Prek Takeo, Kandal Province, Cambodia —

Sok Srey is bracing for the Mekong River to rise in June, when it will flow into Takeo, a creek in Khmer, next to the land where she and her family have lived for nearly a quarter of a century. .

She is not prepared for what her family might face if a proposed Chinese-funded canal connects the Gulf of Thailand to inland tributaries of the Mekong such as the Takeo River.

“I don’t have any clear information yet. I just heard they are going to build a house here,” Sok Srey, 60, told VOA Khmer in an interview at her home in March. His home is about 35 kilometers away from Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

She and her fishermen neighbors have yet to hear from Cambodian authorities about what will happen to families affected by the project.

The Cambodian government approved the 180-kilometer Funant Cho Canal in May. The US$1.7 billion project, part of the Chinese government’s Belt and Road Initiative, will connect the coastal province of Kep with the inland provinces of Kandal and Takeo. The proposed design is 100 meters wide upstream and 80 meters downstream, with a consistent depth of 5.4 meters. This is the latest infrastructure project invested by China in Cambodia.

The proposed canal has alarmed neighboring Vietnam over how the project would affect its use of water downstream.

Brian Eller, senior fellow and director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program, said the program’s costs and benefits are “mostly unknown due to a lack of information.”

“The project is likely to have a serious impact on rice production in Vietnam’s two main rice-producing provinces, so the Vietnamese are justified in their concerns,” he added.

In December, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Mane assured Hanoi that the project “will not have any negative impact on the flow of the Mekong or other rivers, while maintaining a stable environment, ecology and biodiversity of natural habitats.”

As of now, the Vietnamese government has not officially responded to the canal issue, and the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh has not responded to VOA’s questions in Khmer via email.

But such discord and diplomacy are far removed from daily life in Sosrei. During the months when Takeo wasn’t casting her net, she would pick peppers and clean lawns, earning about $7.50 a day after finding work. Her husband, Mov Sarin, 62, a former soldier, has no pension. Her daughter Rin Sreyvy is a 16-year-old ninth grader.

Although Sok Srey is not the registered owner of the riverside land, she
I feel that if the government wants this land, it should compensate her and find her a place to live.

“I was so worried, I couldn’t even sleep,” she said. “I have nothing against the country, but if the country gives me a piece of land, I will be grateful.”

Neighbors such as Year Savun, 58, a widow and mother of six, and Tong Eng, 74, are also not opposed to the canal.

“The canal is good for the entire country, but where will people live?” asked Uot Kim Eng, 57, a roadside sugar cane and grocer who lives near Tong Eng.

Phan Rim, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, told VOA’s Khmer service on March 18 that the impact of the project had been “preliminarily studied” but “we are still studying it more thoroughly.”

He added that the Ministry of Economy and Finance will study the compensation issue to ensure the government follows proper procedures and consults with villagers.

China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), one of China’s large state-owned enterprises, is supporting the project through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract, according to Cambodia’s Ministry of Public Works and Transport. If built, it will reduce transit time between Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh ports, the ministry said.

Under the BOT, Chinese companies will build, maintain and manage the canal and make profits by collecting canal tolls for about 50 years before it is returned to Cambodia.

On March 12, Hun Mane said the canal would create jobs for the 1.6 million people living along the proposed route, and the Cambodian government said construction would begin later this year.

The canal “could guide Cambodia away from Vietnam and toward China,” Rim Sokvy, an independent Cambodian researcher, wrote in an analysis published on the Singaporean website ThinkChina.

Cambodia now relies heavily on Vietnamese waterways to import raw materials from China and export finished products to the United States and Western countries, he said.

“Vietnam will lose a lot of revenue as Cambodia begins to rely on its own water transportation. The construction of the Funan Teko Canal shows that Vietnam’s influence on Cambodia is weakening. This will be Hun Manai’s legacy,” said Reem Sauve.

Pan Lin said the Mekong option would remain unchanged.