Drought

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the launch of a nationwide water distribution campaign yesterday as the country deals with the heartbreaking effects of a drought, calling on all state and private institutions, as well as the Cambodian Red Cross, to help out. ...

Tons of dead fish were found in the protected Tonle Chhmar Lake on Saturday, according to Ministry of Agriculture officials. The lake is a wildlife sanctuary on the edge of the Tonle Sap river in Kampong Thom’s Peam Bang commune. ...

The Kampot provincial authority started distributing clean water yesterday to drought-stricken villagers in several districts who do not have enough water for drinking and their basic daily needs such as cooking. ...

As China opened one of its six dams on the upper Mekong River last month to help parched Southeast Asian countries down river cope with a record drought, it was hailed as benevolent water diplomacy. But to critics of hydroelectric dams built on the Mekong over ...

With a severe drought choking the northeast, it’s only a matter of weeks before many residents of Ratanakkiri province run dry, according to villagers, local officials and organizations working in the province. ...

Up to 4,000 mostly ethnic minority people in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district are facing a water shortage after the local supplier announced service would be suspended due to impending widescale drought. ...

Drought in Southeast Asia is raising concerns in the Cambodian and Vietnamese countryside where salinity levels are rising in the Mekong River and people are skeptical about fresh promises from Laos that it will respect the rights of downstream countries in dam construction. ...

Almost every province in Cambodia is facing some level of drought, according to director of the Meteorology Department at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology Oum Ryna, but only a few provinces were facing a severe shortage of water. ...

Government officials on Wednesday applauded China’s decision to take emergency measures to counter the impact of a regional drought by releasing water into the Mekong River from the Jinghong Hydropower Station in China’s southwestern Yunnan province. ...

About 2,700 families in Kampong Cham province’s Reay Pai commune, where wells and ponds have almost dried up, could soon be left without any safe water. ...

Lending to farmers will be stricter this year as the El Nino weather phenomenon extends the dry season, executives at microfinance institutes (MFIs) said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s drought has hit even the coldest provinces, as Ban Lung’s main water supplier, Tai Seng Phalit Teuksaat Co., broadcast drought warnings to the residents of Ratanakkiri early this week, advising residents to start rationing water. ...

Farmers and exporters have expressed concerns over an Agriculture Ministry notice issued on Wednesday asking farmers to have only one harvest this upcoming dry season because of water shortages across the country, given that this could affect the paddy output next year.The ministry notice cited ...

The fate of 70 million people rests on what happens to the Mekong river. With world leaders meeting in Paris next week for crucial UN climate talks, John Vidal journeys down south-east Asia’s vast waterway – a place that encapsulates some of the dilemmas they ...

As the weather pattern known as El Niño threatens to wreak havoc on climatic conditions across the globe, the Cambodian government has warned that higher-than-usual temperatures, which already sparked droughts this year, will cause next year’s rainy season to be even shorter.What’s more, the heat ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on local authorities and government ministries to be ready to distribute water to farmers around the country due to the ongoing shortage in the Kingdom’s reservoirs. He added that if people had trouble contacting local authorities, individual farmers should ...

Fishing communities along two of Cambodia’s principle rivers say their livelihoods are threatened by droughts that have reduced water levels and devastated fish numbers.“The Tonle Sap is 3 metres lower than last year,” Long Sochhet, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Fishing Communities, said yesterday. ...

Amid what some meteorologists have dubbed a “Godzilla-like El Niño”, drought conditions during Cambodia’s scheduled monsoon season have significantly worsened from what last year were termed historically bad levels, a new report from the Ministry of Agriculture shows. ...

Persisting dry conditions have affected rice seedling in about 185,451 hectares of paddy rice in Cambodia, Khmer Times quoted a report by the Agriculture Minister. ...

The government has set aside some $33 million to finish rebuilding Cambodia’s northern rail line by late next year, according to the Transportation Ministry, reanimating a long-delayed and over-budget project that had been one of the Asian Development Bank’s priorities in the country. ...

A severe drought is affecting many people in provinces across Cambodia and has prompted the government to warn that it will deepen poverty in the developing country. The government has not released any figures on the extent to which the drought has affected the populace. ...

As a light rain peppered the dry earth in Kampong Thom province’s O’Dong village on Friday afternoon, residents rejoiced. Having scrambled around for pots and bowls, they hoped the drizzle would yield enough water to cover their basic needs. But after just 15 minutes, hope turned ...

Cambodia is looking at a delayed onset of the rainy season, with experts and government officials having raised concerns of a prolonged dry season affecting agricultural production, as the Pacific weather pattern El Niño threatens to bring drought-like conditions. Ngin Chhay, director of the Rice Department ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen used a speech at a food security seminar Monday to once again stress the need for Cambodia to develop modern irrigation facilities to better exploit the land and meet growing food requirements. Speaking from his office building in Phnom Penh, Mr. Hun ...