Water resources

KRATIE (Cambodia): The sight of two dolphins twisting playfully in the murky waters of the Mekong river elicits barely-stifled squeals of delight from a boatload of eco-tourists. But a short distance upstream, river guard Pech Sokhan sighs as he holds up  two large, tangled gill nets ...

Prices for the highly-prized fish known as pa sa-see (Mekongina erythrospila) have more than doubled to $50 a kilogram, sources said. ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen asked for $57m concessional loan from India for two development projects and urged India to consider direct flights to Cambodia. He said the two projects are the electricity transmission line from Kratie province to Stung Treng province with an estimated ...

Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, ...

From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said Tuesday in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011. But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects ...

Workers who directly witnessed the Stung Atai dam accident more than a week ago have contested government accounts, telling the Post four, not three, men were still missing after an outlet pipe burst. Those working or living near the dam also told the Post investigations pledged ...

Cambodia has great potential in hydropower development and the country could build and tap up to 10,000 megawatts from hydropower dams, said an energy official on Thursday. “At the present, about 10 percent of the hydropower potential is under construction,” Heng Kunleang, chief of the energy ...

Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. ...

Seven months after Prime Minister Hun Sen unveiled an ambitious plan to demarcate 1.8 million hectares of state land and formally acknowledge those who live on it, the completion of the first – albeit the smallest – of eight affected provinces has wrapped up. Marking the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed yesterday for developers and landowners in Kep City to build fences around their neglected properties to prevent vines from creeping onto the street of the coastal resort. Since much of the land in Kep City is owned by investors who live ...

Nineteen families from Svay Pak commune in Russey Keo district protested for a second day Wednesday after their homes fell into the Tonle Sap River. Twenty-four houses along the river have been affected, they said. Although five have already left, the other 19 refuse to accept ...

The first well drilled by a major Chinese company looking for oil and gas in Cambodian waters has been completed, though hydrocarbons in the firms offshore block are proving elusive, an official at the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) has said. ...

With three workers still missing after a major breach at a chinese built hydropower dam in Pursat province on Saturday, the Government’s investigation into what went wrong and why appears to be moving slowly. A large set ion of a concrete tunnel at Stung Atai ...

Local authorities in the capital’s Russey Keo district had offered residents living along the banks of the Tonle Sap $500 compensation in the wake of sand dredging that began a week ago and has already caused structural damage to their homes, villagers told the Post ...

According to Veal Veng district police chief Theang Leng, the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, apparently after heavy water pressure caused part of the Stung Atay dam’s reservoir to collapse. “Four people are missing. We fear they have drowned but this is not sure yet,” he ...

The government is carrying out 18 power projects to generate more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. In its annual report, the ministry says Cambodia consumed 2,788 million kilowatt/hours in 2011. Thailand and Vietnam supplied 1,765 ...

The planned construction of hydropowered dams on the Mekong River in South-East Asia could jeopardise livelihoods, water access and food security for 60 million people, across Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a study. The study reports that dams will block fish migration routes and ...

Fish production in Cambodia’s great Tonle Sap Lake is on track to reach last year’s level, an official said Wednesday, despite concern from fishermen that yields are dwindling due to environmental problems. Nao Thouk, director of the Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture, said that ...

Electricity Vietnam International (EVNI), a subsidiary of Vietnam’s state-owned electricity giant EVN, is no longer involved in the Lower Sesan 2 dam, a Vietnamese Embassy official confirmed yesterday. Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group and China’s Hydrolancang International Energy Co. Ltd. on Monday signed an agreement in Phnom ...

The massive and highly controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam project took a major step forward yesterday with the inking of government power purchase agreements and an investment deal between Royal Group and a Chinese company. But details about the contracts, their implementation or the fate of ...

Only about 5 percent of the roughly 2,000 major development projects, such as dams, roads and bridges, approved by the government between 2004 and 2011 carried out environmental impact assessments, an official at the ministry of Environment said yesterday. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh ...

More studies should be conducted on the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province in order to understand its potential social and environmental effects, Conservation International (C.I.) said in a statement. The Lower Sesan 2-as well as other dams planned for the Sesan, Srepok ...

Thailand will host the International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Lancang-Mekong Sub-Region next year to push for natural-disaster management, development and security in the Mekong River and its basin, a government official said yesterday. ...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged RMB 329 million ($53 million) in assistance to Cambodia on Sunday during a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, a Cambodian official said. Ieng Sophalet, an assistant to Hun Sen, told reporters that the grant would be used for water resource ...