As hydropower projects continue to be built along the Mekong, fishing communities living near the Tonle Sap river in Cambodia say their way of life is already changing.
Tag: Tonle Sap
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Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, a lake known as the country’s “beating heart,” faces a more rapid decline than previously estimated, according to a new study.
Muddying the Mekong: balancing sediment and sustainable development
If all the dams currently proposed for the lower Mekong basin are developed, sediment load reaching the delta will fall to 4% of current levels
Few solutions in sight to help save Cambodia’s largest lake
Environmental issues threaten sustainability of Tonle Sap Lake which a million Cambodians depend on for their livelihoods
Cambodian Communities Complain Illegal Fishing Damaging Livelihoods
In this video, community leaders at Kampong Khleang in the Tonle Sap Lake, expose to us (Scientists for the Mekong) the corruption of authorities receiving bribes and allowing illegal fishing by Vietnamese ‘trawlers’ on the Lake, plus the impacts on their own livelihoods.
Groundwater shortage could jeopardise 1.5 million farmers: study
Amid late-arriving rains and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, groundwater supplies are shrinking, a fact that could leave 1.5 million Cambodian farmers unable to water their crops within 15 years, according to a study published last month in the Journal of Hydrology.
The study by Laura Erban and Steven Gorelick of the department of earth system science at Stanford University found that a growing reliance on groundwater use – which has grown by 10 per cent annually in recent years – may drop the water table below the “lift limit” of suction pump wells.
“Extensive groundwater irrigation jeopardises access for shallow domestic water supply wells, raises the costs of pumping for all groundwater users, and may exacerbate arsenic contamination and land subsidence that are already widespread hazards in the region,” the study authors wrote.
Even if the Kingdom starts drawing more irrigation water from rivers and lakes, its options are limited, the study found.
Dams, Climate Change Lead to Fish Decline in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap: Fishermen
The fish population in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake has declined significantly from a year ago, fishermen in the country’s Kampong Chhnang province said Friday, citing the construction of dams in the area and climate change, among other factors.
Fish Shortage Stirs Ethnic Rivalry
Chea Takihiro and Igor Kossov The Vietnamese fishing families are gone. Their boats began disappearing from the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers near Phnom Penh a few months ago, according to Cham fishing families still living in the area. By the weekend none were left, Cham fishermen told Khmer Times. The ethnic […]