Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Koh Rong airport plans foggy
Plans are in place for a new $10 million international airport on Koh Rong island, but questions remain as to when construction would commence and when funding would be available. Designs for the roughly 7,200-square-metre airport terminal, which will consist of Khmer- and resort-style architecture, were ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040564911/Business/koh-rong-airport-plans-foggy.html
Price of Water Spikes as Sihanoukville Shortages Drag On
As Sihanoukville’s water shortage drags on, the price of water being delivered by private suppliers has skyrocketed with residents and business owners growing ever more desperate to get clean water into their homes, hotels and restaurants. Over the past week, since a reservoir supplying the city ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/price-of-water-spikes-as-sihanoukville-shortage-drags-on-17341/
SRP Commune Told to Stop Talking to Media about Dam
Officials from the Stung Treng provincial forestry administration have warned a local SRP commune chief against speaking to the media about the clearing of trees from a 36,000-hectare site to become the reservoir of a giant hydropower dam in the area, the commune chief said ...
No Power Leads to No Water In Sihanoukville
The water shortage that has led to tens of thousands of households in Sihanoukville without running water for the past week occurred after provincial officials decided to limit power to a water pumping facility operated by the tourist town’s privately-owned distributor, a manager at the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-power-leads-to-no-water-in-sihanoukville-16858/
Workers begin Clearing Land for Lower Sesan 2
Workers in Stung Treng province have begun clearing forested land with chainsaws in order to make way for the reservoir of a massive hydropower dam that has drawn ire from local villagers who say they have not been informed about the dam’s construction plans. The National ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-begin-clearing-land-for-lower-sesan-2-16743/
Sihanoukville Runs Dry During Water Crisis
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. On March ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sihanoukville-runs-dry-during-water-crisis-16609/
Climate change to affect Mekong production
Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study. The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency ...
Pursat Police Official Charged Over Illegal Fishing
The Pursat Provincial court on Friday charged Krakor district’s judicial police bureau chief for taking bribes in order to allow illegal fishing in the Tonle Sap Lake, officials said yesterday. [Hong Bunthoeun] stands accused of accepting bribes to allow illicit fishing in parts of the Tonle ...
In Washington, ‘Mekong Days’ Puts River in Focus
Advocacy groups, environmentalists and policy-makers have wrapped up five days of events surrounding Mekong River issues in Washington. “Mekong Days,” a series of talks, films and other forums that ended Tuesday, highlighted issues in the region, where some 60 million people live. The Mekong River, a major ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/in-washington-mekong-days-puts-river-in-focus/1630640.html
Chinese Investments in Cambodia Ignore Environment Queries
China’s expanding investment portfolio in Cambodia has brought into sharper focus the darker side of the Asian giant’s “development projects” in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. And it is in the southwestern corner of Cambodia—known for its rich biodiversity, forest covered hills and bubbling rivers—where this ...
EDC promises more power
The recent power shortages have left residents of Phnom Penh out in the heat and dark, but amidst their mounting frustration, state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) has announced it will be purchasing more power from Thailand to address the shortfall. Keo Rattanak, director-general of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032964781/National/edc-promises-more-power.html
EdC Appeals For Public to Unplug In Power Crisis
Cambodia’s national electricity provider yesterday appealed to the public to unplug from the national energy supply in an effort to alleviate chronic seasonal power shortages that are causing blackouts across Phnom Penh and the rest of the country. Eletricite du Cambodge (EdC) published an announcement asking ...
Grasslands present dilemma
A week after British researchers released a study warning that the nation’s grasslands would soon be lost if drastic action was not taken to protect them, some agricultural experts have called for moderation, noting that the intensive rice cultivation blamed for the grasslands’ destruction is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664676/National/grasslands-present-dilemma.html
$10 mln to protect ecosystems in Southeast Asia
The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has committed to provide another $10 mln U.S. in grants to address the environmental crisis engulfing mainland Southeast Asia. The ground-breaking biodiversity fund was launched in 2008. During the first phase, $10 mln was invested in efforts to conserve the critical ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZmM3ZDQzYjBiMmV
Documentary Looks at Impact of Mekong Dams
An updated documentary, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?,” examines the impacts of hydroelectric dams on the Mekong River. The Xayaburi dam, which would produce hydropower for market, has become a divisive issue among Mekong River countries. Critics say it could severely damage ecosystems on which ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/documentary-looks-at-impact-of-mekong-dams/1626779.html
Short on Water in the Tonle Sap
Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing. The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/water-03202013141227.html
Hun Sen: No to industry along coast
Hun Sen asked authorities to maintain the pristine beaches along coastal provinces by not allowing any industrial factories to be constructed on or near them. The comment was aimed towards an agreement signed by Cambodian and Chinese companies late last month to build a $2.3 ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZmQ1NGIxODRiYTk
Beaches to drive tourism
The Ministry of Tourism and the French TV channel TF1 have signed a deal on a “2013 action plan” that will promote Cambodia’s beach tourism. The agreement was inked yesterday by Tourism Minister Thong Khon and Franck Firmin Guion, the president of Adventure Line Product-ions (ALP). The plan ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031962003/Business/beaches-to-drive-tourism.html
New study reveals catastrophic loss of Cambodia's tropical flooded grasslands
Around half of Cambodia’s tropical flooded grasslands have been lost in just 10 years according to new research from the University of East Anglia. The seasonally flooded grasslands around the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, are of great importance for biodiversity and a ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-03-reveals-catastrophic-loss-cambodia-tropical.html
World's largest freshwater fish threatened
The 16th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has brought thousands of delegates from over 150 countries to Bangkok to discuss cross-border cooperation, sustainable use of biodiversity and transnational endangered species issues. Construction has already begun on the ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/340170/mekong-dams-threaten-world-largest-freshwater-fish
Villagers pin big hopes on little dam
In the past four years, families in Anlong Chrey village, in Kampong Speu provinces’s Thpong district, have watched a small multipurpose dam being built at their back doors. For village chief Soung Pao, 59, who gave up two hectares for the dam – one of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031361911/National/villagers-pin-big-hopes-on-little-dam.html
Upstream Dams, Downstream Trouble
As examples, Laos broke ground on a new Mekong River dam that’s causing concern bordering on fury in Cambodia and Vietnam. India is enraged about a new Chinese dam going up on the Brahmaputra River. And Ethiopia’s new dam on the Nile is angering Sudan, ...
http://www.hydroworld.com/news/2013/03/12/upstream-dams-downstream-trouble.html
Project to reduce flooding
The government has announced plans for a landmark project to create a system for diverting and then stocking waste water, in a bid to prevent run-off into the streets of Phnom Penh and the Tonle Sap river. Moeung Sophan, a consultant to the Phnom Penh Department ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031161854/National/project-to-reduce-flooding.html
Hun Sen Says CPP Largess Will End If Election is Lost
Less than five months from the national elections, Prime Minister Huns Sen yesterday warned the public that his ruling CPP party would stop making charitable donations towards infrastructure and national development if the party is not re-elected. Speaking at the inauguration of a Chinese-funded expansion of ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-cpp-largess-will-end-if-election-is-lost-12645/