Cambodia begins evicting floating homes amid protests

Residents demolish their floating houses on the Tonle Sap river after they were ordered to leave within one week of being notified by local authorities in Prek Pnov district, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 12, 2021. REUTERS/Cindy Liu

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's capital of Phnom Penh on Saturday began overseeing the dismantling of "floating home" communities on the banks of the Tonle Sap River over the objections of longtime residents who say they have nowhere else to go.

For generations, the floating wooden houseboats of Phnom Penh have been both livelihood and way of life for mostly ethnic Vietnamese families, home to fish farming and interconnected by warrens of hand-built bridges interspersed with sunken poles and small boats.