AN opposition city councillor has urged authorities to install a new drainage system in a flooded village near the controversial Boeung Kak lake development project, after a man was electrocuted this week while standing in knee-high floodwater.

Morn Phalla, a Sam Rainsy Party councillor at Phnom Penh Municipality, said he hadimplored Governor Kep Chuktema to build a new drainage system in Village 3, where residents have complained of flooding caused by the Boeung Kak lake project.

“The government authorities allowed the developer to fill in the lake to build a trade centre and tall skyscrapers,” said Morn Phalla, one of 21 councillors in the municipal government. “But the plan caused hundreds of villagers’ homes close to the development site to be flooded.”

Morn Phalla said he asked the governor to build the new system during a meeting held on Wednesday.

“The city governor ... accepted my request and said in the meeting that he will order his lower authorities to make it soon,” Morn Phalla said.

Kep Chuktema said he was in a meeting and could not comment yesterday.

On Tuesday, a man in Village 3, which sits on the southern end of the lake, died after he was electrocuted trying to make repairs on a neighbour’s home while standing in floodwater.

The man’s widow blamed the incident on Shukaku Inc, a development company owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin that is behind the Boeung Kak lake project. Company representatives could not be reached this week.