The capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, has undergone rapid urbanisation over the last 10 years and now houses over 2 million inhabitants[1]. Urbanisation is rapidly becoming one of the key challenges of the country’s development. Despite the opportunities presented by such growth, Phnom Penh faces multi-faceted threats from inadequate basic service provision: drainage wastewater treatment and solid waste management, to poor and mismanaged urban planning, inadequate institutional governance and widening social divisions. Combined, they threaten the sustainable growth of the capital. The lack of strategic “urban oversight” has meant urban sprawl typified the capital’s urban expansion and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future. Sprawl is now typifying the built form of Phnom Penh, the absence of urban and land use planning means private sector-led, laissez-faire and weakly regulated developments susceptible to unscrupulous land practices are the current norm and poor and vulnerable groups often fall victim to such practices including land grabbing and evictions. Consequently, broader considerations, such as the protection and promotion of green space, public transportation and alternatives to sprawl, such as densification, have been sidelined in favour of land and real estate speculation.
[1](2019). Phnom Penh Sustainable City Plan 2018-2030, v-9
As studies have shown, urban sprawl is one of the key challenges facing a rapidly urbanising world. Most journeys in Phnom Penh are made by private vehicles, namely cars and motorcycles. A figure released by the Ministry of Transportation in 2019 showed that 579,896 private vehicles [1] were registered in the capital. This has put greater stress on the city’s current infrastructure and cost the capital $6 million per month [2]in congestion-related costs. By its very definition, urban sprawl will only exacerbate these conditions as residents will have to travel further as the city spreads haphazardly.
[1] https://capitalcambodia.com/loosening-the-traffic-chokehold-in-phnom-penh/
[2] https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/congestion-costing-6-million-month
Secondly, urban sprawl has placed increasing pressure on natural spaces, natural drainage sites and “green lungs” in and around Phnom Penh. Sited on the low-lying confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, Phnom Penh’s lakes and waterways have been gradually filled in over the last 15 years for speculative real estate, leading to the loss of natural drainage basins, ecosystems and livelihoods for those who depend on the lakes for incomes. A local NGO reported that 16 natural lakes have been filled in and another 10 have been partially filled[1]. Phnom Penh has traditionally exploited its natural lakes for two main purposes: wastewater discharge and stormwater storage. Without a wastewater treatment plant, the city relies heavily on its natural lakes to discharge wastewater. During the annual monsoon season, they are taking stormwater preventing floods. Thus, filling up the lakes to make way for real estate projects makes the city prone to water pollution and prolonged flooding negating any socio-economic benefits that infilling may have promised.
[1] (2019). The Last Lakes, Sahmakum Teang Tnut, 2019
Greater efforts in optimising and implementing land-use planning, finding sustainable finance for building urban infrastructure, encouraging the development of compact and high-density housing, a greater focus on walkability, strictly enforcing of no-build zone in and beyond a pre-defined green corridor, a halt on lake filling activities, carry our detailed and enforceable land use masterplan, through increasing land use governance and expertise to national and sub-national bodies.