LAND AND ENVIRONMENT

VodEnglish – By Keat Soriththeavy and Fiona Kelliher

• |   MON OCT 17, 2022 4:57 PM

ROLEA BA’IER DISTRICT, Kampong Chhnang — Four years ago, Vuen Phouk Thoung was promised a plot of land in a new neighborhood and a garment factory job nearby. Now his home is submerged in floodwater so high he spends all day and night in a hammock suspended from the ceiling.

“I don’t know what to do now,” said Thoung, 35, as he sat cross-legged on the wooden plank he constructed to swim in and out of his house. “I’ll just live like this, here.”

Thoung lives on a 40-hectare site in Kampong Chhnang where about 150 ethnic Vietnamese families were relocated after being evicted from their floating homes on the Tonle Sap starting in 2018. Ethnic Vietnamese people number an estimated 400,000 in Cambodia, but many lack citizenship rights and are unable to own property or access public services, according to Minority Rights Group International.

Continue reading Sunken village: After evictions, ethnic Vietnamese homes underwater →