Boeng Kak has been granted 99-year lease to Shukaku Company to develop and now, Construction firm HSC Co.Ltd is constructing a pipeline between Boeng Kak and the Chroy Changva peninsula to pump sand into the lack. It is seen that the filling-in of the lake without environmental assessment first. To this point, it is asked that why the City Hall allowed the company to pump sand to fill in the lake before releasing environmental assessment.
Environment Minister said that the assessment will take at least six months to one year to complete. But in contrary, Phnom Penh deputy governor defended Shukaku’s sand-pumping pipeline by saying that the municipality was not given any instructions from the Ministry of Environment regarding to the filing-in of lake.
According to article by Chak Sopheap quoted from The Cambodia Daily released on December 28, 2007, it read as following:
“Referring to recent article on the filing of Boeng Kak lake, I am deeply concerned about natural resource management in Cambodia. It is absolutely wrong, and dangerous for surrounding residents, that the company could proceed in its construction before the environmental impact assessment has been released.
More importantly, the agreement on filing the lake violated both the 2001 Land Law, which states that “lakes are state public property and cannot be sold,” and Article 8 of the 1996 law on Environmental Protection and Natural Resource Management, which reads: “The Natural Resource of the Kingdom of Cambodia, which include land, water, airspace, air… shall be conserved, developed and managed and used in a rational and sustainable manner,”
I would point to the good example of the government’s actions over the Kob Srov lake case, which resulted in the removal of Kandal provincial Governor Khim Bo and two deputy governors, as well as the demolition of the building construction there. The government measures proved its accountability and receptiveness to the law. The government should continue this effort in other cases that abuse the law.
I would like to appeal to the government to enforce the law and ensure that any development projects be justified by both citizens’ rights to development and the result of proper environmental impact assessments.
What the government authorities allowed company to pump sand to file in the lake without conducting assessment first seems that, they do not carefully think about the effect of many people’s living in the area. By the way, they are not responsible for what they did.
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