Disasters and emergency response
El Nino may crimp lending to farmers
Lending to farmers will be stricter this year as the El Nino weather phenomenon extends the dry season, executives at microfinance institutes (MFIs) said yesterday. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/21905/el-nino-may-crimp-lending-to-farmers/
Citizens urged to ration water
Cambodia’s drought has hit even the coldest provinces, as Ban Lung’s main water supplier, Tai Seng Phalit Teuksaat Co., broadcast drought warnings to the residents of Ratanakkiri early this week, advising residents to start rationing water. ...
Aisha Down
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/21847/citizens-urged-to-ration-water/
S’ville gov’t enforcing safety regulations in wake of ferry disaster
After a boat capsized and sank off Sihanoukville last week, ferry company managers say local police have begun strictly enforcing safety regulations and rough weather warnings, in a dramatic shift from the city’s relaxed attitude toward boat safety. ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/21426/s---ville-gov---t-enforcing-safety-regulations-in-wake-of-ferry-disaster/
Blazes seen across kingdom
Recent satellite images from NASA have captured a high number of fires blazing across Cambodia this season, illustrating what one forestry official called a chronic inability to deal with the Kingdom’s numerous illegally set fires, a problem exacerbated by especially dry El Niño conditions. ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/blazes-seen-across-kingdom
After six months, law on disasters still stalled
The Law on Disaster Management, which passed in July and was discussed at a government workshop in mid-December, has yet to take effect because it still requires royal and government decrees, according to officials. ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Morn Vanntey
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-six-months-law-disasters-still-stalled
Rice farmers looking at dry spell
Farmers and exporters have expressed concerns over an Agriculture Ministry notice issued on Wednesday asking farmers to have only one harvest this upcoming dry season because of water shortages across the country, given that this could affect the paddy output next year.The ministry notice cited ...
Cheng Sokhorng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rice-farmers-looking-dry-spell
New teacher guides target student safety
Education and disaster management leaders from eight Southeast Asian countries gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday in a bid to encourage schools in areas prone to natural catastrophes to make children safer. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-teacher-guides-target-student-safety
The Mekong river stories from the heart of the climate crisis interactive
The fate of 70 million people rests on what happens to the Mekong river. With world leaders meeting in Paris next week for crucial UN climate talks, John Vidal journeys down south-east Asia’s vast waterway – a place that encapsulates some of the dilemmas they ...
Changing climate has major impacts for under-prepared Cambodia
Cambodia is ranked one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. Many of its people rely on agriculture, and the changes to the country’s climate, whether more droughts or more floods, makes them particularly vulnerable. ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/changing-climate-has-major-impacts-for-under-prepared-cambodia/3073169.html
Kingdom at high risk of natural disasters
A report released on Monday by the United Nations and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) shows that Cambodia’s population is among the world’s 10 most affected by natural disasters. ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kingdom-high-risk-natural-disasters
Another drought year in store for Cambodia
As the weather pattern known as El Niño threatens to wreak havoc on climatic conditions across the globe, the Cambodian government has warned that higher-than-usual temperatures, which already sparked droughts this year, will cause next year’s rainy season to be even shorter.What’s more, the heat ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/another-drought-year-store-cambodia
Kamchay dam claims not behind Kampot flood
The Chinese company that operates the hydroelectric power plant on the Kamchay River in Kampot province yesterday denied that a decision to open the dam’s gates during a recent storm was the cause of severe flooding in the area. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17998/kamchay-dam-claims-not-behind-kampot-flood/
CSO coalition letter ready for climate talks
A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has produced a document laying out in detail the projected dire effects of climate change on the Kingdom, in the hopes it will help their voice be heard among the 25,000 delegates attending the upcoming Paris Climate Talks ...
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cso-coalition-letter-ready-climate-talks
PM calls for drought aid preparations
Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on local authorities and government ministries to be ready to distribute water to farmers around the country due to the ongoing shortage in the Kingdom’s reservoirs. He added that if people had trouble contacting local authorities, individual farmers should ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-calls-drought-aid-preparations
Deadly flooding spurs protest
After two deaths to flooding in as many rainy seasons and another close call on Monday, villagers from Khva Village in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor District are demanding action. They say that the cause of the flooding is the extraction of soil nearby by a company ...
Pav Suy
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17215/deadly-flooding-spurs-protest/
New insurance product gives rice farmers a break
Farmers hit by drought in Battambang this year are already benefitting from a new crop insurance product for rice farmers introduced by Forte Insurance, with at least 60 families in two districts of the country’s main rice-growing province collecting payments so far. ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16797/new-insurance-product-gives-rice-farmers-a-break/
Drought spawns fish fears
Fishing communities along two of Cambodia’s principle rivers say their livelihoods are threatened by droughts that have reduced water levels and devastated fish numbers.“The Tonle Sap is 3 metres lower than last year,” Long Sochhet, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Fishing Communities, said yesterday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Jamie Elliott
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/drought-spawns-fish-fears
‘Disaster death toll low, cost devastating’
Cambodia has sustained far fewer deaths due to natural disasters than any other country in the region this year, deputy secretary general of the National Committee for Disaster Management Ross Sovann said on Friday, at a workshop coinciding with Asean Day of Disaster Management. ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16500/---disaster-death-toll-low--cost-devastating---/
Cambodia to host commemoration of ASEAN day for disaster management next Friday
This year’s celebration of ASEAN Day for Disaster Management (ADDM) and International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) will be hosted by Cambodia on Oct. 9-10, aiming to raise people’s awareness of disaster risk reduction. ...
Fire equipment still lacking
Two years since the government passed a law on fire safety – and hot on the heels of a recent spate of fires at local garment factories, neighbourhoods and nightclubs – a recent informal survey has found that even high-end hotels still widely lack required ...
Jamie Elliott
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fire-equipment-still-lacking
‘Relief reaches all communes’
Relief efforts continued this week in the wake of tropical storm Vamco, which rolled into Cambodia from Vietnam, bringing torrential rain, strong winds and flooding last week. ...
Jack Laurenson
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16091/---relief-reaches-all-communes---/
Floods in Kampot not created on purpose, governor says
Officials in Kampot province are working to quell rumors that flooding there was intentionally caused by the opening of a hydropower dam upstream. ...
One died and thousands hectares of agricultural plantation suffer by flood
A girl has died and thousand hectares of agricultural plantation have been flooded by flashflood in two separate districts in Battambang province, said Keo Vy, spokesman for the government’s National Committee for Disaster Management said today. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/one-died-and-thousands-hectares-of-agricultural-plantation-suffer-by-flood-8975
Hundreds evacuated in northwest amid further flooding
Hundreds of families were evacuated from their homes in Pailin province over the weekend as tropical storm Vamco brought torrential rain to the country’s northwest after causing serious flooding in Kampot and Battambang provinces last week, officials said Sunday. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hundreds-evacuated-in-northwest-amid-further-flooding-94851/