Cases / Protected area / relocation · Cambodia · 2007–2011
Cambodia fills Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake with sand under 99-year lease
Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.
Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Cambodia leased 90 hectares of Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake for 99 years and filled it with river sand and mud, displacing residents. The World Bank's Inspection Panel later found that a Bank land-titling programme had excluded residents from registration.
What?
Cambodia leased Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake for 99 years and filled it with river sand, which displaced residents. Al Jazeera
Where?
Boeung Kak lake, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Al Jazeera
When?
Lease granted in 2007; evictions and the 2011 loan freeze are reported in the sources.
Who?
Gained
- Shukaku Inc. — 99-year lease of the 90-hectare lake for $79 million Al Jazeera
Lost
- Lakeside residents — Homes and land; about 4,250 families evicted, according to the World Bank Inspection Panel finding VOA Khmer
Harmed
- Residents — Advised to demolish homes within seven days for $8,500; one home filled with sand Al Jazeera
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
The lake was leased to a company, which filled it with sand and mud pumped from the river. Al Jazeera
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
In 2007 the Cambodian government leased the 90-hectare Boeung Kak lake to Shukaku Inc. for 99 years for $79 million, and the lake was filled with sand and mud pumped from the river (Al Jazeera, 2011).
Residents were advised to demolish their homes within seven days in return for $8,500, and one home was filled with sand while its occupant slept (Al Jazeera, 2011).
The World Bank Inspection Panel found that the Bank's $24 million land-titling programme had excluded residents from registration and contributed to the eviction of about 4,250 families; the Bank froze new lending to Cambodia in 2011 (VOA Khmer, 2011).
Campaigners from the group Mother Nature were prosecuted: three were jailed in 2016 and ordered to pay $25,000 to the sand company, and ten were sentenced in July 2024 to six to eight years on conspiracy charges, according to the sources reviewed.
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Insufficient Reported but not verified: Lao Meng Khin, a CPP senator, is named as the head of Shukaku Inc.
- None on record Not stated in the sources reviewed: the compensation actually paid to evicted families and the terms of the 99-year lease.
Did the harm stop?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Who paid?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers
Press and investigations
- Cambodia's growing dispossessedAl Jazeera · 2011-03-15
- Inspection faults World Bank programme in lake evictionsVOA Khmer · 2011-03-09
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