1. Visit to the Phum Andoung resettlement colony
(in Sangkat Kok Roka, Khan Dangkao, 15 kms from Basaac, not far from the airport)
The site is near the airport so we went there first.
Background on Phum Andoung
Tonle Basaac was one of the first and largest squatter settlements in Phnom Penh. Over the past 10 years, there have been many attempts to upgrade parts of Basaac, and several land-sharing plans have also been proposed for the area. But because the settlement was located at the prime, river-side real-estate in the very center of the city, Basaac has been the target for several large-scale evictions over the years, some with relocation and some without. In the most recent eviction, in June 2006, the government forcefully evicted the last remaining 1,400 families from the Samok Chab area of Basaac, to make way for the government projects and construction of a casino. A huge resettlement colony was developed by the Municipality to relocate the evicted structure-owners at Tropeing Angchan, 24 kms from Basaac, where those on the list got free 60-square meter plots with some infrastructure.
But there were also hundreds of renters, extended families and recent squatters whose names were not on the city's beneficiary list, and who did not qualify for free plots in Tropeing Angchan. For these evictees, who are some of the poorest and most vulnerable of the city's poor, the government had no resettlement plan initially. After all these families (and many extra!) had set themselves up in great shaggy encampments along the edges of the resettlement site, the Municipality was finally persuaded to develop a second resettlement site a little closer to the city, at Phum Andoung (in Sangkat Kok Roka, Dangkao District), for renters evicted from Basaac.
A municipal survey conducted just before the eviction counted 364 "real renters" in the Basaac area, so at Phum Andoung, the Municipality started with a 1-hectare piece of land, which was sufficient to accommodate about 300 of these families. But as soon as word got out that resettlement plots were to be provided for Basaac renters, the number of families waiting for these free plots swelled. By August 2006, almost 2,000 "renter" families were camping out in tents and squalid shelters around this second resettlement site, hoping to be granted plots. With no proper survey or allotment process, nobody seemed to know who was really from Basaac and who wasn't.
The Municipality purchased an additional 3 hectares of adjacent farmland, and finally, the expanded Phum Andoung colony was able to accommodate 777 families, on plots of 24 square meters (4m x 6m) each. Most of these families were somehow determined by the Municipality to have actually stayed in Basaac before the eviction. But even a year later, there are still 300 families camping out along the fringes of the Phum Andoung colony, waiting to be allotted plots they claim they should also have a right to.
The land at Phum Andoung was previously fallow rice fields. The Municipality bought it and divided it up into rows of 24-square meter plots without much site preparation, without laying sufficient infrastructure and facilities, and very little land-filling, so there were problems from the start of flooding. During the first months, conditions at Phum Andoung were very bad: no toilets, only plastic sheets provided to people for shelter, bags of rice being given out as charity by Japanese and Korean aid groups. Water was originally provided in big tanks by UNICEF, but after a month, they left.
Over the past year, the situation has settled down a bit, and the new Phum Andoung settlement is gradually coming to life, conditions are slowly improving, people seem to be doing better, many jobs available in the area. The municipality has provided some public toilets (through a Singapore private sector donation) and space for a fresh market. But Housing conditions and infrastructure are still very basic and insufficient, though. No drains of paved roads - just earth streets and dugout earth drains.
Renters camp
The people told us it costs about $100 to build a bamboo and palm-thatch house.
Most of the houses in Phum Andoung are like that. It's not cheap, but people can stay in them for a while, until they save enough to build a more permanent house. Some houses have a plan to improve. UPDF has already granted about 50 house improvement and some income generation loans to the community saving groups for house improvement , income generation activities and for buying 5 tuk-tuks for community transport to the city. The houses that receive the loans have started the construction very actively . The loan per family is only 500 US$ maximum which enable the loanees to build two story houses with concrete structure
While UPDF continues to support the development of alternatives to the violent and impoverishing practice of eviction - especially through the promotion of on-site community upgrading - the evictions have not stopped. Some of the city's poorest and most vulnerable citizens are now those who have lost their homes and lost their livelihoods and are now living in the badly-planned government resettlement colonies which dot the extreme periphery of the city. While we continue to work to negotiate alternatives to eviction, it is important to provide some support to these earlier evictees, so that they can begin to rebuild their lives and settlements, even in these remote and inhospitable situations.
Community center and savings office
A simple tin-sheet building that UPDF put up to serve as a community center and savings office, meeting place, etc. People come and chat and there are meetings about many things every day.
