Boeung Kak () is an area in Khan Daun Penh and Khan Toul Kork centrally located in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Until around 2010, it was covered by the largest urban lake in Phnom Penh. Residential areas, businesses, restaurants, hotels, embassies and other local businesses surrounded the area of the lake. Phnom Penh's main railway station formerly sat on its south coast. The lake itself was 90 hectares in area.
In 2007 the Cambodian government made an agreement to lease the land to Shukaku Inc. for 99 years. This agreement has resulted in the filling of the lake with sand in order for the company to build condominiums and other complexes on the land. The change of the lake and the area surrounding the lake has had major social and environmental impact. Several non-governmental organizations in Cambodia as well as international actors have protested the destruction of Boeung Kak Lake. In 2010, 90 percent of the lake had already been filled with sand. As of 2015, roads and drainage infrastructure has been installed and real estate development is taking place there.
Boeung Kak area lease
The Municipality of Phnom Penh announced on 6 February 2007 that they had granted a 99-year lease for the amount of US$79,002,000 for 133 hectares of land surrounding and including Boeung Kak Lake. The lease was given to a small private development called Shukaku Inc, which is owned by the wife of Lao Meng Khin, a crony senator for the Cambodian People´s Party (CPP). In the lease the municipality predicted that 4,252 families in Sangkat Chak Khan Daun Penh and other areas around the lake would be affected. The development group Shukaku Inc. wanted to lease the land for the production of trade and service places for domestic and international tourists, as well as for building high-end condominiums. Shukaku Inc. later made a deal with a Chinese Investment Group called Erdos Hongjun Investment Corporation, which also were to help out with the building projects on the newly gained land.
Shukaku has termed the development of the lake "Phnom Penh City Center", and has built an office, roads, and drainage infrastructure on site. Shukaku struck a joint venture with Chinese firm Erdos Hongjun Investment Corporation in 2010, but this collapsed in 2014. Beijing-based Graticity Real Estate Development bought 20 hectares from Shukaku and is now building the first major development at Boeung Kak, called "One Park".
Background to land title concerns
The people living on the land of the lake are concerned about losing their land. Land title concerns related to the lease of Boeung Kak Lake are a result of a long history of land title issues in Cambodia. In 1930, during the long period of colonialism of Cambodia by the French most of the land had been registered as private property. However, the French system was upheld after Cambodia gained independence in 1953. In the years thereafter more land was distributed to the population and in 1962, 84 percent of agriculture households owned land. The trend shifted during the 1970s and the ownership of land moved from the whole population to mostly the privileged classes owning land.
During the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 the regime abolished all ownership and land titles as well as all existing official land records in Cambodia. In doing so, the Khmer Rouge owned all the land in the country and excluded any private ownership of land. Ten years after the Khmer Rouge Regime the land was still owned by the state of Cambodia. A majority of the households surrounding Boeung Kak Lake bought the land from military and government officials during land transactions in 1989. Because of the abolishment of records during the Khmer Rouge period, it is difficult to prove ownership and titles of the homes for some of the people living around the lake.