Disasters and emergency response

A weather forecast predicting heavy rain in the next five days is causing some trepidation among election monitors, who fear flooding might keep some voters from the polls. Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor issued a warning Monday that a low-pressure system hitting ...

More than 120 families in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district sent a letter on Monday to the district governor asking for his help in addressing the flooding problem that has seen some of their homes collapse and has forced many to seek temporary accommodation elsewhere, villagers ...

Rising global temperatures could greatly exacerbate flooding in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, as well as parts of Africa and South America, a new study by the University of Tokyo has found. Employing 11 different climate models, researchers found that with a mere rise ...

Severe rain and hail storms hit several provinces on Tuesday leaving one person dead, more than 10 injured and nearly 200 houses destroyed or damaged, the National Committee for Disaster Management reported yesterday. ...

Several days of rain have finally brought relief to hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City who had been without water for two weeks because the reservoir that provides their supply dried up during hot season. LYP Group, a company owned by ...

A Northeastern section of the Mekong River that is home to a number of endangered species has been designated a conservation site by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. A prakas issued by Minister Chan Sarun on April 23 officially declared a 56-kilometre section of ...

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 ...

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 ...

The southwestern areas along the Vietnam – Cambodia border are now in their usual busy time of the year, with smuggled goods entering the country with near impunity. Most of the markets in the Mekong Delta are flooded with various contraband products, mostly brought from China ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday appealed to the private sector for the second time to invest in fire trucks instead of depending on the government’s fire departments. “Please try to do two jobs. The first is to get the fire sprinkler systems into the factory ...

Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned Wednesday. In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in ...

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 ...

Flooding  this year cost the government significantly less than expected due to better preparation and lower water levels than in previous years, first vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management Nhim Vanda announced yesterday. The NCDM could not yet report the precise amount spent on flood ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday accused unnamed individuals of attempting to grab land in Kompong Thom province by invoking his wife’s name and ordered one of his sons to investigate and give back any misappropriated land. According to Mr. Hun Sen, unscrupulous individuals were ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly castigated the Kampong Thom provincial governor in a speech on Saturday for allegedly claiming a large portion of land and saying it was needed for the local office of the Cambodian Red Cross, an agency lead by Hun Sen’s wife, Bun ...

About 70 families living in Pursat province’s Kandieng district have now been evacuated to higher ground after Pursat River burst its banks on Monday night because of heavy rain from Tropical Depression Gaemi, officials said. Mr Sokha [provincial governor] added that about 400 police officers ...

Preparations are in place to evacuate some 13,000 people if flooding worsens in Purst province after the Pursat River burst its banks on Monday nights leading to the evacuation of 27 families in Kandieng district. Pursat provincial governor Khoy Sokha said that floodwater, which ...

Authorities are preparing to evacuate more than 150 families from Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district, should flooding in the area get worse due to heavy rainfall and runoff from a dam that opened its gates in Thailand on Monday. The families’ homes are already affected by ...

The Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology yesterday warned that a tropical storm, which is forecast to hit the coast of Vietnam this weekend, will worsen flooding across much of Cambodia. ...

Due to rising water level in Thailand’s reservoirs caused by heavy rainfall, the Thai government announced the opening of a dam in Sa Kaeo province, located about 20 km from the Cambodian border. This decision will potentially affect 10,000 Cambodian families in Poipet, Serei Sophorn ...

Disputed figures surround the flood death toll in Banteay Meanchey province. Yesterday, Banteay Mean­chey city hall spokesman Keo Ratanak rejected reports that more than 10 people had drowned in the province as a result of the flooding, saying: “The exact number is seven.” But according to numbers ...

A total of 11 people have now died due to flooding in the country since mid-September, while the worst affected area, Banteay Meanchey province, continued to suffer amid torrential rain on Thursday night, government officials said on Friday. ...

Cambodia’s Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said foreign investors with production bases in Thailand ought to consider Cambodia for future expansion because of the Kingdom’s greater resistance to floods. Speaking at Phnom Penh Honda’s 20th anniversary yesterday, the Commerce minister said that while Cambodia faces floods each ...

More than 100 families were evacuated to higher ground in Banteay Meanchey province’s Serei Saophoan City yesterday, as Prime Minister Hun Sen urged people to be vigilant in the face of continued flooding. After heavy rain last night, 100 more people from Serei Saophan City ...