Partnership for improvements to the new market
The market is the most lively place in the community. Lots of sellers and buyers. When we were there, people were complaining that the market area that the municipality provided was dirty, with muddy lanes . Mr. Mann Chhoeurn, who was with us, proposed to the people on the spot, "Why don't we improve it together? If you can all contribute and do the work together, I will match that contribution and double it." And the people said why not, we can start collecting the money right now and continue this week and we can start the construction next week. A good group of market vendors gathered and began pulling out money to contribute to the market construction. Mr. Mann Chhoeurn also pulled some money from his pocket. A woman together with the community chief was designated to gather the money and take care of the money. Immediate! They will start the construction this week, right away. Their plans are to pave the market, lay drains and perhaps build a proper roof over the market. No need to spend huge amounts, just a little improvement to make this informal street market cleaner and easier to walk through.
New "Singapore-style" Toilets
Mr. Mann Chhoeurn was telling us that a Singaporean company wanted to assist this community, so the Municipality asked them to build these public toilets at Phum Andoung. But they built such fancy, fully-tiled, gleaming toilets (blue for women, pink for men!), that people in the settlement are reluctant to use them, Could be the people still don't feel ownership and too new for people. The man who was cleaning the toilets when we visited said he has so many problems with the people, because people come and don't know how to use these toilets! It seems so simple: you just go in, close the door and do your business, right? But many people don't go in, it's new to their experience. So they are organizing a "Toilet Use" training session.
This is always a problem when things are given as a "gift" with very good intention to communities, without their involvement, and people don't take care. We discussed with Somsak about how to possibly set up an organization system where people take care of these toilets collectively.
Korean volunteers help fill in ruts in the roads after rain
A private-sector Korean company in the neighborhood sent 20 of its employees to help bring sand and fill in the mud-filled holes in the road. Sometimes the companies and factories in the area (some of which may employ Phum Andoung residents) send in volunteers to help the community in different ways.
Somsak said there are three kinds of outside groups coming into the Phum Andoung area these days, and from these three different groups, we get three very different pictures of what is happening in Phum Andoung!
- Development agencies, like UPDF There are a few others who help with some welfare and children's programs in the settlement. This first group is seeing whatever the problems - no matter what the reasons - and trying to solve the problematic reality. These are the groups that are just accepting the reality and trying to make the best to help and work with the poor out of an imperfect situation and find a way to support the people.
- Private sector volunteers from nearby companies and factories who would like to come and help or just give some contribution. Perhaps it is the work of the municipality to help promote this volunteerism.
- Human rights groups - then the people from human rights groups who come to the area to check what are the rights violations. So they come and check about the rights violations very regularly, but they're not doing any other thing for the improvement except searching for what is wrong or bad - sometimes linked to the media.
What UPDF has been doing so far in Phum Andoung
- Conducted surveys : Since the eviction over a year ago, the UPDF and community network leaders from other parts of the city have conducted several surveys in Phum Andoung.
- Set up savings groups : The UPDF and the networks have also helped organize the people by setting up daily savings groups throughout the settlement, as much as possible, to organize the community and to prepare people to manage income generation loans and housing loans as soon as possible. For this, they have used a group system, in which 10 families are in a single group, and 3-5 groups together form a savings group, so 30-50 households comprise a savings group. This is a new system being tested in Phum Andoung to get people together, to begin building mutual support systems in this new community, and to get people to start deciding things together. As UPDF staff Somsak says, "We start with action, not shouting at the government!"
- Started giving loans : Once savings groups get themselves organized and have a little experience saving and giving loans to their members from their own collective savings, they can send loan proposals to UPDF. UPDF has so far given pilot housing improvement loans of $500 to about 20 families, as well as smaller income-generation loans to hundreds of households and a few loans for people to buy various kinds of tuk-tuks to set up businesses to transport people into the city.
On this visit, we decided to submit a proposal to Selavip for a small project in Phum Andoung to help improve the housing, living conditions and livelihood opportunities in the settlement, as well as build up the strength and internal organization in this vulnerable new community on the periphery of the city.
Why did we decide to present this special case for support from Selavip?
- The Phum Andoung area is very big. There are lots of families and lots of needs for loans - especially the need for improved housing. And this need is too great for UPDF to respond to with only its existing available lending capital.
- These are the poorest people in the city.
- There are still 300 squatter families living in tents and thatch hovels on flooded land adjacent to the Phum Andoung colony, claiming they have rights to resettlement plots. It's not clear whether they are or are not legitimate Basaac evictees, but by having stayed here in wretched conditions for a year, they have established some persistence and continue to negotiate for some kind of occupation rights. And after some discussions with the municipality, it seems likely that the municipality will purchase additional land nearby to provide similar 24 sm plots for these 300 families, who have stayed here waiting for over a year. These families will also then need help with their housing improvements
- The project's target group : So the target group for this project includes the 777 families living in the Phum Andoung colony, plus the 300 families living in tents on the settlement's periphery - all of them among the city's poorest citizens. (Total 1,077 families.).
- Time frame : This project will be implemented in a year - September 2007 – August 2008.
Next
2. Demolishing the $250,000 Villasand
3. Where a community is purchasing land to resettle, near Kork Kleang