The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction

and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

The Changing Role of Water

in the Spatial Construction and
Design of Southeast Asian Polities
Lily C. Wong
The New School, USA
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

I nvestigating historical maps and texts, this essay charts the changing role of water in the spatial
understanding and city design of three consecutive polities in Southeast Asia: pre-colonial tributary
system, modern nationhood during the colonial period, and contemporary globalized neoliberal government.
The role of water shifts from a heuristic device that is interwoven with political and territorial imaginings to
a technocratically engineered commodity that is sacrificed in pursuit of modernization. Using the current
urban design of Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an example, water remains the blind spot for urban development,
despite the discussion of water sustainability at the regional scale.

On February 4th 2011, there was a forty-five-minute along the Dngrk mountain range. However, the
exchange of fire at the Thai/Cambodian border. The map produced by French officers in 1907 deviated
artillery and rifle fire continued for three more days. from the watershed line, placing the entire temple
According to the New York Times, at least seven complex within French colonial territory. The
people died and dozens of soldiers and civilians were Siamese authorities at that time did not inquire about
wounded. The reason for this conflict is the dispute the map for various reasons, one of which is that the
over the claim of Preah Vihear Temple, a Hindu concept of a surveyed, legal national boundary line
sanctuary dedicated to the god Shiva, built during was still vague to the Siamese. The Siamese
the reign of the Khmer Empire between the 9th and understood a boundary as a hinterland ecotone, a
11th centuries. The temples long entry stairway zone instead of a line on a map that demarcates an
climbs the Dngrk Mountains from the Khorat area within which an authority can legitimately
Plateau in northeast Thailand and surmounts a exercise its power.
precipitous cliff facing Cambodia to the south. Its
front entrance faces north and it had easier access After the withdrawal of French troops from Indochina
from Thailand until the construction of a road up the in 1954, Thai forces occupied the temple. Cambodia
cliff from the Cambodian side in 2003. protested and brought the case to the International
Court of Justice. In 1962, the court ruled that the
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The border dispute has a long history. It can be temple belonged to Cambodia, due to Siams long
traced back to 1904, when the former Kingdom of acceptance of the 1907 map. According to the
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Siam and the French colonial authorities ruling statement from the International Court of Justice, It
Cambodia established a joint commission to was clear from the record, however, that the maps
delineate their mutual border under the principle that were communicated to the Siamese Government as
the border would follow the watershed boundary line purporting to represent the outcome of the work of
 Lily C. Wong

