21TS.13
Run Ta Ek Eco Village (APSARA Project)
The Experts:
a. Thank the APSARA staff for their availability and the quality of their ex-changes.
b. Appreciate the fact that the number of families has increased by 35 since last year, leading to 95 involved households.
c. Are satisfied with the construction of the school, while waiting for further developments such as the construction of a pagoda and a market, which are key features of authentic village life as expected by the pro-ject’s instigators.
d. Acknowledge the lack of activities on site which could lead to the villag-ers staying at the site, but on the contrary has forced the villagers to mi-grate for a few months to seek employment.
e. Acknowledge the noticeable disappearance of the Vietnamese investor and the difficulty of producing market gardens due to a lack of control of water resources (in excess during the monsoon, lacking in the dry sea-son), the absence of proper shade and the nature of the sandy soil, which produces a substrate that is low in nutrients.
f. Foster the Cambodian authorities to:
• Promote activities aiming at establishing village organisation, with a view to identifying the representative partners and to facilitating the life of the community on site.
• Re-use the land formerly conceded to the Vietnamese operator and other plots of land in order to set up tests and show crops (bamboos, orchards, market gardening) with a view to establishing farming and handicraft activities near the village to prevent any migration. The APSARA managers have the necessary skills and abilities to efficiently drive such a project to demonstrate and foster the development of village activities.