Boeung Kak: a disastrous decade
Ten years ago this week, Phnom Penh City Hall and the development firm Shukaku Inc announced an agreement to transform the Boeung Kak lake area into a sprawling mixed-use development. In the years following, thousands were evicted and a protest movement grew among the disgruntled residents. Post Weekend looks back at how Cambodia’s most notorious land dispute unfolded and at what will emerge from the sand. The sand banks have been slowly rising around Kith Chantha’s rickety wooden shack. His home is no more than a few planks of wood held together by nails, with a front yard strewn with garbage. To one side, Chantha has the towering Al-Serkal Mosque as a neighbour. But apart from that he is surrounded by mounds of sand and construction equipment on what used to be the sprawling 90-hectare Boeung Kak lake.
