Disasters

Floods and a plague of crickets have left about 100 hectares of rice crops destroyed in Tbong Khmum province after a week of heavy rains, local farmers and officials said yesterday. ...

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 ...

Rainstorms and lightning strikes killed a combined 43 people and injured 79, while damaging 2,735 homes in the first five months of the year, according to a report by the National Committee for Disaster Management. ...

Five days of rain wreaked havoc in Cambodia’s northwest, with hundreds of hectares of crops affected in Pailin province and heavy flooding in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town. ...

Fishermen and passengers travelling by sea have been warned to take care as rainstorms lash coastal areas from tomorrow until Saturday. The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology said big waves were expected off  Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces.   ...

A farmer died after being struck by lightning on Sunday evening while herding his cattle home in Kandal province’s Khsach Kandal district.​ According to a report by the National Committee for Disaster Management, the number of deaths caused by lightning this year has risen to ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities say they have warned villagers living upstream of the Lower Sesan II dam to expect floods in September as one of the dam’s 50-megawatt turbines goes into operation. ...

Lighting deaths nearly tripled in Cambodia during the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016, an official at the National Committee for Disaster Management said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology has issued another bad weather advisory, warning storms will continue until the start of next month. ...

Four were killed by lightning strikes and three were seriously injured when the roof of their house collapsed as storms battered five provinces – Svay Rieng, Kampong Chhnang, Kandal, Battambang and Oddar Meanchey – on Tuesday. ...

More than 100 homes have been destroyed, another person killed and several people injured as storms continue to cut a swathe through Cambodia. ...

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 ...

Record low temperatures and unseasonable rainfall over the past week were a glimpse into the potential, intensifying effects of climate change in Cambodia, experts said, a phenomenon that studies suggest could seriously hinder future agricultural productivity through flooding, unpredictable rains and warming of up to ...

Ten houses on the banks of the Bassac river in Kandal province were damaged when part of the riverbank collapsed on Saturday. Soy Saravorn, the deputy police chief in Saang district, said parts of the homes in Roka Khpous commune fell into the water.   ...

At least six people were injured and 150 properties damaged during a storm in Pursat, Preah Vihear and Rattanakiri provinces. Preah Vihear province’s deputy police chief Chorm Sam Ol said yesterday that based on preliminary reports, the storm started on Tuesday afternoon and destroyed 83 homes ...

Nearly 60 homes in Battambang and Pailin provinces were damaged by storms on Monday caused by unseasonal rain, however no injuries or deaths were reported. A disaster management committee report said that in 2016, there were 279 storms that completely destroyed 1,997 houses and tore ...

Siem Reap provincial authorities have created a committee to investigate a fire that consumed most of a market early yesterday morning but did not cause any deaths or injuries. ...

More than 40 houses burned down in a fire in a Daun Penh district slum last night, although Phnom Penh officials reported no injuries or deaths. ...

City Hall officials urged the public yesterday to take fire safety seriously and called for help in dealing with fire-related problems beyond their current capacity, including handling infernos in high-rise buildings and construction sites. ...

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 Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries on Monday signed off on a list of seven measures intended to guard against forest fires, although details on implementation remained scarce yesterday and observers said they expected little to come of the new document. ...

Government officials say they are investigating the causes of two separate weekend fires in Mondolkiri province that reportedly burned through hundreds of high-value logs the government had sold to a businessman after confiscating them from a pair of rubber plantations. ...

The first storm of 2017 named Muifa will bring rain to some provinces and the capital this weekend, according to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday.   ...