Water resources

Thirteen percent of more than 2,500 freshwater species of fish, crabs and plants profiled across the region are under threat of extinction, a report released on Wednesday says. According to an International Union for Conservation of Nature study of freshwater biodiversity in the “Indo-Burma” region, which includes Cambodia, ...

Police yesterday said they were seeking more information about a massive haul of heroin-allegedly transited through Cambodia-that was seized from a boat off the coast of Taiwan this week. The Taiwanese Justice Ministry’s Investigation Bureau says it found 70 kg of heroin hidden in a fishing ...

A year ago, getting to Sihanoukville required perseverance and a certain degree of bravery. There had been no flights to Cambodia’s premier beach resort for years — at least no scheduled services — and cruise ships docking here were few and far between Following years spent ...

The Cambodian government has committed to the construction of five dams along the Mekong River in order to meet a huge demand for electricity, but environmental groups warn that severe repercussions loom for this strategy. “While each project proposed in Cambodia comes with a different set ...

More than 100 Cham families living in boats on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Chongva peninsula have agreed to relocate upriver after they celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan over the weekend, a community representative said on Friday. Matt Kriya, a representative ...

More than 180,000 hectares on 28 of Cambodia’s 64 islands were reclassified as state private property for 31 companies seeking land concessions between 2008 and 2010, government sub-decrees reveal. The reclassification sub-decrees, compiled by investigators at the rights group Adhoc, pave the way for firms to ...

Thai construction company Ch Karnchang has continued work on the controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos, even as the Lao government has assured other Mekong River nations that the project is postponed pending further environmental studies, the company’s CEO said yesterday. Ch Karnchang’s CEO Plew Trivisvavet told ...

Construction of the main structure of the supposedly on-hold Xayaburi dam could begin by the end of this year, the Thai company contracted to build it said yesterday. Ch Karnchang chief executive Plew Trivisvavet said preparatory work at the site of the proposed US$3.8 billion, 1,285-megawatt ...

Work has resumed on a controversial $3.5 billion dam across the Mekong River in Laos, its Thai developer said on Thursday, contradicting Laotian assurances it had been suspended following protests over its environmental impact. Laos agreed in December to suspend the Xayaburi dam project and said ...

Concerns that a drought may soon grip some of Cambodia’s provinces intensified after the government allocated thousands of cubic metres of water to more than 20,000 hectares of dried rice paddies in a mission to save valuable rice crops last weekend. Although the rainy season has cloaked ...

Children played along the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula yesterday, while their parents napped under the shade of their bright yellow and blue boat homes. But members of this Cham fishing community overlooking Phnom Penh’s city space said it was a very different scene on ...

More than 100 Cham fishing families who moor their boat homes on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula have been ordered to relocate, with one official saying the fishing boats were spoiling the beauty of the riverbank and the area around the new hotel. “We already ...

Fishermen bring their boats to shore, pack away their traps and hand over the day’s catch to their awaiting families on the banks of the Mekong River in Kratie province’s Chitra Borei district. “When my husband arrives home each day, we eat some of what he ...

Villagers belonging to a Thai activist group filed a complaint to Thailand’s Administrative Court yesterday for the cancellation of an agreement form the country’s Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to buy power from a controversial mainstream Mekong dam in Laos, an NGO representative said yesterday. “According ...

For the past several days, Boonma and seven other Houay Souy villagers have travelled back to their homes near the Xayaburi Dam building site on the Lao side of the Mekong River. Since the beginning of the year they have been relocated to a new ...

The Philippines has summoned Cambodia’s ambassador over comments linked to Manila’s territorial row with Beijing. Hos Sereythonh was asked to explain remarks accusing the Philippines and Vietnam of playing “dirty politics” over the issue of Asean and the South China Sea. [H]e did not turn up on ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday charged six people, including a provincial director of water resources and a commune chief, for their involvement in creating illegal fishing reservoirs in Kompong Thom province. “They were charged with clearing a flooded forest for encroachment and illegally constructing ...

In his first public meeting in weeks, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Friday met with a delegation of Thai officials in Phnom Penh and pledged Cambodia’s commitment to resolve a decade-old maritime dispute over contested maritime space in the Gulf of Thailand. Speaking to reporters ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday questioned six people, including a provincial director of water resources and a commune chief, over allegations that they cleared part of a flooded forest in Kompong Thom to illegally construct reservoirs on the Tonle Sap. Earlier this month, military ...

Cambodia’s first Marine Protection Area will be established around two emerging tourist destinations, Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem islands, a British conservation group has announced. NGO Coral Cay Conservation said last week that it has been invited to map out a 300-square-kilometre MPA by the ...

The Lao government’s refusal to halt the construction of a controversial mainstream Mekong dam is “making a mockery” of an agreement between the four Mekong countries, international conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said yesterday. Though Laos had agreed in December to suspend construction of the ...

A decision on whether to build the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River in northern Laos is a life and death one that will affect Cambodians downstream, according to Foreign Minister Hor Namhong. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Namhong said the controversial 1,260-megawatt hydropower dam has ...

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Friday put the blame for last week’s failure among Asean countries to release a joint communiqué on territorial disputes in the South China Sea firmly back on Vietnam and the Philippines. More than a week since discussions related to the territorial dispute between Asean’s members ...

The Laos government will continue to allow what it has dubbed “preparatory work” on the controversial Xayaburi dam, including the resettlement of villagers, despite promising to suspend the project at last week’s ASEAN Regional Forum, according to a media report in Laos. ...