Mixed feelings toward dredging-fuelled fund
Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem on December 6 announced in Koh Kong province the creation of a community fund of nearly $40,000 for Koh Sralao village, according to a ministry official, who said the funds came from a 2-cent-per-cubic-metre levy imposed on sand dredgers in the area. Hing Tun, chief of the ministry’s mine construction department, said the funds had been collected between 2007 and 2015, and that villagers could propose projects such as roads and water systems “and the ministry will drop the funds if the ministry has money”. “Villagers are happy to have this fund; they can get roads and travel easily – they congratulate this plan,” he said, insisting that dredging activities in the area had now ceased. Local resident Ek Sophal, who attended the event where the fund was announced, said the figure given was just over $37,000, and contested Tun’s assertion that dredging had stopped, saying it still continued under cover of nightfall.
