Disasters and emergency response

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 ...

The rainy season will start in the first week of May, with heavy rain, storms and thunder, the Water Resources and Meteorology Ministry predicts. Some areas on the plains face high risks from heavy rain in the middle of the season. ...

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.   ...

More than 130 people died and nearly 300 were injured in accidents caused by natural disasters across the country this year, according to a government official.Keo Vy, the cabinet chief and a spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management, told Khmer Times yesterday that ...

Three houses collapsed into the Mekong River in Kratie’s Chhlong district after a riverbank gave way on Monday amid recent unseasonable heavy rains. Twenty-eight other houses in the predominately Cham village have been pre-emptively dismantled following the collapse, according to Meas Kunmony, district deputy governor. ...

Eight provinces experienced flooding yesterday, according to a disaster management official, with hectares of farmland also left damaged as unseasonal heavy rains continue to whip the country. ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology said that some areas in the Kingdom would be hit by a storm next week, especially the coastal provinces. Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor said that a high pressure system would have a weak influence on Cambodia and ...

At a conference on the topic of the environment yesterday, civil society groups repeatedly raised the risk of natural disasters and hazards that Cambodia will face if the effects of climate change are not adequately addressed. The one-day conference in Phnom Penh sought to find solutions ...

At least 17,571 hectares of rice fields were affected by the recent floods – of which about 3,186 hectares were severely damaged, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) yesterday, which urged all provincial agriculture departments to immediately evaluate the affects from ...

Extreme weather attributed to the tail-end of an El Niño event continues to wreak havoc on the nation’s agricultural sector, with more than 20,000 hectares of rice fields damaged so far this year, a government agricultural expert said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology warned on Saturday of potential flooding from the remnants of tropical storm Haima, which killed at least 13 people in the Philippines and battered southeast China last week. Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor told the public and authorities ...

A flooded section of a main street in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district has been temporarily closed because of flooding, according to a statement by Phnom Penh City Hall on Wednesday. ...

Floodwaters displaced another 74 families on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Dangkao district on Wednesday as water levels continued to rise, according to Nop Puthea, director of the district’s administration. The flooding began on Sunday night when a dam in Kompong Speu province collapsed after ...