Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Answers demanded on dam site
A month after a company owned by tycoon Kith Meng was ordered to suspend logging the reservoir area of the controversial Lower Sesan II dam, the government yesterday threatened legal action against it if its orders aren’t followed. In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the Council ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/answers-demanded-dam-site
Snake Island plans back to the drawing board
A development company with a government concession for a high-end property project on the island of Koh Pos, also known as Snake Island, has announced that it will significantly alter its original plans for the project. The new plan, which must first be submitted for ...
Siv Meng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/real-estate/snake-island-plans-back-drawing-board
Dam channel’s classification hotly debated
As Laos pushes toward its goal of becoming the “battery of Asia” through hydropower, its newfound claim that the location for the proposed Don Sahong dam is not on the Mekong River’s main stream is provoking incredulity from some observers. Less than two kilometres north of ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-channel%E2%80%99s-classification-hotly-debated
Vietnam Doubts Sustainability of Second Lao Dam Project on Mekong
Vietnam has joined Cambodia in questioning the sustainability of the planned Don Sahong dam project on the Mekong River in southern Laos, saying more environmental impact studies are needed before the scheme moves forward. Le Duc Trung, director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee under ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dam-11152013181814.html
Study calls for halt to dams
A new study and accompanying short film released yesterday call for all lower Mekong dam developers to halt plans until further impact studies can be made. Hydropower dams will have a greater impact on river flows than even climate change, according to research by the University ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/study-calls-halt-dams
River-widening project to displace 600 families
More than 600 families living along the Siem Reap riverside are to be relocated at the beginning of next year by the government, a top provincial official said yesterday. The families will be evicted as part of a provincial government plan to widen the river to ...
Thik Kaliyann
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/river-widening-project-displace-600-families
Laos Pushes Ahead With Second Mekong Dam Project
Laos is pushing ahead with construction of a second dam on the Mekong River despite objections from environmental and civil society groups. Work on the main part of the Don Sahong hydropower dam near the Cambodian border in southern Laos will begin by the end of ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/don-sahong-11122013185743.html
Laos chided for ‘Selling’ dam project
An environmental group has hit out at the Lao government for organising a tour of the proposed Don Sahong hydropower dam site, saying it should not be trying to “sell” a project that has not been regionally approved. Other NGOs have also warned of the ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/laos-chided-%E2%80%98selling%E2%80%99-dam-project
Projects ‘threaten mangroves’
Mangrove forests along Cambodia’s coast in Kampot support more than 100,000 families and create a diverse ecosystem that is home to hundreds of unique species. But coastal development projects, coupled with locals’ reliance on the forest for their livelihoods, threaten to decimate more than 1,000 hectares ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/projects-%E2%80%98threaten-mangroves%E2%80%99
Water Resources Minister Seeks Investigation Into Exported Sand
Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor said Monday that he would seek an investigation into a $1.5-million haul of river sand exported to India in April in spite of a ban on the export of dredged sand handed down by Prime Minister ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/water-resources-minister-seeks-investigation-into-exported-sand-46848/
Laos seeks to soothe neighbors over Mekong dam
Laos is taking steps to convince neighboring countries of the merits of the planned Don Sahong hydropower project over Mekong River. Lao government officials organized a site visit on Sunday and Monday so that interested parties could see the site first-hand and get a sense of ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/10/c_132876218.htm
Despite Ban, $1.5M of Cambodian Sand Turns Up in India
A huge haul of river sand dredged in Cambodia has been quarantined at the southern Indian port city of Cochin since its arrival in April despite a ban on sand exports instituted by Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009. India’s Deccan Chronicle newspaper reported on Tuesday ...
Alex Willemyns and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-ban-1-5m-of-cambodian-sand-turns-up-in-india-46753/
NGOs threaten to sue over Don Sahong dam
Environmentalists and NGOs are threatening to sue developers of a controversial hydropower dam, claiming the project would cause irreversible damage to the Mekong River. The Don Sahong dam, a 260-megawatt project proposed on a site less than two kilometres north of the Cambodian-Lao border, is expected ...