delimitation; since there was no reaction on the part The latter constitutes the identity of a nation in
of the Siamese authorities, either then or for many architecture and urban design what I term the
years, they must be held to have acquiesced. If city-body. Especially significant in the capital city of
the Siamese authorities accepted the Annex I map a modern nation, architecture and urban design,
without investigation, they could not now plead any shaped by both political and economical forces,
error vitiating the reality of their consent (International serves as a public face for the governing authority.
Court of Justice, 1962). This did not settle the dispute, Water does not have a consistent role in the spatial
although it remained uncontested during the bulk of construction and city design of the Southeast Asian
the Cold War period. The ownership of the temple polities. Its role changes from a heuristic device that
became increasingly conflictual when Cambodia is interwoven with a broad understanding of the world
applied for World Heritage designation by UNESCO, to a commodity that is technocratically engineered.
despite Thailands protest that it should be joint- I will chronologically chart the historical change of
listed. The World Heritage Committee in Paris the role of water in three consecutive polities in
granted Cambodia the designation of the Preah Southeast Asia: pre-colonial tributary kingship
Vihear Temple and its surrounding 4.2 square system, Westphalian modern nation-state, and
kilometers territory. Thailand protested. The conflict contemporary globalized neoliberal government.
between Thailand and Cambodia continues until With Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an example, my
now. discussion of the complex historical developments
will aim at eliciting the relationship among water, city
This dispute captures two things: first, it demonstrates design and the organizational structure of polity.
the ambivalence in the shift of worldview occurred Although the issue of water gains importance in
at the turn of the 20th century in Southeast Asia from contemporary transnational organizations, it is often
a pre-colonial boundless tributary kingship system push to the margins in the face of economic
to a Westphalian nation-state system in which a development. As shown in the current urban design
national boundary is a constitutive element. This of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, water is a blind spot in
ambivalence, as demonstrated in Siams acceptance the spatial construction and design of the city.
of the 1907 map, has historical consequences that
are still relevant today. Second, it demonstrates the
role of built-space needed for the construction of a
nations historical heritage as part of a nations self- 1. GEO-BODY AND CITY-BODY
crafted identity. It has to be constructed because
modern nationhood did not exist in Southeast Asia Both geo-body and city-body are constitutive to the
until the turn of the 20th century. Its emergence is not modern nationhood and especially resonates in a
a coherent linear process as some history textbook capital city. Capital cities give modern nations
might suggest. The Khmer temple was part of a inherently an imaged community according to
shared, boundless tributary cultural and religious Benedict Anderson a visual tangibility. The concept
network without belonging to any nation-state. In of geo-body is borrowed from Thongchai Winichakul.
other words, it was both Thai and Cambodian. In his book Siam Mapped, he argues the geo-body
of a nation is a man-made territorial definition which
While some scholars (Thongchai, 1994; Askew, creates effects by classifying, communicating, and
2002; Povatong, 2002) have explored the roles of enforcement on people, things, and relationships
cartography and urban planning in the construction (Thongchai, 1994, p.17). It is merely an effect of
of modern nationhood in Southeast Asia, in my modern geographical discourse whose prime
essay, I aim to specifically draw out the changing technology is a map (Thongchai, 1994, p.17). In
role of water in structuring the geopolitics in local other words, it is by the production of a map, the
urban designs in Southeast Asian polities. I use the bounding of an area in relation to other areas, that
word polity to denote an organized political the geo-body of a nation is created. A map is not a
structure that corresponds to a geographical body. scientific abstraction of something that exists
The organizational logic can take various forms with objectively, but it is an active mediator between
12

different structures of governing authority such as human beings and their surroundings. It is constitutive
kingship, European colony, modern neoliberal to modern nationhood, for a nation exists by, first
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government, etc. National maps and the design of and foremost, being drawn on a map. Imagine asking
the capital city constitute modern nationhood as a someone to draw Thailand, she or he will probably
polity. The former constitutes a nation by delineating draw the outline of Thailand as it appears on the
a boundary on a map what is called the geo-body. map. Thongchai points out two functions of a map:
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

