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 two communities being relocated to new land at Kok Khleang 2

 

Psar Toul Kork is a community of 89 poor families living on open land in Sangkat Toek La'ok 1, Khan Toul Kork, Phnom Penh.  The community is also twenty years old, with a majority of its families having settled here around 1990, having migrated from Svay Raing Province, or from other urban poor communities.  In 1997, the Phnom Penh Municipality announced plans to evict the community in order to rebuild the public market which was there before the war.  After the Toek La'ok 14 community successfully negotiated for resettlement to land they chose at Kok Khleang (2), community members at Psar Toul Kork, with help from the Toul Kork Khan chief, also began resettlement negotiations with the Municipality, and search for alternative land. 

  The resettlement site at Kok Khleang (2) is 6,534 square metres (66 x 98 m), of which 4,815 sm. (74%) will be under house plots and 1,719 sm. (26%) will be under roads, pathways, open spaces, water points, community centre and play areas.  Each family will have 46.75 sm. plots (5.5 x 10 m).  The land price was $5 per square metre, bringing the entire land cost to US$32,670, all paid by the Municipality, via the District. 

 Boeung Salang is a large, swampy area of the city surrounding an old lake, used as a drainage and open sewage dump for the whole city.  Many poor settlements are located around the area.  A small group of 10 families in the Boeung Salang Canal-side Community was living along a drainage canal which fed into the lake, and when a Municipal project to dredge the canal was undertaken in January 2000, these 14 families were evicted and given plots in the new resettlement area at Kok Khleang (2), where they are now living, as basic infrastructure is being laid by UNCHS.

 Development of the new land by UNCHS has been problematic and although all the people have moved to the site now, the situation and environment is quite bad.  The UNCHS work to dig wells, build toilets, roads and drainage has been delayed for months, and water from the few wells that have been dug is not drinkable.  As of November, 2000, there are only 2 temporary toilets for the 99 families who have already moved to the new land.   Both communities have started savings groups, set moving plans, planned houses and layouts with the URC team, set up housing project committees and are working with the district-level SUPF federations, the Khan Chief and the Municipality to coordinate the resettlement process. 

Second batch of fish-processing loans to 
Khan Roessei Keo

 

The 1999 - 2000 batch of loans for making prahok has been so successful that a proposal for another round of loans has been submitted to UPDF for the 2000 - 2001 prahok season, this time involving 307 families in 19 communities, asking for a total of US$ 43,000 (about $140 per family).  

As with the first round, the loans will be used to buy the special riel fish and all the materials necessary to make prahok.   

Loans will be repaid within a year, as soon as families can sell the fermented prahok.  While the prohok is fermenting in crocks under the houses, members will only have to repay the interest. 

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