ABC (Australia) 12 January 2017: Cambodia's water people pushed out of Phnom Penh sewer for billion-dollar ING City
Sophal Ear, PhD, NACD.DC
Tenured Faculty | Board Chair | President | Author | Speaker | Husband | Dad of Steven, Caitlyn, Nathan & Jasmin
Thanks Will Jackson for quoting me in ABC on "Cambodia's water people pushed out of Phnom Penh sewer for billion-dollar ING City": Government critic Sophal Ear describes the deal paving the way for ING City as "yet another shady deal in the Kingdom of Wonder".
"You always have to wonder how much was paid, or even to whom. It's just shameless," says Associate Professor Ear at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
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There's also the city's sewage.
At the same time as the torrent of fetid blackwater is increasing, the area of wetland that naturally filtered and purified the waste is drastically shrinking. It's a catastrophic health and environmental mess — right in the Government's own nest.
A multi-million-dollar conventional treatment plant has been recommended to the city, but authorities are crying poor, saying they lack the necessary financial resources.
Associate Professor Ear says it would be typical for the Cambodian Government to expect international aid dollars to fix a problem it has been hell-bent on creating.
"Donors should refuse to help," he says, "it would just mean the Government avoids the costs of the harm it does. It's a moral hazard." Columbia University Press Routledge Politics Routledge