Disasters

A grass fire raged through a chicken farm in Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday, destroying two coops and the chickens within and causing $10,000 in damage, according to provincial authorities. ...

As the Kingdom moves into the heart of the dry season, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries has issued a set of guidelines on the prevention of forest fires, stressing that jail is in the cards for those starting blazes. ...

A popular Siem Reap silk producer and tourist attraction was this week counting the cost of a fire that destroyed a stockroom and required crews from four fire engines to control. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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 ...

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. ...

Officials in Kampot province are working to quell rumors that flooding there was intentionally caused by the opening of a hydropower dam upstream. ...

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.   ...

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. ...

Rainstorms have battered coastal areas and the Kingdom’s northwest, leaving hundreds of homes flooded and thousands of hectares of crops underwater, a disaster management official said yesterday.Battambang province was the worst hit, with at least one death reported and some roads blocked by floodwaters, according ...

Six districts in Battambang province are dealing with heavy flooding, and 155 households in Bavel district were evacuated this weekend, officials said. ...

Residents of Kampot province continued to feel the devastating effects yesterday of widespread flooding in the area caused by the opening of the Kamchay Hydropower Dam, which has left thousands temporarily homeless and crippled local businesses.Keo Vy, spokesman of the National Committee for Disaster Management ...