as a sign, it is an effective and active mediation 2. WATER, WORLDVIEW, AND THE

which can even create a geo-body; as a metasign,
it is an object of reference in itself and can create
CITY IN PRE-COLONIAL TIME
more meanings and values beyond its origin
The modern concept of a map, and by extension the
(Thongchai, 1994, p.138). Taken out of its contextual
concept of national boundaries, did not exist in
territorial depiction, an abstracted map or the
Southeast Asia before the colonial era. Yet, it does
outline of a country signifies the national map, and
not mean that there was no spatial depiction. Space
it acquires another set of meanings that does not
was depicted in accordance with the cosmological
necessarily refers back to the territorial definition,
understanding, sometimes fusing it with the profane
thus a metasign. A map signifies what we call a
world. For instance, the Traiphum map (Figure 1)
nation and it can also be the signified. Furthermore,
from the Ayutthaya period includes the region that
by aligning itself with the study of nature and
spans from what is nowadays-northern Thailand to
geography, it naturalizes the arbitrariness of the
Sri Lanka. Rivers and seas dominate the map.
geo-body of a nation, for a nation only emerged after
Instead of geographical reality, shown in the map
the introduction of European cartography to the
are Buddhist concepts and symbolisms; it tells the
boundless Southeast Asian region.
story of Buddhas journey (Surez, 1999).
Although Thongchai compellingly describes the gap
The conflation between religious and water symbols
between indigenous tributary spatial logic and the
demonstrates that water embodies an understanding
importance of European cartography in imagining
of the world; it is central for territorial imaginings.
the geo-body of the nation, he does not explicate the
Hinduism and Buddhism, the two dominant religions
status and logic of the hydrological tributary system
in the pre-colonial period, share the same
of Southeast Asia in relation to the definition of this
cosmological model. According to Sumet Jumsai in
new territorial geo-body. I will further draw out the
his book Naga, at the center of the model is Mount
role of water in the geo-body of Southeast Asia in
Meru, which the Himalayas are invariably equated
the next section.
(Jumsai, 1988, p.13). Radiating out of the center are
rings of cosmic oceans and land, and beyond the
Using the same signifying structure that Thongchai
rings is the Ocean of Infinity. While the Buddhist
identifies, I argue that the design of the capital city
model has seven rings, the Hindu model has six
also serves as a manifestation of polity and thereby
rings. In the Buddhist model there are also four
articulates the self-crafted identity of a nation. I use
island-continents in the Ocean of Infinity. It introduces
the term city-body to denote the physical city and
an element of orientation thereby, giving architecture
by extension its images. In pre-colonial time, the
and urban planning their needed cardinal points
human body was used as a metaphor for the
(Jumsai, 1988, p. 13). Not only is this worldview
kingdom, with the king as the head. Projecting the
woven into political and cultural practices of pre-
body to the city, the kings palace is the head, the
colonial water-based civilization, buildings and cities
most important place of the city. The design of the
are also designed according to the cosmological
city did not merely represent the kings authority, but
model. Take Angkor Wat as an example, at the center
it was also ingrained with a cosmological significance
of the complex is a central tower symbolizing Mount
inseparable from the political. It is in modern
Meru. The other towers that encompass that center
nationhood that the capital city bears the task of
correspond to the continents. The outer wall
representing the nation as a whole. The capital city
symbolizes the edge of the world and the moat
is composed of special monumental architecture and
encompassing the complex corresponds to the
planning device that articulates a supposedly unique
Ocean of Infinity.
national style. The construction of the capital city
is thus a construction of the image of the nation. As
Water also plays a constitutive role in the political
a metasign, the image of the city also takes on
imaginings in the pre-colonial tributary system.
another plane of meaning, or, in some cases,
Tributary literally means a river or a stream flowing
borrowed meaning in the network of signifiers. The
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into a larger water body such as a river or a lake. A

city-body is a device to arouse national belongings,
tributary political system uses this meaning
to secure the identity of a nation, and to exhibit the
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metaphorically to describe a hierarchical system in

nations power. While the geo-body produced by a
which lesser kings sent annual tributes to the
map defines a nation on the international political
suzerain state. The overlord expressed its power in
stage, the city-body provides it with an experiential
terms of force if necessary. A tributary inevitably had
face.
 Lily C. Wong

Figure 1:
Tamnan Map from the Traiphum Manuscript. Thongchai, 1994.

to submit itself to the supreme overlord, recognizing tributary rulers, some of whom would repudiate their
its own inferior status (Thongchai, 1994, p.82). The vassal status when the opportunity arose and try to
tributary system operates by a common recognition build up their own network of vassals (Wolters,
of this hierarchical world order that is also intertwined 1982, p.16-17). The religio-political god-king in the
with hydrological cycles and flows. What we call Khmer period was associated with water, as he was
pre-colonial kingdoms such as Siam, Burma, Lanna, identified with Indras slaying of the serpent-cloud
and the Malay sultanates were all tributary kingdoms atop Mount Meru (Jumsai, 1988, p.21), who let the
with separate networks of lordship. A polity had a waters of life flow. The significance of the god-king
precise center based on a mandala and a vaguely is expressed in a stone inscription in Angkor, as
definable periphery, without any fixed boundary. Marda Fortmann points out, it praises the king who
O.W. Wolters describes a mandala as follows: by raising a holy barrage has made the water to flow
14

mandala represented a particular and often where there is little or nonea reservoir beautiful as
unstable political situation as a vaguely definable the [moon], to refresh mankind and to drown the
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geographical area without fixed boundaries and insolence of the other kings (Fortmann, 1965, p.33).
where smaller centers tended to look in all directions
for security. Mandalas would expand and contract in In addition to the cosmological articulation, the
concertina-like fashion. Each one contained several designs of cities were shaped by natural hydraulic
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

