Govt to take back KR canals

Thursday, 22 October 2009 15:02 Thet Sambath

Plans for repair by Pursat officials draw outcry from some farmers.
Photo by: Document Centre of Cambodia
Workers build irrigation tunnels during the Khmer Rouge regime.

FARMERS in Pursat province are bristling at local officials’ attempt to
reclaim Khmer Rouge-era canals, some of which have deteriorated so much over
the years that they have been filled in with soil.

Um Bun Soeun, chief of O’Tapong commune in Pursat’s Bakan district, said
officials had informed villagers of their plan to reclaim and repair the
canals about two weeks ago.

“We have previously informed all the people here to keep the canals as
canals and not to fill them up,” he said. “Now, we have told them that the
canals are the property of the state. If the government needs to repair and
rebuild them, then people have to hand them over to the government.”

He added that farmers in the commune would not have access to the canals
during the repair process, but could not say how long the process would
last.

Om Chhoun, a rice farmer, said any repairs would not make up for the
disruption of being barred from the canal system. He acknowledged, though,
that local farmers had no choice but to comply with the officials’ order.

“All of us dug the canals. We struggled to make them,” he said. “People died
and were killed making these canals, so we have to make sure they are
benefiting the people.”

He added: “We are not opposed to the idea of the government’s policy, but we
have to use them for our own purpose.”

Phoung Vy, another farmer in Bakan, also said the canals should be used to
benefit the people and expressed concern that the government would assume
control over them, even temporarily.

Dire straits
However, he acknowledged that some of the canals were in dire need of an
upgrade.

In a 2007 article in Searching for the Truth, a magazine by the
Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), Jeffrey Himel, owner of the
development-focused company Aruna Technology Ltd, noted that the Khmer Rouge
irrigation system was “deeply flawed” and prone to deterioration.

“The primary canals were too wide and deep, didn’t command many of the
fields they were meant to serve, and inevitably were eroded by the annual
flood flows,” he said.

DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang said he agreed that the canals needed serious
work.

“We haven’t fully researched the impact of the canals and dams built by the
Khmer Rouge on the people, but some dams have flooded people’s farmland and
villages, while others have provided benefits to the people,” he said. “But
if they are so useful, then why didn’t anyone have rice to eat during that
time?”

Sao Daroeun, governor of Bakan district, said local reclamation of the
canals was part of a broader government plan. Officials from the Ministry of
Water Resources and Meteorology could not be reached for comment Wednesday.