still lacking accountability and transparency needed to command the trust and confidence of the people”. However, he has seen progress in regard to the growing public demand for their rights. “People have woken up… and they are ready to fight for their rights…so far, the courts of Cambodia have not delivered justice in the way demanded by all Cambodians” (Reuters, Jan 23rd).

Human Rights Watch (HRW), recently released its annual World Report. They found that “2014 was one of Cambodia’s worst years in recent history in terms of human rights violations, citing ‘killings by security forces, arrests of activists and opposition politicians, summary trials and crackdowns on peaceful protest’” (Phnom Penh Post, Jan 30th).

In November of last year, 19 land rights activists were controversially arrested and sentenced to prison by a court the following day. These activists (including residents of the Boeung Kak, Thmor Kol, and Toul Kork communities; monks; and CNRP members) recently had their appeal denied by a court whose proceedings were notable for their lack of due process.

Skip forward to this year, on February 4th, the Phnom Penh Post reported that the authorities in Battambang town have notified 600 families living in Prek Preah Sdech commune that they need to relocate to make way for the construction of a large public garden. The villagers’ have been told that they live there illegally and are expect to leave as soon as possible. Some families have lived there for over 20 years and have very little hope of receiving adequate compensation to relocate.

On the same day, “more than 100 families in Rattanakkiri’s O’Chum district are demanding a solution after a Chinese company allegedly bulldozed their land and [about 300] nearby family graves to create a rubber plantation” (Phnom Penh Post, Feb 4th). The clearing began on Sunday, February 1st, and only stopped when villagers protested in front of the vehicles. A representative of the company stated that they had already received permission from the government to clear the land. He even made the extraordinary claim that “[the villagers] want to grab the state [land] and control it privately”.

Despite clear warnings from the UN envoy for Cambodia and unflattering reports from internationally recognized organizations, the government remains indifferent to the basic human rights of the people it is supposed to protect. In Cambodia, ‘strong government’ is not synonymous with ‘good governance’. Expect a similarly scathing evaluation in next year’s report from Human Rights Watch.

STT Rental Housing Survey

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Local urban NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) has released its latest report, ‘The Phnom Penh Rental  Housing Survey’, which investigates the situation of urban poor renters in the country’s capital.  Read More

World Habitat Day March

1 min read

On October 6th, more than 1,500 people—community members, monks, students, tuk-tuk drivers, CSOs, and other civilians—gathered near the former Dey Krahorm neighborhood for the World Habitat Day March. At 10am, the procession headed for the National Assembly to deliver a petition calling for the government to stop land and housing evictions and properly compensate those who have already been evicted. At 12:30pm the demonstration moved on to deliver the second petition in front of Wat Botum. At 2:30pm, a meeting was held at the CLEC office to reflect on the event.

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Flooding in Phnom Penh City

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Flooding is a common occurrence during the rainy season in Cambodia—Phnom Penh City is no different. But why is a major city with so much urban infrastructure still flood?

Phnom Penh is seeing rapid population growth. In last 10 years, the biggest reason for the increasing population is the migration of people from rural areas who come to Phnom Penh in search of economic and education opportunities. In 2012, there were over 2,300,000 people living in the city.

The lack of a master plan is a serious factor that has led to flooding in the city. For instance, there are no required flood mitigation regulations for individual buildings in the city. While in the surrounding provinces, buildings are being built in response to the flood—raised, floating, and stilted homes—such constructions have nearly disappeared in Phnom Penh. As the city develops, many residents are left vulnerable without a master plan. About ten percent of Phnom Penh’s population have been displaced in the past twenty years. The drainage systems have to be changed frequently in order to cope with the flooding water caused by the poor urban planning.

Furthermore, filling the lakes around the city is a major cause of flooding. Lakes, such as Boeung Kak, are being filled with sand to create land for big development firms. This process raises controversial human rights and environmental concerns. For example, Boeung Kak Lake has been granted to Shukaku Incorporated Company for development, which covers nearly 90 hectares. The company has filled the lake completely, which blocked the waterways.

Compounding the issues of flooding is the lack of park space or open spaces to absorb rainy season waters. The inner Khans are home to a series of formal parks and gardens but they are often hardscape, formally planted and home to decorative, rather than functional water features.

We observed that, although flooding in the city is rarely a direct cause of death, it often damages people’s businesses, which they depend on to make a living. Some cannot work for an entire day when there is heavy rain. In addition, some people’s houses get flooded while some students miss their classes because it is impossible to drive to school.

City Hall has said they are prepared to help residents with this issue. They have installed equipment to pump the water out of the city. In addition, they have ordered authorities in each district to clean the drainage systems in their local areas.

However, authorities tend to use poor quality materials when building drainage systems. This combined with filling the lakes, and the lack of green parks has only aggravated the situation.

We would like to see the Royal Government of Cambodia to discuss this problem with all relevant agencies to find the proper solution to the intolerable levels of flooding in Phnom Penh.

Reference:

Shelby Doyle (2012), Phnom Penh City of Water, Phnom Penh (Sahmakum Teang Tnaut)

http://www.postkhmer.com/

https://urbanvoicecambodia.net/ 

1st Community Exchange Visit

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Community Project Team of STT conducted his first community exchange visit in 3 communities, such as Anlong Korng Thmey, Chey Chomnas and Samaki 4, on February 22nd, 2014.

The objectives of the exchange visit were to strengthen relationships and networks between relocation site communities and to encourage learning across relocated households. At the outset, we met together at STT’s Office, to remind participants to knowing, preparing and focusing on the topics of exchange visit which we will bring to discuss at the fields.

Following are the four key activities during the visit:

  • All participants met the 3 chiefs of community we visited.
  • The each community’s chief has presented about their community background such as forming of community, successes and challenges, employments and household income, land registration, infrastructure and future plan of each community so on.
  • Participants and STT’s staffs had asked many questions to those community chiefs related to the topics of the exchange visit.
  • Participants walked around community sites in order to see what the real situation going is on and they also spoke more with community representatives while they were walking.

Here are some feature achievements or lesson learnt from the exchange visit:

–          STT’s staff presented on the 7 components of the rights to adequate housing stating in UN-OHCHR’s Fact Sheet number 21.

–          Participants knew new communities and gained new experiences after sharing from community reps such as how to advocate to demanding land titling and public services from authority/government.

–          Community participants saw what the real situation of the sites visit going on are in those communities we visited such as infrastructure, living standards etc.

–          Participants knew what successes and challenges of those communities such as community’s improvement, employment opportunity, household income and community’s future plan etc.

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Release of ‘The Phnom Penh Survey: A study on urban poor settlements in Phnom Penh’

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Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) has released its newest report, The Phnom Penh Survey, to update and add new data to previous research on urban poor settlements in the city, produce current, accurate maps of all of the settlement locations and provide findings that will help lead to positive outcomes for the urban poor.  The report develops findings on various issues pertinent to urban poor settlements including issues related to tenure security; eviction threats, land tenure and titling and the implementation of Circular 03. It also looks at infrastructure and service provision finding a limited drainage systems, trash collection and access to reasonably priced utilities. It shows a divide exists between inner and outer Khan settlements, with those in the outer Khans falling behind in many of the infrastructure and service categories that the survey explored. It concludes with recommendations for key stakeholders including the Municipality of Phnom Penh (MPP), the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction (MLMUPC) and development partners.

Download report in PDF: STT _201402_Phnom Penh Survey

Contact:

Ee Sarom (Kh, Eng)

sarom@teangtnaut.org

+855 89 666 036

 

Student Workshop: Design as Activism – Apply Now!

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Design as Activism: Community Upgrading
Workshop and Design Competition
18-20 October 2013

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut invites Architecture Students from public and private universities in Cambodia to participate in a workshop focused on finding community-driven solutions to adequate housing and sustainable development. The workshop will expose participants to the reality of life in urban poor communities and encourage them to use their skills address challenges identified.

The workshop will feature a combination of lectures, field visits, and group work led by STT staff and guest lecturers. Students will work directly with representatives of urban poor communities to identify challenges faced by the communities, and develop design proposals to address the issues. Following the 3-day workshop, participants are expected to develop their proposal for final submission on Nov. 15. The three best designs will subsequently be awarded and all submissions will feature in an exhibition in January 2014.

To apply, please e-mail kheang@teangtnaut.org with your CV and letter of motivation. Further information can also be obtained by calling 089 666 037/ 070 46 34 54.

Applications close Oct. 15, 2013.

Note: The workshop is free of charge but spaces are limited. STT will cover all costs related to the workshop.

Policy for the Poor?

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Phnom Penh’s urban poor are under threat. Over the past two decades, 11% of the city’s current population has been displaced, often forcibly evicted, to poorer futures. A key government argument – when such arguments have been provided – has been that many of those affected have been illegal squatters, living on state public land. Habitually, however, there is no assessment of whether or not the occupants have rights to the land as legal possessors.

In May 2010, the Royal Government of Cambodia approved Circular 03 on Resolution of Temporary Settlement on Land Which Has Been Illegally Occupied in the Capital, Municipal, and Urban Areas (C03). In the context of on-going tenure insecurity among Cambodia’s urban poor, the Circular lays down a process through which the issue of occupation of state public land is to be ‘resolved’. With support from Germany through its development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), C03 implementation has taken place in Battambang provincial town since late 2010. Implementation has commenced in Phnom Penh too, though seemingly conducted unilaterally by the Municipality of Phnom Penh.

While implementation continues, fundamental questions remain regarding the content of the Circular itself and the impacts of its implementation. The aim of Policy for the Poor? Phnom Penh, Tenure Security, and Circular 03 is to highlight some of the issues arising from the Circular as a policy document, and draw attention to the opportunities and risks arising from its implementation. It also aims to provide stakeholders in urban development in Phnom Penh with a better understanding of the extent to which Circular 03 meets the required legal standards to genuinely protect the rights of the urban poor through increasing their tenure security, and how practicable a tool it is for that purpose.

You can download the report, produced by STT’s research arm The Urban Initiative, here: Policy for the Poor?:

Tale of Two Cities | Resettling Phnom Penh

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Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) has released two new reports examining the development of Phnom Penh; A Tale of Two Cities: review of the development paradigm in Phnom Penh and Resettling Phnom Penh: 54 – And Counting?

Phnom Penh as a metropolis and the capital of Cambodia abounds in opportunities and challenges. Amidst a booming economy and rapid urbanization, a sobering addendum is the increasing spatial and economic inequality inherent in the city’s development process. ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘Resettling Phnom Penh’ explore different facets of that inequality and its implications for the long-term liveability of Phnom Penh.

Growing Pains

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While Phnom Penh continues to consolidate its role as the primary city of Cambodia, the country’s secondary cities are continuing to act and expand as regional centres in their own right. Growing Pains takes a snapshot look at how urbanisation is impacting three of these cities – Sihanoukville, Battambang, and Siem Reap – and, in particular, their urban poor settlements.