Drought

While 600 hectares of farmland has dried up in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thmar Puok district, as the region’s nearly month-long drought took its toll, local officials on Monday were optimistic that Sunday evening’s rainfall will spare the rest of the district’s fields. ...

A new dam project in Battambang province’s Ek Phnom district is expected to end ongoing drought problems and provide water to villagers farming on more than 10,000 hectares across three districts. ...

The Mekong River Commission yesterday launched two joint projects to better manage the Mekong basin resources and address flood and drought issues, especially monitoring the environmental impact of the controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam. ...

Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate.The Cambodian government awarded between 30 and 40 logging concessions to private companies during ...

This year’s early rains and a swift response to drought-like conditions in two provinces will spare Cambodia the searing droughts that plagued it in 2015 and 2016, the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said yesterday, though one development partner cautioned that lasting drought preparedness ...

Villagers living in two drought-afflicted Banteay Meanchey districts appealed to authorities to distribute water yesterday, though officials claim the situation is not yet severe enough to warrant it. ...

In its annual report on disaster preparedness, the National Committee for Disaster Management yesterday affirmed that last year’s drought was the worst in 50 years and recommended the construction of new wells to alleviate future dry spells – despite serious risks identified by recent research. ...

The economic stability of Cambodian households took a beating during the El Nino weather cycle that enveloped the region during the last dry season, resulting in drought conditions that drove many families into debt and lower income brackets, a new study has found. The study, released ...

As the harvest season of Cambodia’s most important crop kicks off, a crisis is looming as both rice farmers and millers face crippling capital shortages and a promised industry lifeline has yet to materialise. Industry experts said yesterday that these small farmers desperate to pay their ...

About 40,000 Battambang rice-farming families already suffering steep losses from a severe drought are at risk of seeing their crops wiped out entirely by devastating floods as late seasonal rains start to kick in. A drought that meteorologists have blamed on the tail-end of an ...

The first rainfall this year did not arrive until early June to Pursat, a province located in the northwest of the country, where land looked bare and thirsty at the height of the planting season. The devastating drought, which the government has described as the ...

There was little rain to settle the red dust in Krolah. The wells dried up. The cattle died. The people fell sick. ...

Cambodia lost 10 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) last year to the negative effect of climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In announcing a $96 million package to help the Kingdom cope with the loss of livelihoods and income due to ...

The head of the World Food Programme in Cambodia has labelled the government’s drought preparation and response “insufficient” and warned that the Kingdom must be prepared to receive less help in the future.   ...

With rain finally starting to fall across the country, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday declared an end to the relief campaign he launched last month to counter the worst drought in decades, calling the devastating dry spell an opportunity for “lessons” in governance. ...

The government’s two-month nationwide campaign to distribute water to those affected by drought officially ended yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced while speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Asia-Europe University in Phnom Penh. ...

Behind a clutch of huts that hug the major route between Cambodia’s capital and its famed Angkor temples, rice farmers Phem Phean and Sok Khoert peer into a cement hollow.   ...

Around 500,000 Cambodians who face water shortages still have not received government assistance since drought relief efforts began on April 26, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management.   ...

Conservationists are expressing concern that some of the Kingdom’s endangered birds are not reproducing this year due to extreme heat stress, inability to find enough food and habitat loss from wildfires and human encroachment. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen called for a continuation of the national effort to distribute water to those in need yesterday, instructing all provincial governors to stay in their provinces until the water crisis is over.   ...

The number of dead fish found in Kampong Thom’s protected Tonle Chhmar Lake climbed higher over the weekend – nearly 70 tons of fish have now died since the first were found by provincial fishery officials on April 23.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen once again appealed to citizens to help distribute water to those suffering from the worst drought in over 50 years, during a speech at a graduation ceremony yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Health expects a dangerous year for diseases and heat trauma as a result of the extreme weather that the Kingdom is experiencing, according to a series of public statements this week.   ...

After nearly seventy tons of fish were found dead in the protected Tonle Chhmar Lake in Kampong Thom over the weekend, efforts are now underway to save the remaining fish from perishing in the high temperatures, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. ...