The arrival of an amusement park near the temples of Angkor worries

An amusement park called “Angkor Lake of Wonder” and extending over 75 hectares will soon be created near the sacred temples of Angkor in Cambodia. The construction project provides barely 500 meters of gap between the site classified as “Unesco World Heritage” and the boundaries of the park in question, reports The world. Experts working to preserve the Angkor temples fear that the “Angkor Lake of Wonder” park will “seriously affect the image of outstanding universal value” of this historic site, which has the “World Heritage” label. Unesco “since 1992.

NagaCorp LTD, the Chinese group that obtained approval from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in May 2020, has planned to invest $ 350 million for the initial phase of the project, which is due to end in 2025. According to The world, NagaCorp LTD would have obtained the guarantee of having the land for 50 years, with free rental for the first ten years, then $ 29 per square meter thereafter. Cambodia could then recover a billion dollars.

The water table in danger?

Besides the image of the Angkor temples, what also worries about this pharaonic project is its impact on the environment. And in particular its water consumption. The park would have twelve water attractions, including an enchanted 2.5 kilometer river and a 5,000 square meter wave pool. The water table, already very weakened by the construction of hotels in the region, will inevitably suffer.

For NagaCorp LTD, water is an essential element of its park but not only. It takes on a sacred character that the Chinese group wishes to highlight in its project to benefit, in the future, from the image of the Angkor temples and to attract visitors.

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