A major land reclamation in the Mekong has forged ahead in what developers say will be the second Diamond Island. But while land filling elsewhere in the city has been met with unease, this mega-project has taken shape unbothered by current or controversy.Even as massive machines pound and grumble through the day, pouring tonnes of sand into a reclamation on the Mekong River, Koh Norea has taken form quietly.
The retaining wall and future bank of the new land stands before the construction towers of Koh Pich
«Usually you can constantly hear it,» said Sreylean, who asked that her real name be withheld. «People used to come here for fresh air and the views of the river, but now they don’t seem to want to … The fresh air is gone. It’s like we are suffocating now».
But even for those who can’t escape the project in their backyard, solid details about Koh Norea have been sparse. Neither OCIC nor the Cambodian government have made public any social or environmental impact assessment studies completed for the site, which has been identified in past river studies as a particularly challenging area to manage. With billions on the table, the lack of transparency at Koh Norea has obscured the project’s real weight at a time when major infrastructure projects upstream have limited the Mekong river system in Cambodia to a battered trickle of its past self.
Surely there will be ecological change, hydrological change as well
At the centre of all these projects is rubble and sand, earth gauged from one place – oftentimes the bed of the Mekong itself – to squeeze out water somewhere else.
This article was written by Andrew Hafner
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