Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Residents could be evicted as pumped sand fills the Boeung Tumpun lake
Heavy machinery is pumping millions of tonnes of sand from the river into the Boeung Tumpun lake in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The area is home to some 2000 families and rumours suggest they will be evicted to develop the land once the lake is filled. The ...
Cambodia to Buy Power From Laos’ Xayaburi Dam
Laos’ energy minister announced last week that the country will sell energy supplied by the controversial Xayaburi Dam to Cambodia. It is already planning to sell power to Thailand, where last month a lawsuit was lodged to stop the country from buying electricity produced at ...
http://www.ooskanews.com/daily-water-topic/cambodia-buy-power-laos-xayaburi-dam_24348
China investment in energy 'crucial' to Cambodia
Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday hailed Chinese companies for hugely investing in the country’s energy sector, which is a key element to support the sustainable social and economic development. Suy Sem’s appreciation was made during a bilateral meeting with Wu Yin, ...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-09/13/content_15756465.htm
Spike in Mekong River Fishing Could Harm Dolphins
There has been an ioncrease in fishing activity in the dolphin conservation zones along the Mekong River in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces, putting pressure on the critically endangered Mekong dolphin population, the chairman of the Commission for Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Eco-tourism Development said yesterday. Touch ...
Villagers Save Pond From Being Filled
Approximately 400 people from 10 villages in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district stopped a truck on Monday that had been hired to fill in a pond in preparation for the reported building of a military police base, officials said. Thuon Nging, a representative of the ...
Kaing Menghun, P. 18
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
Businesswoman calls on government to return land
High-profile Phnom Penh businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary has called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to return 33 hectares of prime land in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district to her company, which lost the rights to it when the government claimed the land in July. Sokountheary said she ...
Dams, climate plague Mekong
Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife ...
http://www.eco-business.com/news/dams-climate-plague-mekong/
Dams, climate plague Mekong
Villagers in Kratie province have long feared the proposed Sambor hydroelectric dam and the impact it could have on their subsistence fishing and riverbank agriculture. According to Resilience on the Mekong: A Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment in North-East Cambodia, a report released by the World Wildlife Foundation on Friday, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012091058600/National-news/dams-climate-plague-mekong.html
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years, with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports last week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants-and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
New Mekong Port to Ease Overloaded Phnom Penh Terminal
With cargo traffic at the Phnom Penh Autonomus Port growing rapidly, a nearly completed container terminal just south of the city on the Mekon River should help ease the congestion. The 30-hectare port, in Kandal province’s Kein Svay district, was completed late last month, though cranes ...
Largest hydropower station on Mekong River starts operation
The largest hydropower station on Lancang River in southwest China’s Yunnan Province — known as the Mekong River in southeast Asia — went into operation Thursday with its first power generating unit up and running. The Nuozhadu hydroelectric station, located in the city of Pu’er, is ...
Cambodia Says No Strings Attached in Recent Chinese Aid
China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports this week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants—and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...
http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/09/06/cambodia-says-no-strings-attached-in-recent-chinese-aid/
PM will hand-deliver titles
Prime Minister Hun Sen will personally deliver land titles to residents in Kratie province’s Snuol district on September 21 following the completion of the land measuring mission by volunteer youth there. According to the premier’s order, land titles have been granted in three forms of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090558506/National-news/pm-will-hand-deliver-titles.html
Dredging licenses up for grabs
The government has granted contracts to three unnamed private companies to invest in dredging operations along parts of the , but is withholding the companies’ names and information on the specific areas for the large-scale projects. Lim Kean Hor, the Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology, told ...
Fisheries Official Questioned Over Clearing Flooded Forest
A fisheries official accused of involvement in the clearing of an area of protected flooded forest in Kampong Thom province in July was questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Korn Chanseiha, chief of the Fisheries Administration’s Stong district office, is one of about 20 officials ...
Water sector in need of investment
Despite the establishment of the Cambodian Clean Water Supplier Association last week, the clean water sector still lacks sufficient investment to connect rural Cambodia. There is very little clean water in Cambodia and accelerating its supply requires the government, private sector and other development partners ...
Chinese Credit Cache
Prime Minister Hun Sen has returned home from his trip to China a wealthier leader having secured upwards of US$2.5 billion in Chinese investment and loans over the next year alone, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The package includes a $2 billion ...
Lao Dam Breaks Ground
A waterfall has been blasted less than two kilometres from the Cambodian-Lao border, beginning work on another unapproved hydroelectric dam on the Mekong river, environmental group International Rivers claimed yesterday. Pianporn Deetes, the Thailand campaign coordinator for International Rivers, said she had learned of the excavation work, near ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458484/National-news/lao-dam-breaks-ground.html
Lower Sesan 2's Power not worth a dam: NGO
While the humanitarian objections to Mondulkiri’s proposed Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam project are well documented, a report from conservation NGO International Rivers yesterday highlighted an objection of another sort: the Lower Sesan wouldn’t be a very good location for a dam in the first ...
Six Planned Dams Could Be 'Disaster' for Northeast Region
The hydro-power dams planned for three tributary rivers in north-eastern Cambodia will have unforeseeable social and environmental consequences for the regional and its people, according to a report released yesterday. Authored by International Rivers and 3S Rivers Protection Network, the report focuses on six hydro-power dams planned for the Sesan, ...
Ministry plans Xayaburi trip
Cambodia has been asked to send a delegation to the site of the proposed Xayaburi hydro-electric dam in northern Laos, Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor said yesterday. Kean Hor, who is also chairman of Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee, said the equivalent body ...
Xayaburi dam project proceeds as protest grows
In Laos, the construction of controversial hydroelectric dam in Xayaburi province is under way, despite disagreement from its neighbors, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Xayaburi dam project started when the Laotian government and Thailand’s giant construction company, Ch Karnchang Pcl, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in ...
Construction of Dams Would Strain Land, Water
Cambodia would significantly strain its land and water resources if a projected series of large-scale hydro-power dams are built along the Mekong, according to projections released this week. Fish remains the primary source of protein and researchers [from the Australia National University in Canberra and World Wildlife Fund] ...
Mekong dams put millions at risk of hunger
The economic, social and environmental consequences of the construction of dams on the Mekong River could be devastating.. ANU research suggests that millions of people are in danger of going hungry if the dams proceed. Replacing fish as a protein source with alternative food would use ...
http://theconversation.edu.au/mekong-dams-put-millions-at-risk-of-hunger-9087