Disasters and emergency response

Local government officials in a southern Cambodian province failed to evacuate villagers in time to prevent their homes and rice fields from flooding after the operators of a Chinese-built hydropower dam informed them a day earlier that they would open the facility’s gates to release ...

People are no longer denying that El Nino – a cyclical weather phenomenon that can cause severe drought – has arrived in Cambodia. ...

Rice crops in western Cambodia will die from drought if the region does not receive rain within the next month, officials said Thursday, as a development organization urged the government to do more to assist farmers with irrigation. ...

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, USAID and a range of participating organizations have launched a five-year initiative they hope will transform the way in which the government, organizations, universities and citizens use data for research and decision-making. ...

Pa Socheatvong, the Phnom Penh governor and head of the Phnom Penh branch of the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), oversaw the opening of a luxury six-story hotel in Preah Vihear City on Monday, officials said. ...

Amid what some meteorologists have dubbed a “Godzilla-like El Niño”, drought conditions during Cambodia’s scheduled monsoon season have significantly worsened from what last year were termed historically bad levels, a new report from the Ministry of Agriculture shows. ...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) today launched “SERVIR-Mekong,” for 5 countries in the Lower Mekong, according to U.S Embassy’s press release received here this afternoon. ...

Persisting dry conditions have affected rice seedling in about 185,451 hectares of paddy rice in Cambodia, Khmer Times quoted a report by the Agriculture Minister. ...

A rash of fires ripped through the capital on Monday evening and yesterday, with the most devastating one destroying 36 houses across a packed slum next to the Monivong bridge in the southern district of Chbar Ampov.The Chbar Ampov fire began to burn at about ...

A man was killed and his wife left unconscious after lightning struck their stilted home as they took shelter from a storm in Battambang province’s Mong Russei district on Thursday, a local official said on Friday. ...

Ministry of water resources and meteorology said a tropical storm GONI hitting through the tropical western Pacific Ocean since August 17, is heading to Taiwan, while Cambodia is likely to be affected by this storm. ...

The Cambodian Red Cross has donated $20,000 to help flood victims in Myanmar. ...

As talk of El Niño-inspired droughts shaped much of the conversation ahead of this year’s late-blooming rainy season, recent torrential rains in some areas of the Kingdom have given way to new fears of crop inundation and damage. ...

A low-pressure system over Burma will bring heavy rain and widespread flooding to Cambodia in a week’s time, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology on Monday. ...

The government has set aside some $33 million to finish rebuilding Cambodia’s northern rail line by late next year, according to the Transportation Ministry, reanimating a long-delayed and over-budget project that had been one of the Asian Development Bank’s priorities in the country. ...

A severe drought is affecting many people in provinces across Cambodia and has prompted the government to warn that it will deepen poverty in the developing country. The government has not released any figures on the extent to which the drought has affected the populace. ...

One person was killed and dozens of homes damaged on Sunday evening in storms in Svay Rieng province, police said yesterday. ...

Inclement weather claimed the lives of at least 56 Cambodians, injured another 166 and damaged and destroyed more than 7,000 homes in the first six months of 2015, according to a report released by the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) yesterday. ...

Storms in Kampong Thom’s Stung Sen town this week resulted in four injuries and damage to 55 homes, local authorities said yesterday. ...

As a light rain peppered the dry earth in Kampong Thom province’s O’Dong village on Friday afternoon, residents rejoiced. Having scrambled around for pots and bowls, they hoped the drizzle would yield enough water to cover their basic needs. But after just 15 minutes, hope turned ...

Cambodia is looking at a delayed onset of the rainy season, with experts and government officials having raised concerns of a prolonged dry season affecting agricultural production, as the Pacific weather pattern El Niño threatens to bring drought-like conditions. Ngin Chhay, director of the Rice Department ...

Three people were killed and two injured on Sunday evening as heavy storms struck Svay Rieng, Kampong Chhnang and Preah Sihanouk provinces, destroying dozens of homes. ...

A new Law on Disaster Management sailed through the National Assembly yesterday, with Prime Minister Hun Sen promising a more rapid and coordinated response across government agencies. ...

The National Assembly on Thursday debated and easily passed two chapters of a law that aims to improve responses to natural and man-made disasters, partly by imposing fines and jail time for incompetent officials and citizens who know of, but fail to report, a coming ...