River beautification and no compensation

National Road 6 runs along the north end of Siem Reap. 90% of the tourist attractions, etc. Are south of this road. The banks of the river, north of NR 6 are lined with a fairly large community. The houses are by no means made of anything substantial. None of them had running water or plumbing of any kind. A few were lucky enough to have electricity. The houses were simple bamboo/thatch/wooden structures that projected out over the water. This community extended for ~2-3km along the river, with the most concentration on the western bank. The other day I was biking by for the first time in a few weeks and I was met by the most extraordinary scene. The houses were being dismantled/demolished/deconstructed. I've asked a few people what's going on and I've gotten a few various answers, but they all centre around one specific fact: the government wants to 'beautify' that section of the river, to make it more pleasing to the eye . I've heard that they were only given a weeks notice to move out and I've also heard that they've known for the past three years, they were simply reminded of the impending deconstruction date a week ago. Which ever way you look at it, it's still the destruction of some 400 families' homes, and they're being 'relocated' somewhere else. In Cambodia, a person's sphere of their community and who the interact with on a daily basis isn't likely to be more than 5km from the place they were born. If the people living on the river are being 'relocated' some 10-15km away it's equivalent to a typical Western family moving from Madison, WI to Tampa, FL. And I highly doubt they're going to be compensated in any way.

As I walked along, evidence of the lives of these people was everywhere: discarded shoes and clothes and a few stuffed animals. There was garbage everywhere. There's only a very basic rubbish removal system here, so most of their trash gets chucked under their house, and with the houses gone, the rubbish is apparent. 

What the river bank will eventually look like

What the river bank used to look like

 The current demolition of the river bank community

On a similar note. I was talking to one of the Khmer teachers at work today and he said yesterday we went to a meeting for people in his neighbourhood to discuss the upcoming widening of the road. Each property along the road, on either side, is being told that they're going to have to give up 5m of their land, so the road can be widened. The teacher said that one of his neighbours has recently completed a guest house (at the cost of ~20 thousand USD) and that a section of the building rests on land that's meant to be used for the road project. What are the supposed to do? Tear down a guest house they've just finished building? I asked him what the land of other neighbours is being used for. He said, 'They have small convenience type shops, laundry shops, petrol shops, parking areas for their vehicle/s.' And similar to the evicted families along the river, these people will receive no compensation for giving up their land; land which they use to bring in their income.