Disasters and emergency response

In the wake of two deaths from separate lightning strikes this week, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued a notice yesterday warning against potentially devastating storms lasting from today until Sunday. ...

Residents along Cambodia’s coastline may want to relocate to higher ground in the wake of a climate-change assessment that predicts much of the Kingdom’s coast could be submerged by rising sea levels. Based on predictive models that take into account global temperature trends and melting ice ...

Cambodia on Wednesday continued distributing China-donated relief items to some 3,088 families, who are victims of last year’s flood, HIV/ AIDS patients, disabled people and orphans. Cambodian Red Cross president Bun Rany, the wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo ...

“From my view, I don’t want to have it, but it is development, we can’t stop them,” says Srekor’s village chief, Leang Saroeurn. Cambodia’s impressive yearly GDP growth rates of 7 percent for the last decade have come, in part, through a ravenous consumption of the countries ...

A 39-year-old woman and two young children are missing and presumed dead after their home in Preah Prasap commune collapsed into the Mekong River on Tuesday night, a tragedy villagers are blaming on illegal sand dredging of the riverbed. Four other people were injured as a ...

Cambodia suffers from severe annual flooding, and many people who can’t swim die every year as a result. An innovative solution to the generations-old problem may have been found, not by policy hacks or scientists, but by children. A group of 11-year-olds from Cambodia’s one-of-a-kind Liger ...

Thanks to a crowd-sourcing campaign spearheaded by grassroots map developers Urban Voice Cambodia, residents of Phnom Penh can now access a map pinpointing flood-prone areas in the capital during rainy season. Updated online yesterday, the map was generated by citizens, who contributed 119 reports of flooding over a ...

Authorities in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces on Thursday said that they were investigating an unusual change of color in the Mekong River to a muddy, dark brown that was unnatural for this time of the year and was worrying residents. Since the beginning of this ...

China’s humanitarian assistance has helped relieve difficulties of flood- hit families, HIV/AIDS victims, elderly, disabled and poor people in Cambodia, beneficiaries said Friday. The Chinese government donated one million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in October for people who have faced hardships due to severe flooding last ...

Smoke billowed over Phnom Penh International Airport and people lay on the grass verges near an aircraft simulator on Friday as hundreds of rescue service personnel and firefighters took part in the airport’s fourth-ever full-scale emergency exercise. Hundreds of soldiers and police, as well as actors ...

More than 31,000 households were evacuated and 168 people died across 20 provinces during this year’s rainy-season flooding, according to the Humanitarian Response Forum (HRF), which released its final report on the flooding Monday. In general, flooding did not affect Cambodia as badly as in 2011, ...

Stronger disaster planning is needed to avoid future devastation and loss of life caused by flooding, according to a report published by World Vision yesterday. The report, titled Cities Prepare, recommends that the Cambodian government and civil society work to place “a stronger emphasis on disaster risk ...

Banteay Meanchey province’s former governor got a surprise Monday when he attended a ceremony in Phnom Penh expecting to receive a donation of 200 power tillers from Chinese officials, but received eight small water pumps instead. Former Banteay Meanchey governor Oung Oeun and the governor ...

China’s Yunnan province on Monday provided 200 agricultural engines to Cambodia’s northwestern Banteay Meanchey province for post-flood rehabilitation. A handover ceremony was held here between Yu Dingcheng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People ‘s Congress, and Oung Oeun, chief of the ...

China’s Yunnan province on Monday provided 200 agricultural engines to Cambodia’s northwestern Banteay Meanchey province for post-flood rehabilitation. A handover ceremony was held here between Yu Dingcheng, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial People ‘s Congress, and Oung Oeun, chief of the ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing emergency humanitarian assistance of 3 million U.S. dollars to help Cambodia recover from devastating floods that have affected 1.7 million people and caused an estimated 1 billion U.S. dollars in damage, the Bank said in a statement on ...

Cambodians in the northern provinces are preparing for the remnants of super-storm Typhoon Haiyan, though forecasts now predict it will only mildly affect the Kingdom. In a warning issued on Friday, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology said high winds and heavy rainfall would likely ...

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for urgent fortification of Cambodia’s resistance to climate change, singling out recent flooding as evidence of the severe consequences the country faces. But at a press conference yesterday, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua accused the Prime Minister of weakening ...

Three people have died, six remain missing and more than 100 homes have been affected by heavy rains that began on Wednesday in Kampong Chhnang and Kandal provinces, local authorities said yesterday. Prak Sophorn, director of the Kampong Chnnang provincial Cambodian Red Cross office, said yesterday ...

Authorities said Thursday they were closely watching the development of the world’s big­gest storm to materialize so far this year as it hits the Philippines today before moving west toward Vietnam and Cambodia in the following days. “Our first step is to keep a close eye ...

The National Assembly of Viet Nam presented 1,000 tonnes of rice to Cambodian flood victims at a ceremony held in Phnom Penh yesterday. The latest floods took the lives of 80 people and resulted in economic losses of around US$1 billion. ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that climate change has now become a strategic challenge to development that requires urgent and joint attention. “Climate change is no longer a remote case, but is affecting all of us in the present and become one of the ...

All 842 prisoners evacuated from Banteay Meanchey provincial prison after water pressure caused a wall to collapse in early October will be sent back there next week – despite only minimal repairs having been undertaken to the flood-damaged building, a rights worker said yesterday said ...

The National Assembly’s 12-member permanent committee will take its first look at the country’s $3.54 billion draft budget for 2014 on Monday, though officials are still refusing to offer a breakdown of how the money will be spent. The draft, which allocates more than $400 million ...