Disasters and emergency response

The roughly 900 employees of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire that killed a Chinese supervisor on Monday protested in front of their old workplace on Thursday to demand a quick payout of their final paychecks and severance. The Chinese-owned Cheng Sheng Garment ...

The former owner of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire on Monday has agreed to provide loans to about 900 out-of-work employees until the current owner decides whether and how to pay them due wages and severance. Authorities, meanwhile, said they still did ...

Erosion along the banks of the Mekong River in Kompong Cham province’s Srei Santhor district has caused 16 families to move their homes and is threatening hundreds more, officials warned Sunday. Koh Andet commune chief Yan Yet said at least 16 homes have been dismantled since ...

Coastal erosion became serious enough in Kampong Cham province for authorities to dismantle and move 13 houses along the Mekong. Officials are planning to do the same for about 100 others to prevent them from falling into the river due to rising water levels over the ...

Mekong floodwaters have risen sharply this week and have already surpassed the levels seen at this time of the year during the devastating floods of 2011. In Phum Thom commune in Kien Svay district in Kandal province, local residents observed floodwaters rising about two meters between ...

A fire that ripped through a market in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district late on Monday night caused somewhere between $1 million and $2 million in damages, according to local officials. The fire, which reportedly started at about 11:30 p.m. and destroyed 244 stalls, was believed to have ...

Those living along the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers were warned Sunday by the Ministry of Water Resources to exercise caution in the coming days as a tropical depression is expected to lead to flooding. Typhoon Rammasun has killed more than 100 people in ...

More than 100 villagers in Battambang province’s Sangke district whose rice crops are threatened by drought protested twice last week, calling on local authorities to force the Chinese company building an irrigation dam in the area to open the sluice gate to flood the parched ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management said yesterday that the government has made provisions for this year’s rainy season. More than 10,000 tonnes of rice, emergency supplies and rescue vehicles have been prepared ahead of predicted flooding, committee deputy director Nhim Vanda said yesterday at a ...

Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom ...

Lightning struck three men dead as they stood under a tree in Kampong Cham province on Friday evening, police said. Sok Suon, 53, Vy Ponlork, 37, and Yam Khen, 27, died at the scene, said Long Thy, police chief in Srei Santhor district’s Prek Por commune. ...

A Sihanoukville construction project isn’t pulling out all the stops so much as plugging all the drains, leaving neighbouring residents to stew in murky floodwaters, villagers say. Last month, while levelling out the 20-hectare plot, construction workers dumped dirt in front of two large drainage pipes, ...

A construction worker was struck dead and six others were injured on Sunday in Oddar Meanchey’s Anglong Veng district, marking the second death by lightning in the area in the past three months, a commune police chief said. ...

The Cambodian Ministry of Environment and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday signed a five-year cooperation agreement with an aim to reduce climate impacts on agriculture, according to a joint statement. The agreement was inked jointly by Cambodian Minister of Environment Say ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a weather warning Monday, saying an approaching low-pressure system will this week kick the rainy season into full swing. The warning says heavy rains are due to hit most of the country this week and that the tail ...

With barely a drop of rain falling on their parched fields, Battambang farmers are pleading with a construction company to stop blockading the local river so their recently planted crops don’t dry out. The Asian Development Bank-funded bridge connecting Battambang and Banteay Meanchey has blocked the ...

Municipal and military police on Wednesday blocked a group of about 100 displaced farmers from Kratie province who were attempting to deliver a petition to the Cambodian Red Cross’ Phnom Penh headquarters calling on the group to help them in their land dispute with a ...

A mother and child were killed on Tuesday in what Russey Keo district residents described as a tornado-like storm that stripped off roofs, split trees and swept chairs and baby chicks into the skies. According to villagers, the unprecedented weather started with clouds thickening and turning ...

A Battambang woman and teen were both struck and killed by lightning in two different districts on Monday, police said yesterday. A 28-year-old woman from Rokak Kiri district was taken to the commune hospital after she was killed by a lightning strike, according to Keo Vichet, ...

At least 31 people were killed and 64 injured by storms during the first four months of this year, according to figures from the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). Keo Vy, cabinet director at the NCDM, said strong winds and rains led to three deaths ...

The Chinese government on Thursday donated 10,000 U.S. dollars to the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC) to support humanitarian activities. Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo presented the donation to CRC’s president Bun Rany during the celebration of the 151st anniversary of the World Red Cross — ...

At least six people were killed by lightning this week in storms that destroyed dozens of homes across several provinces, officials said Thursday. Keo Vy, cabinet chief for the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said that the six deaths had occurred between Monday and Wednesday ...

Despite flood damage causing reduced production levels, cassava farmers in Pailin province are benefiting from an increase in the purchasing price, provincial department of agriculture officials say. “This year’s harvest dropped to 25 tonnes per hectare from 30 tonnes per hectare last season because of the ...

A raging fire in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district destroyed 22 homes early Wednesday morning as local villagers struggled to quell the flames and firefighters scrambled to gain access. At about 1 a.m., an electricity line snapped and sparked the fire, Phnom Penh Fire Department bureau chief ...