KANDAL, CAMBODIA — With the groundbreaking ceremony for the controversial Funan Techno Canal project scheduled for next month, residents living in the project area said they had not received any notifications on resettlement or compensation, leaving them with an uncertain future.
Rumors have been spreading among villagers living on the banks of the Prek Takeo stream in Kien Svay district in Kandal Province, which will be part of the controversial Funan Techo Canal project.
Commune members believe their houses will soon be wiped off the map to make way for the canal and they may be left with nowhere to go. This has made some villagers reluctant to support the project.
Choum*, 31, is one of those. Her family has lived on the quiet banks of the Prek Takeo stream for three generations.
Recently she has noticed authorities and foreigners frequently visiting her commune. It has becoming increasingly apparent that they came to study her area. But she has never received any explanations about what they are doing there.
“[We] don’t know when and how they will do it [construct the canal],” she said, fearing she would lose her home and her small bakery business.
Inadequate public consultation and a complete lack of on-ground information have not only sparked panic among locals about losing their homes and livelihoods, but also undermined the project’s reputation, despite the Cambodian government’s efforts to promote the canal as a new economic engine.
The 180-kilometer Funan Techo Canal will connect the country’s capital Phnom Penh, via the Prek Takeo Canal off the Mekong River, to the country’s southern coastal province of Kep.
It will help Cambodia bypass Vietnam’s ports in Cai Mep, reducing Cambodia’s shipping distances and costs, and reducing its reliance on its eastern neighbor. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet has described the project as a way of “breathing through our own nose.”
The canal will be 50 meters wide and support vessels up to 1,000 DWT, according to the document Cambodia submitted to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) – an inter-governmental organization that coordinates with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to jointly manage the Mekong River.
The project is expected to cost US$1.7 billion and be developed under a build-operate-transfer contract.
Its source of funding has not yet been confirmed. Initially, it was believed that the developer, China Road and Bridge Corporation, would fully finance the project.
However, Hun Manet recently announced that Cambodian financiers will contribute 51% of the investment. In his recent speech, he revealed that the Cambodian government has no intention of raising funds from citizens for this project.
He also announced that the project’s groundbreaking was set for August 5, expectedly with fireworks and drums across the country to celebrate the historic project. It will take between four to six years to complete.
However, as the project’s launch date nears, many villagers living on the canal’s path are still uncertain about their futures.
“I have received scant information,” said Bopha*, 54, who lives in the project’s designated area in Kok Thom district in Kandal province.
“Everyone here is worried about their homes. I can’t sleep because the project may impact my home and land. I have nowhere else to go.”
Consultation not required
Although the Funan Techo Canal project gained international attention in the latter half of 2023, the concept was occasionally mentioned in local news reports over the past few years.
One of those reports was in a 2022 interview, in which an official from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport told the government-friendly Khmer Times newspaper the idea was to shorten the water transportation route from Phnom Penh to Kep or Sihanoukville as part of the ministry’s 10-year connectivity and logistics masterplan.
The project was officially discussed by former Prime Minister Hun Sen at a Council of Minister’s meeting on May 19 last year. Then the plan was passed down to his son, Hun Manet, to take over the implementation.
On August 8 last year, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport submitted the notification document to the MRC.
The document stated that the project developer would conduct an environmental impact assessment according to international standards, and only mentioned a few negative impacts including “dust in the air and noise” during the construction period.
According to the MRC, Vietnam officially expressed concerns about the potential transboundary impacts of the project on the Mekong Delta area in Vietnam, a major food producing region. Local news reported that Vietnam did not receive sufficient information on the project’s impact assessment.
Under the 1995 MRC Agreement, all water infrastructure projects in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are required to be notified to the MRC.
Notification is applied to tributary projects, but consultation is not – opening a gap for the Cambodian government to skip the prior consultation process with MRC country members as it identifies the Funan Techo Canal project as a tributary project that will not impact the mainstream Mekong River.
Hun Sen, now the Senate President, said during the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the Cambodian People’s Party on June 28 that the canal “will not affect the environment or the flow of the Mekong River.”
He also emphasized that the project had gained “full support” from Cambodia’s people, in a show of national unity. The canal will not only reduce shipping distances, he added, but also improve irrigation and fisheries, relieve flooding and promote tourism.
Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia program at the US think-tank Stimson Center, raised concerns about the project’s definition.
Speaking during a seminar at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok in March, he said the canal should be labeled “a mainstream project” because it would divert water from the Mekong mainstream and would impact the river itself and the Bassac Channel, a major branch of the mainstream.
Call for solutions
“[We] want resettlement,” said Bopha from the banks of the Prek Takeo stream. She hopes authorities will invite her community to discuss relocation and compensation plans in detail.
“I dare not to reject the government’s development. I understand it is beneficial for the country. But [we] need the government to understand our situation and our way of life. Everyone here is worried about the compensation, whether it will be fair or not,” said Choum, from the same community.
“I also asked the commune and district authorities about the update, but they told me they didn’t know any further details either.”
The villagers’ indebtedness to micro-loans has added to their worries, because losing their homes and land means they cannot earn money to repay their debts.
Ministry of Public Works and Transport spokesman Phorn Rim recently told reporters that an inter-ministerial working group had been set up to establish mechanisms for dealing with the impacts of the canal project. But he has not confirmed a clear compensation plan.
Sokvy Rim, a research fellow at the Cambodian Center for Regional Study, suggested the solutions for villagers at the moment should involve the authorities addressing all their concerns.
“Aside from discussing compensation, there should be consultations with residents so that authorities fully understand the challenges,” he said, adding that the compensation may be sufficient if it doesn’t include costs to burden villagers after losing their homes.
“If the project affects their homes, it has to have a viable solution accepted by residents. If they need to move out to a new home, they should be able to access social and economic resources for their daily living.”
*Note: Pseudonyms were used for villagers who gave interviews to the author due to safety concerns.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the Bassac channel as a tributary of the Mekong River. The Bassac is, in fact, a branch of the Mekong mainstream.
