Aid and development
Development policy and administration
$10 mln to protect ecosystems in Southeast Asia
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has committed to provide another $10 mln U.S. in grants to address the environmental crisis engulfing mainland Southeast Asia. The ground-breaking biodiversity fund was launched in 2008. During the first phase, $10 mln was invested in efforts to conserve the critical ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZmM3ZDQzYjBiMmV
New study reveals catastrophic loss of Cambodia's tropical flooded grasslands
Around half of Cambodia’s tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, are of great importance for biodiversity and a ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-03-reveals-catastrophic-loss-cambodia-tropical.html
Project to reduce flooding
The government has announced plans for a landmark project to create a system for diverting and then stocking waste water, in a bid to prevent run-off into the streets of Phnom Penh and the Tonle Sap river. Moeung Sophan, a consultant to the Phnom Penh Department ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031161854/National/project-to-reduce-flooding.html
Toilets, trucks on agenda
The government announced new plans for developing both transportation and rural sanitation at the annual meeting of the Ministry of Rural Development at the Chaktomuk Conference Hall in Phnom Penh yesterday. According to officials at the event, the ministry will be completing by year’s end a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661784/National/toilets-trucks-on-agenda.html
Government Has 13 Payment Guarantees for Energy Projects
A CPP lawmaker said yesterday the government has signed 13 payment guarantees to companies constructing coal-fired power plants and hydropower dams in the country, a move that an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official reiterated was risky for the country’s fiscal future. CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-has-13-payment-guarantees-for-energy-projects-11377/
Regional Bank, IMF Note Risks to Government's Dam Guarantee
The government’s guaranteed bailout of major infrastructure projects, such as the future 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng province, requires a thorough assessment of forecasted risks – a capacity which the government currently does not possess, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said yesterday. Speaking on ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/regional-bank-imf-note-risks-to-governments-dam-guarantee-11269/
Villagers Petition Against Dam
Ethnic minority villagers expecting to be displaced by a proposed Chinese-built hydroelectric dam in northeastern Cambodia are asking the country’s parliament not to approve a law providing financial guarantees for the project. Villagers living along three rivers that will be affected by the dam spoke ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/villagers-02142013163955.html
Hong Kong bans eggs from Cambodia
Hong Kong has banned egg imports from Cambodia due to the country’s recent avian influenza outbreak, which claimed four lives last month. “Hong Kong does not import live poultry or poultry meat from Cambodia, but 170,000 poultry eggs were imported from there last year,” the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020561181/National/hong-kong-bans-eggs-from-cambodia.html
Dam in Northeast Built on Earthquake Site, Study Finds
Experts are recommending that a proposed dam on the Sesan River in northeast Cambodia be equipped with earthquake protection measures, after discovering a quake occurred in the area some 30 years ago. The proposed Lower Sesan II dam would be situated on a site in Stung ...
PM urges action against unnamed firms
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered officials to take action against unnamed companies he said were using the cover of night to illegally dredge sand from the Mekong River. Calling on Water Resources and Meteorology Minister Lim Kean Hor to lead the crackdown, Hun Sen also ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013012360929/National/pm-urges-action-against-unnamed-firms.html
Vietnam and Cambodia hit back
Vietnam urged Laos to halt construction of a $3.5 billion hydropower dam pending further study, environmental activists said on Friday after a meeting of the Mekong River Commission. The activists said Cambodia, also downriver from the Xayaburi dam, accused Laos during heated discussions on Wednesday and ...
http://bdnews24.com/environment/2013/01/21/vietnam-and-cambodia-hit-back
Groups slam ministers' failure to discuss Xayaburi Dam
Regional conservationists criticised the Mekong River Commission (MRC) yesterday for leaving the controversial Xayaburi Dam off its agenda at this week’s annual ministerial meeting in Luang Prabang, Laos. Laotian authorities said they would confirm their decision to go ahead with the hydropower project in the mainstream ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Groups-slam-ministers-failure-to-discuss-Xayaburi--30198036.html
Broken rice from Cambodia affects export
Exports of milled rice had fallen dramatically last year because of the poor quality of paddy rice, insiders said yesterday. Milled-rice producers told the Post that a large amount of paddy rice broke. From every 100 kilograms of paddy rice, 20 to 23 kilograms of milled rice ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010960686/Business/broken-rice-from-cambodia-affects-export.html
Hun Sen Asks Companies to Invest in Private Fire Trucks, Again
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday appealed to the private sector for the second time to invest in fire trucks instead of depending on the government’s fire departments. “Please try to do two jobs. The first is to get the fire sprinkler systems into the factory ...
Cambodia exposed to large fiscal risks from disasters
Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned yesterday. In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in the ...
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-12/20/content_16035026.htm
Cambodian PM vows to protect environment
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday he decided to choose environment protection, not to choose 30 billion U.S. dollar expected revenues from the exploitation of titanium ore in Southwestern Cambodia. “According to a feasibility study, titanium ore deposit in Chhiphat district in Koh Kong province ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/17/c_132046623.htm
Cambodia passes fire prevention draft law
The Government of Cambodia on Friday passed a draft law on fire prevention in order to contribute to maintaining security, social safety, public order, and life and property protection, according to a media statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting. In the meeting, Hun Sen ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/14/c_132041591.htm
Fourth missing in dam disaster, say witnesses
Workers who directly witnessed the Stung Atai dam accident more than a week ago have contested government accounts, telling the Post four, not three, men were still missing after an outlet pipe burst. Those working or living near the dam also told the Post investigations pledged ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/fourth-missing-in-dam-disaster-say-witnesses.html
Residents seek compensation as homes fall into Tonle Sap
Nineteen families from Svay Pak commune in Russey Keo district protested for a second day Wednesday after their homes fell into the Tonle Sap River. Twenty-four houses along the river have been affected, they said. Although five have already left, the other 19 refuse to accept ...
Government Silent on Atai Dam Damage
With three workers still missing after a major breach at a chinese built hydropower dam in Pursat province on Saturday, the Government’s investigation into what went wrong and why appears to be moving slowly. A large set ion of a concrete tunnel at Stung Atai ...
One Safe, Three Missing in Hydrodam Accident
PHNOM PENH – Authorities are searching for three missing construction workers at a Chinese hydroelectric dam in Pursat province, after pipes burst there on Saturday, causing a flash flood. One man, who had been fishing nearby and was thought missing, has been found “safe and alive” ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/one-safe-three-missing-in-hydrodam-accident/1557685.html
Landmines kill 41 Cambodians, injuring 121 others in 10 months
Cambodia on Monday recorded 162 landmine casualties in the first ten months of this year, down 4 percent from 155 casualties at the same period last year, showed a report from the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System. The report said that ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/03/c_132016467.htm
Coalition of Cambodian NGOs calls for help with climate change
As the latest UN climate change conference begins today in Doha, Qatar, a coalition of Cambodian NGOs is joining calls for developed countries to bear more of the burden of combating climate change. Cambodia and other poor countries are unprepared to deal with rapid climate change ...
Widening emissions gap too high for climate tackle: report
As nations meet at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha today, the greenhouse-gas emissions gap is widening, according to a report by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) released last week. Keeping the global average temperature rise below two degrees Celsius requires that action ...