Disasters and emergency response

Much of the country could face flooding due to heavy rainfall until Wednesday, the Water Resources and Meteorology Ministry has warned. According to a ministry announcement yesterday, the country will be affected by a low pressure system that will cause heavy rainfall nationwide. ...

Parts of National Road 5 in Battambang province’s Thmarkol district have been inundated by floods, with the district governor warning that a bridge is also under threat of serious damage. ...

Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor has urged local authorities and the public to be wary of impending floods caused by heavy rains expected from today until Sunday. ...

A second road leading to the embattled communities of Sre Kor commune, where defiant villagers continue to live through floods caused by dam construction, has been blocked by Stung Treng provincial authorities.​ ...

Still more riverbank collapses have struck a community in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district where multiple houses have crumbled into the Tonle Bassac river a stone’s throw from where four companies are dredging the riverbed for sand. ...

Families in Stung Treng province that returned to a village near the Lower Sesan II dam after floodwaters temporarily receded are being warned they will be forced again to flee when a far worse deluge comes as all of the new dam’s gates are shut. ...

Hundreds of riverside families in Tbong Khmum province were on Monday evacuated away from the flooding Mekong River, even as the provinces hit hardest by tropical storm ‘Sonca’ last week returned to normalcy and evacuees shuffled back to their homes. ...

As flood waters recede in Preah Vihear province, authorities are now facing a rising damage bill with at least 14 kilometres of roads in need of repair. ...

The recent floods that slammed Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces, among others, destroyed more than 2,000 homes, killed two people and caused at least $1 million in damages, officials said on Friday. ...

Water levels in the Mekong River in Stung Treng province climbed to emergency levels yesterday morning as Prime Minister Hun Sen took to Face-book to order local authorities to look out for residents. ...

Authorities yesterday evacuated 190 households in four communes within Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasat district due to severe flooding, one day after 100 families were ferried to safety in Preah Vihear province, where two people died.​ ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Wednesday approved a draft sub-decree detailing new fire safety building codes as well as regulations for businesses selling flammable materials, an official said. ...

About 100 ethnic minority members were forced to trek 12 km on Wednesday out of a Stung Treng village on the verge of being flooded by a new hydroelectric dam after authorities blockaded a road. ...

One teenager drowned and at least 30 families were evacuated as the Stung Sen river swelled over one meter higher than emergency levels in Preah Vihear province, authorities said on Wednesday, as at least five other provinces recorded flooding from Tropical Storm Sonca. ...

The temporary detention and questioning of 24 people travelling to the reservoir area of the Lower Sesan II dam prompted a three-hour confrontation between Military Police and provincial police officials and more than 100 villagers in Stung Treng’s Kbal Romea village yesterday. ...

Rescuers armed with speed boats and emergency supplies have been deployed to two Stung Treng province villages where residents remain despite expected flooding as the country’s largest hydropower dam undergoes testing. ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday issued a warning that an impending tropical storm may inundate the Tonle Sap and Mekong river, causing floods to neighbouring communities. ...

The doors of the Lower Sesan II dam were closed on Saturday for a monthlong test run, forcing more than 100 families holding out in Stung Treng’s Srekor and Kbal Romea communes to prepare for floods. Since the doors’ closure on Saturday morning, water levels ...

An official in Stung Treng province said there was no way to grant a last-minute reprieve requested on Thursday by villagers whose homes could be flooded within days once testing of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam begins on Saturday. ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities have vowed to demolish the Sre Pok Bridge ahead of the testing of the Lower Sesan II dam – which will submerge a number of villages – and warned that police will be deployed should villagers protest. ...

Over a hundred families in Stung Treng province’s Srekor and Kbal Romea communes said yesterday that they have located around 2,000 hectares to relocate to when a scheduled test run for the Lower Sesan II dam this week leaves their villages flooded. ...

A fisherman and his brother were struck by lightning on Sunday – one of them fatally – while six others were injured in storms, local police said yesterday. ...

Farmer in Prey Veng’s Svay Antor and Pea Reang and Kanh Chriech districts began digging canals this week to save their rice fields from heavy rains. ...

Forty-seven people were killed by lightning in the first six months of the year, down from 60 in the same period last year, according to a report from the National Committee for Disaster Management. ...