conditions. According to Brian McGrath in his article were originally formed as strategic towns along the
Bangkok: the Architecture of Three Ecologies, three river as tributes were brought upstream to the seats
different city types, corresponding to their location of suzerain kings. The cosmological symbolism is
along the river, can be identified: the flood plain less of a driving force for the design of the city than
model, the river confluence model and the delta the local hydraulic conditions. Looking specifically
model (McGrath, 2007). at Ayutthaya (Figure 3), the capital of Siam after
Sukhothai, it was originally surrounded by the ox-
The flood plain model is characterized by an bow of the Lopburi River on three sides, later a canal
orthogonal drainage system of causeways and diked was dug and turned the city into an island. The city
basins (baray). Cities such as Angkor and Sukhothai underwent many phases of restructuring as new
(Figure 2) belong to the flood plain model. Both cities canals were dug to replace old ones. The city was
are located at the flat terrain skirting the mountains, also connected by waterways to the surrounding
thus receive annual flood. The intricate network of rivers, thus creating a larger network of canals for
hydraulic system was used to capture and channel military outpost and trading nodes. The city then
surface water. In addition to its pragmatic use, the gained control over a large food producing area as
drainage system is a direct manifestation of the well as the northern city-states and the open sea,
cosmological understanding. The temples, walls, and resulting in the control of the southern peninsula and
rectangular baray form an axial relationship that much of the trade between India and Japan (Jumsai,
corresponds to the cosmology. Angkor was the seat 1988, p. 164). From the benefit of international trade
of the god-king, both religiously and politically and the sophisticated agri-urbanism that are enabled
important. The arrangement of buildings was by the design of the city, the Kingdom of Siam was
carefully planned to provide the inhabitants with a entrenched in power to withstand European
sacred experience. Compared to other city types, colonization.
the flood plain cities underwent an orthogenetic
transformation, as their designs have remained intact Closest to the coast are cities that can be identified
over the centuries due to their inland location and by the delta model. Coastal cities were mostly
periods of abandonment as their respective kingdom formed in the maritime period. Since Southeast Asia
declined. is situated in between two greater powers: China
and India, entrepts were first established in the
River cities such as Ayutthaya and Phnom Penh are coastal area for Chinese and Indian merchants, and
located in the confluence of different rivers. They later shaped by European during the colonial period.

15
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Figure 2: Figure 3:
Sukhothai. llustration by David Reidel and Seher Aziz. Ayutthaya. Illustration by David Reidel and Seher Aziz.
 Lily C. Wong

They lived in the coastal cities in order to wait for the Ayudhya in the 14th Century, and finally Thonburi,
other traders from different parts of the world to the west bank of Bangkok was declared the capital
come, following the Monsoon season. The in 1767 by King Taksin after the fall of Ayutthaya to
morphology of the delta cities is shaped by foreign Burmese forces. Later it moved to the eastern bank
influences. What characterize the delta model are by Rama I, the founder of the current Chakri Dynasty.
networks of agricultural canal and later additions of The oldest form of capital city that manifest the
fortified sectors. When King Rama I moved the cosmological ideal are located inland. According to
capital from Thonburi to Bangkok (Figure 4) in 1782, Robert Reed, they acted as the magical catalyst
with an intention to reestablish the symbols of the that guaranteed the coalescence of territorial
former capital of Ayutthaya, he built a strong kingdoms in terms of urban authority. Only within the
defense of the city by canals and fortifications in politico-religious precincts of the sacred city, which
the form of a bow. The half-concentric water system the South-East Asians envisaged as the axis mundi
became the spatial and social structuring toollater or omphalos where the earthly and heavenly realms
defensive walls and fortresses were built along the most nearly approached each other, did cosmic
second canal (Widodo, 2004, p.79). The royal power intrude into the profane world of man and
palace and some governmental buildings are diffuse outwards into the hinterland of the state. The
situated in the inner ring between the river and the inland capital was, in short, an essential point of
first canal. Jumsai calls Bangkok a floating city, as ontological transition (Reed, 1976, p.21). The cities
the Chao Phraya River itself, which, together with downstream that are closer to the coast underwent
the canal network, was said to contain some 7,000 a heterogeneous morphology, subject to foreign
floating houses or a floating population of 350,000 influences. They became permanently established
people (Jumsai, 1988, p.169). later than the inland royal cities. It was during the
maritime period that the delta cities flourished,
It is necessary to emphasize the geographical serving as the trading centers where foreign traders
position of the three city models along the river come and go following the monsoons. Traveling
corresponds to the succession of capital cities from upstream from the coast to the inland cities is
ancient rule to the more recent colonial period. For therefore a genealogical journey into Southeast
instance, the capital in the Siamese historical linkage Asian city design legacy.
moved downstream along Chao Phraya River (see
Figure 5) from Sukhothai in the 13th century, to What I have demonstrated is the central role of water
embodied in political imagining and the material
formation of the city in pre-colonial time. At the turn
of the twentieth century, this boundless water-based
worldview was replaced by the emergence of
modern nationhood, and capital city design became
part of the identity of a nation.

