Cambodia’s New Airport Slowly Breaks a Rural Community
A resident of the 94 Canal community, 44-year-old Sok Savoeun, takes his boat out in Kandork commune, Kandal province on 14 August 2025 | Photo by Roun Ry / HaRD Stories
In an article for NYSEAN Partner, Mekong Independent, Phon Sothyroth brings to light the issues faced by the Canal 94 community, where residents have been fishing and farming for several decades. As Cambodia developed their new international airport, the community faced issues such as fishing grounds being cut off by construction, the lake being fenced off, and bureaucracy blocking these low-income rural residents from receiving land titles. Residents say the airport developments have left them trapped—they are unsure whether they will be evicted, but they lack money for the modern housing replacing their community.
The red spray paint appeared without warning on houses across Canal 94, a Cambodian community named after the irrigation and lake system that has sustained it for generations. Authorities told families that the markings were for a census. But residents knew better.
Two years later, the lake that supported 400 families has been fenced off and filled with sand, cleared for 80,000 USD shophouses rising around Cambodia’s new international airport. Chan Thorn, who once made a decent living off these waters, now depends on her daughter’s factory wages.
“They’ve taken it all over, and we can’t get anything. So we need to buy fish from others,” the 60-year-old fisherwoman said. “Even just collecting water spinach, they don’t want to let us go in.”