Sen David and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-threaten-sue-over-don-sahong-dam
Boeung Kak villagers closer to land titles
It’s taken years of waiting – and protesting – but families in the capital’s Boeung Kak community yesterday saw City Hall officials measure land in their villages. Representatives of the city were deployed yesterday to villages 24, 22 and 6 to demarcate land as a step ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boeung-kak-villagers-closer-land-titles-linkfix
Official DisputesWhen Dam Clearing Ceased
A Stung Treng province district official on Sunday contradicted claims that logging in the area designated for the Sesan 2 dam had ceased a month ago, saying that it had only stopped last week after direct orders from the government to do so. On Thursday, Ministry ...
Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/official-disputeswhen-dam-clearing-ceased-46002/
Government Suspends Logging in Stung Treng Dam Concession
The government has ordered Ang & Associates Lawyer Co. Ltd., a company headed by well-known businessman Kith Meng, to cease logging in an area of Stung Treng province where a hydropower dam will be built. Sesan district governor Yeang Srey Sary said Thursday that a delegation ...
Kuch Naren and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-suspends-logging-in-stung-treng-dam-concession-45878/
Carlsberg Unworried by Call for Beer Boycott
Danish beer giant Carlsberg, a partner in Cambodia’s largest brewery, Cambrew, said it is not concerned by a call to boycott its popular Angkor Beer brand over a partner company’s investment in a Laos dam. Ben Morton, vice president of Carlsberg’s international media relations and issues ...
Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/carlsberg-unworried-by-call-for-beer-boycott-45794/
Calls for Angkor Beer Boycott Over Laos Dam Investment
Environmental groups and a local community leader in Stung Treng province have called for a nationwide boycott of the popular Angkor Beer brand to protest the beverage company’s links to a controversial hydropower dam to be built in Laos. Laos announced earlier this month that it ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/calls-for-angkor-beer-boycott-over-laos-dam-investment-45646/
Cambodia flood death toll climbs to 168
The Mekong River and flash floods have claimed at least 168 lives in Cambodia and cost the country about 500 million U.S. dollars due to the damages to rice paddy and roads, Keo Vy, spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said Tuesday. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-10/22/c_132819335.htm
Dam easing dooms homes
It was late at night when a torrent of water burst through the Kamping Pouy reservoir on October 8 and surged into more than 50 houses effectively sacrificed to stop a potentially catastrophic breach in the dam in Battambang province. With cracks appearing in a dam ...
Amelia Woodside and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-easing-dooms-homes
Angkor Beer Chief Behind Controversial Laos Border Dam
As the director of one of Cambodia’s largest breweries, Malaysian businessman Goh Nan Kioh has made millions selling Angkor Beer to Cambodians. But now his latest business venture, a controversial mainstream Mekong dam in Laos, is drawing the ire of environmentalists who believe that it will ...
Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-beer-chief-behind-controversial-laos-border-dam-45312/
Specter of Typhoon Approaching Raises Fears of More Floods
As monthlong flooding that has so far left 122 dead slowly subsides, officials and relief agencies were on Sunday concerned that a powerful typhoon approaching Vietnam may bring more heavy rain and the risk of more floods to provinces where tens of thousands of families ...
Simon Henderson and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/specter-of-typhoon-approaching-raises-fears-of-more-floods-45003/
Cambodia’s flooding brings specter of disease
Flooding is a perennial pain in Cambodia, the low-lying, deeply impoverished nation squeezed between Thailand and Vietnam. About this time each year, rivers swell, lakes expand and villages sink beneath soupy brown waters. But this year’s flooding woes are proving particularly miserable. More than 100 are dead, ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/131011/cambodia-floods-again-disease-dengue
New Lao dam does not breach Mekong agreement: official
Developing the Don Sahong dam on the Hou Sahong channel of the Mekong River in Champassak province does not breach the 1995 Mekong Agreement, a senior government official has told local media. Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr Viraphonh Viravong, made the comment on Thursday, ...
Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZWRmZDI3MWU5ODE