3. THE EMERGENCE OF GEO-BODY

AND CITY-BODY IN THE COLONIAL
PERIOD
European colonizers in Southeast Asia in the
sixteenth century brought with them cartographic
techniques and a new necessity for the demarcation
of national (or in this case, colonial) boundaries.
They surveyed the land and created scientific maps.
16

The French map (Figure 6) from 1860 shows how

the territory in Southeast Asia was being divided
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among the French, Portuguese, British, and Dutch.

By the mid 19th century, almost all the territory in the
region was under European power, except for Siam.
Figure 4: Boundaries became necessary for the European
Bangkok. Illustration by David Reidel and Seher Aziz. authorities to delineate the territory within which a
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

Figure 5:
The succession of capital cities along the Chao Phraya River.

colonizer could legitimately exercise its power. The Nonetheless, the territorial geo-body produced was
water-body of Southeast Asia became the logic of primarily meaningful to the Europeans. The Southeast
drawing boundaries. Looking into the boundary Asian authorities, whose worldview consisted of the
between Siam and Cambodia, in the map produced boundless tributary political and cultural space, did
by the English in 1832 (Figure 7), the Mekong River not have the concept of a national boundary. A
17

serves as part of the boundary between Siam and boundary meant only a limit, without any sense of
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the French Cambodia. The map also indicates that division between political powers. When the British
part of the region was under a tributary system and conquered the southern part of Burma in 1825, the
that the Saen Saeb canal built in 1837 was used as British envoy sent letters to the court of Siam to
a military infrastructure to transport soldiers in the negotiate their boundaries. The Siamese officers
conflict between Siam and Annam over Cambodia. replied: The boundaries between the Siamese and
 Lily C. Wong

Figure 6:
1860. Asie Meridionale, Inde Anglaise et Indo-Chine. Atlas spheroidal & universel de geographie dresse par F.A. Garnier,
geographe. David Rumsey Map Collection.

Burmese consisted of a tract of Mountains and forest, many cities throughout Southeast Asia. While the
which is several miles wide and which could not be royal seat is politically and cosmologically the most
said to belong to either nation. (Thongchai, 1994, p. authoritative place in pre-colonial city, the city
64) The Siameses reply shows that they understood designed by the Europeans is characterized by
the concept of a boundary as an ecotone a zone of dispersed bureaucratic offices where the governing
mutual stewardship, instead of a line on a map. As officers resided.
Thongchai claims, when Siam participated in the
production of a map with the collaboration of Britain Looking specifically at Phnom Penh, it was first
and France, many former small autonomous city- established as the capital city by the Khmer King
states and tributary kingdoms were consequently Ponhea Yat after leaving Angkor due to Siameses
bounded within the boundary of the new nation-state. invasion in 1432. Since 1505, the capital city moved
The pre-colonial tributary political was replaced by to various locations under the ruling of different
modern territorial cartographical space. Water as a kings, it was not until 1866 that King Norodom I and
heuristic device for a broad territorial imagining the French Protectorate reestablished Phnom Penh
became a line on a map in modern cartography. as the capital city. Although the king remained
18

present, it was the French Protectorate who had the

The colonizers also brought with them European administrative power. The French Protectorate
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architecture and urban design standards. The referred to King Norodom I as a roitelet, a kinglet.
European model of city design with large tree lined An area was given by the French to King Norodom
boulevards and municipal buildings is repeated in I as the site of his palace. According to Michel Igouts
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

