Here's how upgrading can work  Comprehensive settlement upgrading training is now happening in three pilot communities . . .

 

1.  First pilot project at Stoeng Kambot rebuilds its community on adjacent land, to make room for the city's dike-building project

 

Stoeng Kambot is a poor settlement of 210 families living in wood and bamboo houses built in a long line, on a narrow strip of land between a dirt road and a drainage canal in a remote part of Roessei Keo District.  

Many of the community’s grown-ups and children work as laborers in the brick kilns across the road or in nearby factories.  There are trees and plenty of fresh air and open space out here, but conditions in the settlement are pretty bad - families have no electricity or water supply, and have to pay upwards of $50 a year to the brick kiln owner to use the stagnant water from his pond across the road. 

The people first settled here in 1984.  In 1998 they linked with SUPF and began organizing themselves through a collective savings scheme.  For several years, the community has been under threat of eviction to make way for a municipal project to construct a new road and dike on land the community now occupies.  

After surveying and mapping their settlement, the community explored several redevelopment options, including squeezing their houses into a narrower strip to make room for the new dike.  

But now the Stoeung Kambot community, along with the federation’s Khan unit, is negotiating for compensation in the form of some nearby farmland they have identified, where they would be willing to redevelop their community, according to layout plans they’ve developed with young architects at the UPDF.

 

 

 

URC Phnom Penh
has an Environmental Up-grading programme 
in operation for the past 2 years. 

Visit the URC PP web site 

Here

 

 

 

2.  Second pilot project at Ros Reay upgrades existing community with drains, paved roads, house improvements and landscaping.

 

The 72 tightly-packed houses in Ros Reay are part of a larger neighborhood of over 1,000 households behind the French Embassy, most of whom settled here in 1979, immediately after the Pol Pot period.  Even though it’s right next to the city’s largest natural drain, Boeung Kak Lake, Ros Reay experiences serious flooding during the rainy season, so building a drainage system was the community’s first upgrading priority.  Because they own the land they occupy and are already well organized through their savings group, Ros Reay was the least complicated and the most ready of the three pilots.  And because it was the first to start work, Ros Reay has became the first comprehensive upgrading training-by-doing for the whole federation and the whole city.  Lots of people have visited and taken part in every stage of the work, as the process is carefully kept in the learning spotlight.  

 

The first step was to survey and map the settlement, which community people did themselves, with some help from UPDF’s technical team and groups of “upgrading apprentices” from communities in other khans.  On the map, they plotted all the houses, trees, water points and problem areas, and used this to discuss what needs improving, in what order.  Once they’d decided what improvements to make, they estimated the costs and drew up a budget for their upgrading plan, which was submitted and approved in January 2003.  Municipal officials and community members from around the city were invited to the ground-breaking ceremony, where the first $500 handed over to the community was immediately matched by $500 in cash contributions from community members. 

 

With this $1,000 in hand, they set to work the following day moving back the fences and compound walls, to straighten the lanes and make room for laying the underground sewage and storm drain system, which involved enormous labor.  A system was worked out by which each family was responsible for digging up the ditch in front of their house.  Even pregnant women pitched in, and men returning from their day jobs dug by lantern-light into the late night, under the unflagging guidance of Ros Reay’s energetic leader, Keo Yin, whose husband, a construction subcontractor, provided “in-house” technical assistance determining slopes, pipe sizes and manhole design. The finished drains were given their first test during a torrential rainstorm in early April.  Everyone was out under their umbrellas, all eyes on the manholes, through which the water was reported to flow beautifully!  The lanes are now being paved, after which trees and flowers will be planted in the half-meter planting strips along the lane-edges, and all the houses will be freshly painted in matching colors. 

 

 

3.  Third pilot project at Borei Keila uses a land-sharing strategy to rebuild its community on a small portion of the land it now occupies, and returns the rest to the government for its development plans.

 

Borei Keila is a crowded inner city settlement of 1,482 families in 7 Makara District, living in and around two rows of 4-story apartment blocks built in the 1960s to house athletes.  
Some families live in the apartments while the rest live in wood and brick houses on the ground. The land is owned by the Ministry of Sport and Youth, which for years has been trying in vain to evict the settlement to construct a new stadium.  
First settled in 1979, the community is now very strong, with both SUPF and USG savings groups and strong community leadership.  The idea of upgrading Borei Keila has united this large community, which is 100% determined to stay.  
After surveying, measuring and mapping the entire settlement, the people have worked with UPDF architects to explore a range of land-sharing redevelopment options which involve rebuilding the community on a small portion of the land and returning the rest to the Ministry.  

Their first plan involved developing 5-story blocks of flats on 25% of the land.  But this would be extremely expensive and the community is now looking at a much cheaper and more efficient layout plan of 1,500 tiny row-houses on 30% of the land.  

Borei Keila is an important test case for land-sharing, which makes room for poor people’s housing while allowing the government to go ahead with its stadium-building plan.

 

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More from the 5th anniversary of the UPDF
NEXT          2003 Survey of urban poor settlements  and the UPDF at a Glance