UPDF Loans in the pipeline ....

UPDF is still small, but details of the next several loans have already been sorted out and more funds are being urgently mobilized to provide capital for these projects.

Housing loans to Toek La'ok 14 Community relocation to Kok Khleang 1

Toek La'ok 14 is a community of 111 poor families living on the roadside along three sides of the National Pediatric Hospital compound, in Sangkat Toek La'ok 3, Khan Toul Kork, Phnom Penh.  The community is twenty years old.  A majority of its families settled here between 1988 and 92, many of which migrated to the city from Svay Raing Province, or from other urban poor communities.  In 1997, the Phnom Penh Municipality posted the first eviction notices in the community, citing three problems the community was causing the hospital:  infection with unsanitary conditions, throwing garbage over the wall into the hospital compound, and interfering with the hospital's drainage system. 

In 1998, the community entered into a long process of negotiation with the hospital, Khan (district) authorities and the Municipality, which led in 1999 to a collaborative resettlement agreement, formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding, signed by all parties involved, on 30 June 1999.  As part of the agreement, the Municipality and the hospital's principal overseas funder (World Vision) would share the cost of buying alternative land chosen by the community, the UNCHS project would develop the new site and provide basic infrastructure, the Toek La'ok 14 community would build their own houses using loans from the Urban Poor Development Fund, young architects at the Urban Resource Centre (URC) would assist in the development of affordable house designs and community layout planning, and the SUPF federation would assist in negotiations and make sure the entire experience was capitalized as learning for the whole city. 

The new land which the community chose for resettlement is in the busy airport suburb of Pochentong, at Kok Khleang (1), in Sangkat Phnom Penh Thmey, in Khan Roessei Keo.  The site is six kilometres away from the existing settlement.  The total size of the resettlement site is 7,700 square metres (73.6 x 114.3 m), of which 4,717 sm. (61%) will be under house plots and 2,983 sm. (39%) will be under roads, pathways, open spaces, water points, community centre and play areas.  Each family will have 42.5 sm. plots (5 x 8.5 m).  The community negotiated with the land-owner for a land price of $4.54 per square metre, bringing the entire land cost to US$35,000, of which the Municipality paid $10,000 and World Vision paid $25,000.

The land sale agreement was signed on 30 June, 1999 by the community, the land-owner, the Municipality and World Vision.  Filling of the new land was finished on June 6, 2000, and digging of the 4 wells and building toilets, roads and drainage is going on.  The families will move to the new site at Kok Khleang (1) and start building their new houses only after basic infrastructure is in place.  The community is planning to move in three stages:  60 families in September 2000, 20 families in October and the final 31 families in November.  

The Toek La'ok community has been involved in intense preparation for this move for several years.  The community savings group, with 108 members, has been active since 1996, and savings as of February 2000 totaled 7.2 million Riels ($2,000).  The community has divided itself into nine groups of 12 families each.  These groups are the basic working unit for collecting daily savings, planning house design, and managing preparations for the resettlement.  Group members will also live together in the new community, and will draw lots for house plots within the same area.  Different groups take turns coordinating with the URC, UNCHS, UPDF and the Municipality about the work as it goes on.  The first 39 families are planning to move to the new site and start building their houses in mid November, 2000, and the community has set a target of all families shifting to the new site by the end of December, 2000.

Housing loans to families from Basaac relocated to Prey Tituy Community

 

Nearly 3,000 families live in the swampy, sprawling river-front community of Basaac, the city's largest informal settlement, in the heart of Phnom Penh, many settled there right after the Pol Pot period in 1979.  The communities have long been threatened with eviction, and some communities in the area have already been evicted by private and public land-owners (some with and some without compensation or alternative land).  In recent years, the SUPF federation has been active in the area, with savings and credit, surveys, toilet building, house and bridge building, walkways, etc.  A big part of the federation's work has been to explore on-site redevelopment options for Basaac.  Communities there have worked with the SUPF federation, the URC, and with helpers from ACHR and the school of architecture to explore on-site redevelopment options, including land-sharing, reblocking, and etc and presented these ideas to the local and national governments.  Unfortunately, so far, none of these options have been acceptable to the city, whose master plan to develop the river bank in Basaac area leaves no room for negotiation or housing for the poor. 

While the city remains firm in its resolve to evict all of Basaac's residents, it has recently taken steps to provide alternative land for resettling families from Basaac, and even involved Basaac community leaders in the search for alternative land.  At the Inauguration of the federation's first relocation housing project in Akphivat Mean Cheay in April 2000, the Prime Minister pledged US$ 200,000 for buying land for such relocation.  A month later, the Phnom Penh Municipality and community leaders subsequently searched for and identified a 12.5 hectare site at Prey TiTuy, about 15 kilometers from the city center, and purchased it for $200,000, which includes land filling.  In June and July, landfill work happened, and in August, the land was subdivided into 430 plots (120 square metres each) and dug 6 common wells.  In October, 2000, the plots were assigned by lottery, and in November, families began moving to the site.  As part of the relocation deal, the UNCHS will help build pit-latrines, and provide roads and drainage, by community contract, and the families will build their own houses. 

Other pages on CAMBODIA  
Cambodia Summary    Urban Poor Development Fund    Diary of a Relocation   HUN SEN Meets SUPF