Local authorities in Battambang province’s Banan district are in talks with 39 families who have stalls in the Kamping Puoy Reservoir in Ta Kream commune’s Ta Ngen village to move out so specialists from the provincial Department of Water Resources and Meteorology can construct an irrigation system.

District governor Loch Reth told The Post that authorities were following legal procedures on their demands for the people to move out, though a final decision has yet to be made.

He said commune authorities were currently in talks with the residents to understand their requests.

“If there is a result from the talks, I will ask for a decision from the provincial level, but now it’s not clear,” he said.

Reth added that on September 16, district authorities met with the people to discuss the matter.

Commune chief Im Bunyou said the families had previously removed their stalls in the reservoir after authorities issued a notice from the water resources department to build a buttress to prop up the reservoir.

According to Bunyou, the families removed the stalls from the reservoir and relocated them to the upper part of the reservoir near to the previous location without permission from authorities. The families claimed that they built the stalls there to make a living and do not want to move again.

“I told them that the water resources department did not allow them to build there because it affects construction work. They said if they are not allowed to conduct business, they won’t have anything to make a living and pay off bank loans,” he said.

The residents, Bunyou said, claimed that they had had their businesses there for 20 years, but had agreed to move out if another place could be given to them to build their stalls.

“They asked for land below the dam, the road up from the paved road 1570. It is large enough and developed by the water resources department. They said if they were evicted, they would ask for that place to use temporarily. I will also make a report to the district authorities,” Bunyou said.