More than 100 families in Ream commune’s Thmor Thom village of Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nop district requested intervention by the authorities due to a lack of electricity for daily use, after submitting two written requests previously.

Representatives of the families signed a petition to the provincial electricity director on November 23.

Seng Meng, resident of the village, told The Post on December 19 that they had submitted their request through the commune chief two times already.

She said that about 100 families living at the eastern part of Ream Boulevard in the village currently have to connect electricity to their homes by running power lines from National Road 45, which is a long distance away and is not enough for their needs.

“The use of electricity in the area is frequently disrupted by power outages, which often damage our electrical appliances and sometimes we cannot even use a refrigerator. Like my house, I run a business until it breaks down, damaging equipment almost every day. I beg you to help set up a pole to connect the electricity to our home,” she said.

Sor Lim, director of the provincial electricity authority, told The Post that officials had been sent to the area to study the situation and make a report to submit to the district authorities before connecting power to people’s homes.

He said that the reason for the delaying in connections was because people living there did not have proper identification documents, while their occupied land did not have clear ownership either.

“If our customers have specific land ownership, identity cards, family books and a legal residence, my side does not need to contact the authorities. We will connect power to their houses after studying the problem. But some people there don’t have clear documents, so we need confirmation from the local authorities first before we can expand the network to that area,” he said.

Lim claimed that there were already utility poles there but they were too far from the village, which required the installation of new poles in order to wire people’s houses.

District governor Y Thearin said he would check into the case after receiving a letter from provincial electrical authority.

“Regarding this case, our commune administration has submitted it directly to the provincial electricity authority. So, we are waiting for them to have a meeting with our district authorities first. I don’t understand this delay either,” he said.

Almost all people in the province have access to electricity if they have clear documentation regarding ownership of property and are living legally in that place, according to the provincial electricity chief.