2003 Survey of poor settlements

SUPF's fifth survey of Phnom Penh's poor settlements becomes an important tool in a process of planning secure housing for all within each district . . .

Over the past nine years, the Solidarity for the Urban Poor Federation (SUPF) has conducted five enumerations of poor and informal settlements in Phnom Penh, each more accurate and more comprehensive than the last, each representing an important milestone in the federation’s growing understanding and ownership of information about the city’s poor.  

The 1997 survey yielded the most detailed, comprehensive picture till then of the city’s poor settlements.  

The 1999 survey process was broadened considerably to include settlement profiles for each community, detailed household information, mapping of many settlements showing houses, land area and basic services, and computerizing all the survey data.  

The 2003 survey has been carried out as part of the CDS process, and has focused on gathering data which will help the district federation units to find secure housing for all the settlements in each district.  

This time, friends at the UPDF and URC have plotted all the surveyed communities on computerized maps which will help track these settlements in future surveys.  Here are a few numbers from the past three surveys :

!7 Groups in the
 Re-settlement Network

Go to the 

URC PP Web Site
 
for research on 
Phnom Penh's 
resettlement sites.

At the URC site 
CLICK "Communities"

Three surveys of a fast-changing city

	1997 survey	1999 survey	2003 survey
Population
	379 settlements 30,150 households 171,730 people	472 settlements 35,165 households 172,624 people	569 settlements 65,759 households 374,826 people
Land Ownership
Living on public land	227 settlements 22,067 households (73%)	272 settlements 24,420 households (69%)	183 settlements 21,904 households (33%)
Living on private land	152 settlements 8,083 households (27%)	200 settlements 10,745 households (31%)	386 settlements 43,855 households (67%)
Settlement  History
Settled 1979 -1990	326 settlements 27,765 households (92%)	410 settlements 26,734 households (76%)	497 settlements 50,395 households (77%)
Settled 1991 - 1997	53 settlements 2,385 households (8%)	47 settlements 6,681 households (19%)	52 settlements 7,261 households (11%)
Settled 1998 - 2003	-- --	15 settlements 1,750 households (5%)	20 settlements 8,103 households (12%)
Problems
Eviction problems	80 settlements 9,966 households (33%)	137 settlements 13,362 households (38%)	190 settlements 25,034 households (38%)
Flooding problems	146 settlements 18,140 households (60%)	116 settlements 16,879 households (48%)	357 settlements 41,957 households (64%)
Water supply problem s	327 settlements 24,359 settlements (82%)	404 settlements 28,835 households (82%)	387 settlements 46,688 households (71%)
Lack of toilet	128 settlements 18,827 households (62%)	340 settlements 24,264 households (69%)	(no information available)
Lack of paved roads / access	274 settlements 27,452 households (91%)	299 settlements 24,615 households (70%)	370 settlements 43,851 households (67%)

More from the 5th anniversary of the UPDF
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