19

Figure 7:
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1832. British map of Burmah, Siam, Cochin China by J.Arrowsmith. David Rumsey Map Collection.
 Lily C. Wong
20
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Figure 8:
Plan of Phnom Penh in 1920. Igout, 1993, p.82.
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

description: Phnom Penhs Versailles housed a 4. WATER AND CONTEMPORARY

throne room, a dance hall for the royal ballet dancers,
a barracks for the royal guardoffices, various
TRANSNATIONAL POLITY
workshops and private apartments for the king and
his family (Ignot, 1993, p.40). The style of the In the contemporary political stage, the nations in
buildings tried to the preserve the old Khmer Southeast Asia belong to a larger transnational polity
architectural traditions (Igout, 1993, p.40). with shared developmental goals. The Association
Nonetheless, the palace was built without the of Southeast Asia, formed in 1961 among Malaysia,
ontological significance that was prevailed in the the Philippines, and Thailand, became ASEAN, the
pre-colonial royal seat. Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in 1967 with
the addition of Indonesia and Singapore. The
The municipality of Phnom Penh was officially membership later extended to include Brunei
established by the French in 1884 and offered an Darussalam in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Myanmar and
administrative framework for urban management. Laos in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. The forming
Massive amount of urban construction were of ASEAN demonstrates a need for the Southeast
undertaken to turn Phnom Penh into a capital city of Asian countries to collaborate for a common regional
Cambodia. Huyn de Verneville was named Rsident- development. While cultural development and
Suprieur of Cambodia from 1889 to 1897. Under political stability are also issues of concern, the main
his planning vision, the Verneville canal around the agenda that the organization is striving for is the
French town was dug for the drainage of the plain. establishment of an EU-style single market and
Many bengs, the swampy areas that were flooded production base. Looking specifically in the Mekong
in the rainy season, were also filled-in. He also River region, the role of water is the political rationale
designed new boulevards and bridges. A map from for the establishment of transnational organizations
1920 (Figure 8) shows that Phnom Penh was that channel the influence of two other powers: China
designed according to Western urban standards. and the US. The Greater Mekong Subregion, formed
Public buildings such as post offices, hospitals, by the Asian Development Bank in 1992, includes
schools and cathedrals were erected to fit the Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and
European need. According to Michel Igout, the Vietnam. In addition to channelizing the Mekong to
colonial French quarter was a model of modern facilitate international trade, one of its biggest
urbanization with its geometrical street plan, its projects on the agenda is the construction of a
pavements soon to be bordered by tress, its gardens railroad that links Nanning in China to Bangkok. Four
and the typical colonial architecture of its houses. different routes have been proposed and the first
As the city developed and the population grew, it route is expected to be completed in 2020. Already
underwent major draining and filling works that highways have connected Singapore to Kunming,
transformed the center between 1928 and 1933. The and new container ports and industrial complexes
Verneville canal was filled in and its southern portion are planned in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and
was converted into an avenue lined with public Vietnam to feed Chinas thirst for resources beyond
gardens between the new train station and the river. the Indian Ocean. What is seen as a counterweight
The former Beng Decho is where the Grand Market to the Greater Mekong Subregion alliance is the
(Psar Thmei) was constructed. The role of the water Lower Mekong Initiative formed in 2009 among the
in city design during the colonial period became a US, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The
commodity that has to be technocratically engineered US has been investing in the areas of environment,
and, in many cases, water was to be rid of. health and education, as well as assisting in
monitoring the ecological development of the region.
The French Protectorate created a new capital city
according to the European standard of Does globalization in post-Cold War Southeast Asia
modernization. The city transformed from the pre- provide an opportunity to renew the geo-body of a
colonial model that is intertwined with the region not as competing nation states but as a
21

cosmological and the aquatic to a new city-body sustainable development platform defined by water
symbolic of European power. This is the beginning instead of bounded national territory? Are the current
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of modern nationhood that is constituted by both the extra-national agencies arenas for a new discussion
geo-body and the city-body. on sustainable futures, or mechanisms for economic
 Lily C. Wong

