Rivers and lakes

The floodwaters of the Mekong River have begun to recede across the country, but concerns remain over damage caused in Stung Treng and Kratie provinces. The Mekong River Committee (MRC) plans to hold an open forum this month on the development of hydropower dams along ...

Four natural lakes totalling 300 hectares in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district have been designated state properties while more are set to have the same status. The designation followed illegal encroachment by individuals who intended to claim the lakes as their own, said Kandal provincial governor ...

Fifty metres of riverbank in Chroy Changvar district collapsed on Saturday amid rising water levels in the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers which have caused the capital’s riverside regions to flood. According to Klang Huot, the district governor, traffic has been impacted by the collapse ...

More than 200 community members, local officers and monks demonstrated for the construction of a water canal to facilitate transportation, patrols and promote tourism at a bird sanctuary in Siem Reap town’s Chreav commune on Saturday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday denied that the government intends to allow private development around a lake in Ratanakkiri province, which is important to a biologically diverse ecosystem. The denial was sparked by an article published in the Rasmei Kampuchea Daily on Monday that ...

The Takeo provincial Environment Department on Monday warned authorites would take legal action against a senior police official in Koh Andet district who tried to use a vehicle to clear land illegally in the protected lake Boeung Prek Lapouv. ...

Sa’ang and Kien Svay district authorities in Kandal province stopped a military official from clearing an area of wetland, creating a canal that was siphoning water from a larger canal that served farmers in the area and filling in other canals, seizing a bulldozer in ...

The Mekong River Commission and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have launched a joint study on forest conservation and river basin management in the lower Mekong aimed at improving management and environmental conservation of the area. ...

Laos has begun formal consultation on the Pak Lay hydropower dam project in its northern province of Xayaburi amid environmental concerns that it will impact the Cambodian stretch of the Mekong River. ...

Local authorities in Kratie province believe they have identified the source of the deadly rice wine, made with lethal levels of methanol that killed 14 people. The discovery was made after investigations traced the incident to the owner of a brewery who died after drinking ...

A senior official at the Ministry of Environment said on Thursday analysis of blood samples from victims of Kratie province’s contaminated water incident earlier this month have confirmed the presence of cyanide, albeit at very low levels. ...

Mines Minister Suy Sem yesterday ordered mining operators to follow the law to prevent mining waste from polluting rivers in the wake of more than 10 villagers dying from consuming tainted water in Kratie province. ...

Mines Minister Suy Sem has dismissed a claim by Industry Minister Cham Prasidh, who said that villagers in Kratie province were poisoned and killed by cyanide-tainted water due to run-off from gold mines. ...

Industry Minister Cham Prasidh has said that villagers in Kratie province’s Chetr Borei district were poisoned after consuming water tainted with cyanide which was used for mining operations in Mondolkiri and Kratie province. ...

Experts from the ministry examined the water in the river of Prek Te in Kratie and found chromium and cyanide. The substances were found at various mining sites between Kratie and neighboring Mondulkiri and the ministry believed that they were improperly handled and that rain ...

The sustainable development of water and related resources in the Mekong River Basin is at a crucial stage and as member countries of the Mekong River Commission meet this week in Siem Reap, Chheang Vannarith argues that a code of conduct is now vital to ...

China’s ever increasing influence over the Mekong River Basin was apparent on the first day of a Mekong River Commission (MRC) summit on Monday, where cooperation between the MRC and the Chinese-backed Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism was floated. ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities on Friday shut down an illegal sand dredging operation on the Sesan River and confiscated equipment after having warned the company to cease operations since December, officials said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s beloved Irrawaddy dolphins are facing troubled waters, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) yesterday flagging the riverine mammal as ‘critically endangered’ in an update to its ‘Red List’. ...

A river bird that was once a common sight along the Mekong River is now down to a population of just 50 to 60 individuals due to human interference and dam construction, conservationists and Environment Ministry officials said yesterday. ...

Local communities in the Tonle Sap Lake region have appealed to the Laos government to immediately put on hold plans to construct the Pak Beng hydropower dam. ...

Exports of fish fell in the first four months of 2017, but income from the fisheries sector increased by nearly half compared with the same period last year. According to an Agriculture Ministry report, income from the fisheries sector between January and April was $230,653, up ...

The Mekong River Commission held its second stakeholder meeting on Laos’s controversial proposed Pak Beng dam on Friday, giving involved parties the opportunity to hear responses to concerns raised at the first meeting in February. ...

According to the boats’ inhabitants, who raise fish underneath their floating homes in Russei Keo district’s Chraing Chamreh I commune, the move was prompted by a mass die-off of fish last weekend due to increasing water temperatures.  ...