P03258.472
Photograph P03258.472 Period 1990-1999Children run and play amongst temporary dwellings built on ground that runs down through swamps to the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, and which is typical of the conditions in which many thousands of
P03258.433 Accession Number: P03258.433
Description
A woman feed cobs of corn to one of her children at the doorway to their temporary home built on swampy ground adjacent to the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, which is typical of the conditions in which many thousands of Khmer families are forced to live. Subject to annual inundation from monsoon flooding, none of these homes have access to any services such as electricity, running water or toilets and according to photographer Heide Smith, the odour emitted from such settlements was overpowering. Thousands of landless families squat in poverty on whatever land or buildings they find available, having returned under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)'s Repatriation scheme after years of exile in the Thai border camps to discover their former homes were already 'owned' and occupied. Many other families have been displaced by fighting, landmines and rural poverty and are drawn to the city where the prospect of jobs appears brighter, further compounding an already spiralling housing crisis, many falling victim to high rates of disease, violence and social dysfunction.
Details
Accession Number
P03258.433
Maker
Classification
Photograph
Object Type
Transparency
Physical Description
Format: 35mm
Date Made
1993
Place Made
Whole/Part
Whole
Item Count
1
Credit Line
Donor H Smith
Copyright
AWM copyright
Conflicts
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