Environment and natural resources
Water resources
Cambodia seeks $57m Indian loan
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 ...
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/india/218944-cambodia-seeks-57m-indian-loan-.html
China is top dam builder, going where others won't
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, ...
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/12/18/2809176/china-is-top-dam-builder-going.html#storylink=rss
New species, old threats to wildlife: WWF
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 ...
Fourth missing in dam disaster, say witnesses
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/fourth-missing-in-dam-disaster-say-witnesses.html
Cambodia could tap up to 10,000 MW from hydroelectric dams
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 ...
Kampong Cham residents say casinos pollute fishing grounds
Residents of Tropang Thlong village in Ponhea Krek district say casinos near the border with Vietnam are polluting fishing grounds. ...
Kep first province to wrap land-titling scheme
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/kep-first-province-to-wrap-land-titling-scheme.html
Hun Sen Appeals for Kep's Vines to Be Tamed
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 ...
Residents seek compensation as homes fall into Tonle Sap
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 ...
Mixed results for oil firm's search off coast
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. ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mixed-results-for-oil-firms-search-off-coast-6489/
Government Silent on Atai Dam Damage
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 ...
Villagers refuse $500 compensation for damaged houses
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 ...
Four feared dead in Cambodia dam accident
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 ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-03/an-cambodia-dam/4403764
Power projects aim to generate 4,000 megawatts by 2020
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 ...
Study reveals extent of Mekong dam food security threat
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 ...
Concern Over Tonle Sap Catch
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 ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/tonle-sap-11282012191709.html
Electricity Vietnam No Longer Involved in Lower Sesan 2 Dam
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 ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/electricity-vietnam-no-longer-involved-in-lower-sesan-2-dam-6363/
Chinese sign deal on dam, villagers fear flooding
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 ...
1 in 20 Firms Carry Out Environment Assessments
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 ...
Simon Lewis and Khuon Narim, P.1
http://www.cambodiadaily.com
Millions Threatened by Dam in Stung Treng
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 to host meeting on Mekong development
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. ...
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Thailand-to-host-meeting-on-Mekong-development-30194726.html
China offers Cambodia $53 mln to develop water resources
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 ...
NGOs ask ASEAN to address Xayaburi
Several groups are calling for the ASEAN summit to address the regional discord caused by the Xayaburi dam, which Laos began constructing earlier this month despite opposition downriver from neighbours Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as from conservation groups. On Friday, the Rivers Coalition in Cambodia ...
As All Eyes Turn To Cambodia…
Along the Phnom Penh waterfront the city’s landmark flags have been raised and the street children and beggars are being removed – an unwanted sight for a government out to impress the biggest gathering of world leaders this country has ever seen. At the center of this will ...
http://thediplomat.com/asean-beat/2012/11/15/as-the-world-descends-on-cambodia/