Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Tonle Sap Lake fisheries a concern for dam project
Already under attack by overfishing, pollution and deforestation, Tonle Sap Lake fisheries face an even bigger threat in the form of hydropower dams, according to experts. Laos’ planned Don Sahong Hydropower Project in particular has environmentalists fearing an emptier, less bio-diverse lake, and a nation pitched ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tonle-sap-lake-fisheries-concern-dam-project
Dam critics outline litany of risks
As villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley continue to block Sinohydro Corp employees from entering the area where the Stung Cheay Areng dam is planned, conservationists and rights workers have spoken of the havoc it will wreak if it goes ahead. In terms of the ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-critics-outline-litany-risks
Power couple linked to Sinohydro project
Two of the country’s most powerful and politically connected business owners are on the board of governors of the company thought to have brokered a controversial deal between the world’s largest hydropower developer and the Cambodian government, documents obtained by the Post show. Cambodian People’s Party ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/power-couple-linked-sinohydro-project
Laos promises transparency over Don Sahong dam
More than 100 representatives of Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries, development partners, international NGOs, and Lao and foreign media yesterday visited the site of the planned Don Sahong hydropower project. The two-day site visit provided an opportunity for participants to learn from experts how fish ...
The Cambodia herald news Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YWU3ZjgwNzk1MWI
Dam developers hit back
Hydropower developers in southern Laos have fired back at the World Wildlife Fund after the conservation group issued two disparaging reports in as many weeks on the Don Sahong dam project. WWF released a brief on February 19 alleging that construction of the 260-megawatt damcould result ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-developers-hit-back
Solar power for communes
The offices of commune officials along the Tonle Sap basin will soon be solar-powered as part of a poverty-reduction project backed by the Asian Development Bank. Some 123 off-the-grid commune council offices in Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom and Kampong Cham provinces will be fitted ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/solar-power-communes
Areng project changes hands again
Sinohydro Corporation has taken over the concession to build the Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province and is preparing for the early stages of construction, according to a company representative and government officials. Ith Prang, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and ...
Chhay Channyda and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/areng-project-changes-hands-again
Impact study on dam problem-ridden: WWF
The conservation NGO WWF today slammed developers of the Don Sahong Hydropower project for providing “flawed” and scientifically unsound impact assessments. In an analysis released today, WWF criticised the hydropower project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and Social Impact Assessment, finding both “riddled with problems such as inappropriate ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/impact-study-dam-problem-ridden-wwf
Battle over river in Svay Rieng
Authorities in Svay Rieng town are ignoring locals’ complaints over a Chinese firm that has allegedly been filling in a river in preparation to build a canal, villagers said yesterday. More than 130 families in Svay Teu commune, Svay Rieng province, have delivered petitions to provincial ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battle-over-river-svay-rieng
Four tons of dead fish found in Kompong Cham lake
About four tons of fish were found dead on the surface of Boeng Vien lake in Kompong Cham province this weekend, leading villagers to collect them to make emergency batches of the fermented fish paste known as prahok. Srey Santhor district governor Heng Vanny said that ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-tons-of-dead-fish-found-in-kompong-cham-lake-53295/
Dredging ferry catches fire
A sand-dredging ferry caught fire and two of its pumping machines exploded yesterday in Kandal’s Kien Svay district. The blast sent a black plume of smoke over the Mekong and caused oil to leak into the river. Yem Sokhum, Phomthom commune police chief, said that according to ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dredging-ferry-catches-fire
Waiting for the deluge
The Lower Sesan II dam project is a microcosm of the carving up of Cambodia. In one of the world’s most diverse river ecosystems, the ground burns. Whole forests are felled with scant regard for the law, while the project is backed by the country’s ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/waiting-deluge
Bodies found after Mekong riverbank collapse
The bodies of a 39-year-old woman and her 18-month-old nephew were recovered Thursday two days after a riverbank collapse caused their home in Kandal Province’s Khsach Kandal district to plunge into the Mekong River while they slept, but the woman’s 3-year-old son has not yet ...
Simon Henderson and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bodies-found-after-mekong-riverbank-collapse-52895/
Dam ‘dire for dolphins’
Construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos is likely to decimate an already dwindling population of critically endangered Mekong dolphins, according to a World Wildlife Fund science brief published today. About 85 dolphins inhabit a deep-water pool restricted to a stretch of the ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-%E2%80%98dire-dolphins%E2%80%99
Three missing after Mekong riverbank collapse in Kandal
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 ...
Khuon Narim and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-missing-after-mekong-riverbank-collapse-in-kandal-52710/
Irrawaddy dolphin found dead
Villagers along the Mekong river found a dead freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin floating with the current yesterday near Prek Chik village in Kratie province’s Prek Presap district. Fishery officials said the male dolphin weighs about 100kg. Sean Kin, a fishery official in Kratie province, said his team took ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/irrawaddy-dolphin-found-dead
Koh Kong dam online since late last year
Cambodia’s largest hydropower plant to date, the Stung Russey Chrum, is operational. The 338-megawatt dam, located in Koh Kong’s Mondul Sima district forest, produced and transmitted electricity to Phnom Penh last month, according to its developer, China Huadian Corporation. “It is the biggest and best dam we ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/koh-kong-dam-online-late-last-year
Sesan Dam Construction to Start Next Month
Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam will begin early next month, residents and authorities said after a meeting in Stung Treng province on Monday. Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem for the first time gave a time frame for the construction of the dam ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-dam-construction-to-start-next-month-51080/
Chinese Push Sesan Dam Talks With Hun Sen
The chairman of the Chinese company whose subsidiary will construct the Lower Sesan 2 dam met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday to inform him that the dam would be completed in three years’ time, Mr. Hun Sen’s assistant said. Zhang Tingke, vice president of ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chinese-push-sesan-dam-talks-with-hun-sen-50978/
Muddy Waters Have Authorities Singing the Blues
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 ...
Ben Sokhean and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/muddy-waters-have-authorities-singing-the-blues-50792/
Cambodia’s coastal visits up
The number of foreign and local tourists who spent time in Cambodia’s coastal destinations increased in 2013, according to provincial officials in Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong provinces. Foreign visits swelled to 302,325, a 42 per cent rise compared with the same period ...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-coastal-visits
Barges Impounded for Breaking Sand Dredging Ban in Kandal
The Ministry of Water Resources impounded five barges in Kandal province on Saturday for flouting a government ban on sand dredging on the Mekong River, an official said Sunday. Chan Youttha, cabinet chief for Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor, said the minister personally led a ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/barges-impounded-for-breaking-sand-dredging-ban-in-kandal-49567/
Monks and Cash Rewards Save Softshell Turtles
SAMBOR DISTRICT, Kratie Province – A sharply dressed usher in a crisp black shirt, black pants and a shiny black tie escorted guests to one of several bungalow-style, private booths at the Mloub Dong restaurant on a recent evening. While the privacy the restaurant offers is ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-and-cash-rewards-save-softshell-turtles-49329/
Villagers Ask Chinese Embassy to Intervene Against Dam Investors
Communities threatened by the planned construction of three hydropower dams in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces will today submit to the Chinese Embassy a petition demanding that the embassy intervene against Chinese companies investing in the dams. The petition, to be presented in Chinese, Khmer and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-ask-chinese-embassy-to-intervene-against-dam-investors-49144/