For years, the riverbank of Chroy Chongva in Phnom Penh has been home to the Cham fishing community. Although it is located near the heart of the capital, these fishermen have been living primitively, with no electricity and running water, but they are still striving to protect their identities, especially language and religion.
Their ways of life have been a subject of many artists and journalists from around the world. Yet, this community is likely to disappear in the near future, as the government ordered all its member to move out of the area, for the sake of beautification and public order concern.
The Cham fishermen are now facing homelessness, due to a severe decline in their fishing income, no thanks to climate change. But they still keep their hopes up, writes Taing Rinith.
On a very early Tuesday morning, a small fishing boat cam be seen floating on Chaktomuk River in Phnom Penh. Ey Ya, a 51-year-old Cham fisherman and the owner of the boat, was hauling his net and sorting out his catch. In the net, there were only a few small fish, with almost no flesh. Ya has been working since midnight, but of late, things have always been this way.
I used to catch much more fish a few years ago, but they are gone now, and I don’t know why, Ya said in Khmer, his words heavily coated in Cham accent. Sometimes, I cannot even catch enough for our meal.
Tired and hungry, Ya steered his boat towards the Chong Koh Fishing Community on Chroy Chongva peninsular, where his family and other 79 Muslim households had lived for more than 20 years although they have no ownership over the land in small, little huts. But now almost all the huts are gone, and most of the fishermen, including Ya, are forced to live on their boats.
We can no longer live on land because the government has ordered us to leave the place where we have lived and fished for years, says Ya, squatting on his boat and pointing to a spot on the mainland where his hut used to stand.
I heard that it is fine for us to live on water, but we are not sure about that.
Next to Ya’s boat is the hut of Math Sibda, a Cham widow who made her living by fixing nets for the fishermen. Like Ya, she used to live in a hut on the mainland and was evicted recently. Because she does not have a fishing boat, she has no choice but to build a smaller hut near the body of water to live with her three children.
I was so shocked when they (the authorities) asked us to leave because I had lived here for almost 30 years, much longer, even before the nearby Sokha Hotel was built, says 55-year-old Sibda. I know we do not own the land, but we just need a very small space to live and a small area near the river to anchor our boats.
Y Yuu, the leader and representatives of Chong Koh Community said his people have always been in peril of losing what little they have the narrow strip of land onto which they anchor their boats. And now, it is happening.
2019 Virtus Media Pte., Ltd. (Khmer Times)