development alone? The promises made by the will also destroy Phnom Penh. It is therefore
Greater Mekong Subregion and Lower Mekong necessary to develop a new approach to the
Initiative seem optimistic. In the transnational expansion of Phnom Penh. This new plan must
discourse, we see an increasing emphasis on the respect the natural environment while recognizing
issue of water. However, at the local level, the status that large areas of water, serving as storage
of water still remains a blind spot in urban reservoirs, will be an integral and attractive part of
development. Such is the case in the current city the future urban landscape (Molyvann, 2003, p.115).
development of Phnom Penh. Molyvanns opinion is largely ignored in the two
current large-scaled development projects. The
Since Vietnam withdrew all of its troops from construction of Camko City, a Korean development,
Cambodia in September 1989, foreign NGOs and the New East City, a joint Cambodian and
entered and triggered the opening of many new Chinese venture, continued to fill in lakes. Both
restaurants and shops. Foreign investments projects plan to turn the new landfills into large
subsequently poured in; laissez-faire economy complexes of office spaces, residential towers,
became the tenet for the Cambodian government. shopping malls and hotels.
Journalist Stan Sesser, who visited Phnom Penh in
December 1991 (Sesser, 1993), describes the first Looking at the digital renderings of the future city
impression that he got from Phnom Penh as a city
(Figure 9), trophies of glass and steel towers filled
that embraced capitalism with a vengeance from
the city. The city-body represented by the images
the Welcome to Cambodia Heineken Beer sign
signifies the borrowed legacy of prosperity driven
at Pochentong airport to the abundance of Mercedes-
by laissez-faire economy that is now the tenet of
Benz and BMW cars traveling the streets (Osborne,
Cambodias neoliberal government. The current
2008, p.191). Twenty years from Sessers first visit,
economic and real estate boom is expected to
Phnom Penh is now Cambodias center for global
transform the least developed capital city in Asia to
trade and investment. The globalization image of
a modern metropolis. This hope is amplified in the
economic prosperity, represented by glass and
plan of a 555-meter tall building, the tallest in Asia.
steel skyscrapers and western-style shopping malls,
Prime Minister Hun Sen approved the building, which
has become the driving force of urban design in
will be located half a mile from the Royal Palace in
Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh, in September 2010 with great
enthusiasm. According to a news report by Reuters,
Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann wrote that the
the Prime Minister announced, It will be shorter than
major constraints on the city of Phnom Penh are
the one in Dubai and taller than any buildings in Asia,
flooding and drainage. The history of Phnom Penhs
and I think we can do it (Reuters 2010). What is
expansion is, in a sense, a hydraulic history
shown in his statement is a desire to construct the
(Molyvann, 2003, p.112). Situated in the monsoon
identity of Cambodia, vis--vis the city-body, as a
climate, Phnom Penh relies on the network of dikes,
forward-looking modernized nation. The
canals, and bengs to channel and discharge the
spokesperson of the Diamond Island development
rainwater. However, since the 1920s, bengs and
waterways were filled in to create more land close Charles Vann is quoted in a new article from the Wall
to the city center. Due to the lack of maintenance, Street Journal, Phnom Penh has been left behind
existing blocked drainage networks are hardly for a long time and now theyre giving Phnom Penh
functioning to ease the flood. Used household water an opportunity to grow. If you have a good master
and rain water accumulate in drains during the rainy plan, I dont think its a problem. It will benefit the
season rather than running through them, causing city (Barta, 2010, WSJ).
flooding in many parts of the city(Molyvann, 2003,
p.126). Almost one third of the city is paralyzed by What is the role of water in the current city-body?
flood during heavy rain. Molyvann, who points out From the developments of Camko City and New East
the importance of drainage system, argues that It City, we learn that there is not so much, or at best,
22

is not possible to continue expanding the city through a mere digital image rendering feature. While at the
the building of ever larger concentric dikes, filling in transnational level the issue of sustainability of water
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the interceding space to provide new areas for is being discussed in various organizations, at the
urbanization. Such a method of expansion requires local level of urban development, it remains a blind
too massive and costly public works projects, and spot.
 The Changing Role of Water in the Spatial Construction
and Design of Southeast Asian Polities

Figure 9:
Rendering of the master plan of Camko City. Source: http://www.camkocity.net/.

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