Phum Andong Resettlement Site

In spring 2006 the city of Phnom Penh moved several thousand destitute families, some of whom had land titles and most of whom were long term squatters, from the center of town near the river to Phum Andong, a place some 25 kilometers outside the city. Initially Phum Andong area had no infrastructure at all: no roads, electricity, plumbing, water, schools, employment possibilities, medical facilities or other resources. While conditions, especially the roads going out to the site, have improved, facilities for the poor remain grossly inadequate.
            
The lots provided were four by five meters; poles strung with tarp served for housing. There were no walls, no privacy and no safety. Governance was minimal to nonexistent. After several months UNICEF began providing safe water for minimal prices; a Korean Christian organization dug tube wells and built a church and school; LICADHO human rights organization visits several times a week to provide simple medicines and transfer to hospital for emergency cases.

By 2008 conditions for some families have improved. Toilets and concrete houses have been built in the front section of the site. Some individual concrete homes and barracks have been built further back, where the poor live, and the remaining housing has been improved. Most people have walls and reasonably water-repellent roofs and are less immediately exposed to the elements. Some drainage has been dug in the dirt paths between houses. Both Maryknoll and TASK organization provide medical care and some subsistence money.
            
The population moved to the new site has a very high AIDS rate. Previously it was possible for them to access medicines easily; now the cost of going to the hospital is prohibitive. In a departure from our regular programs and policies we decided to provide transportation money ($5-7 visit) for patients needing to access their medicines. We currently provide transportation money for about 35 patients and families.
           
The municipality currently intends to move some 32 other families with AIDS from Borei Kela in the city to another resettlement site. Most of these are our old patients from 2002-5. We will be providing them also with transportation money after they have been relocated.

These are Bennett Stevens' photos of the Phum Andong resettlement site in 2006: