The filling of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake is continuing briskly as the government allocated more landfill plots to people close to government and military leaders.
The Mekong river endured three years of drought and its lowest-ever water levels due to minimal rainfall as well as the actions of upstream hydropower dams, which had spillover effects for the Tonle Sap lake and Cambodia’s fishing industry that relies on it, according to a new report.
Oral district residents are pitching tents in community forests to fend off soldiers who have received rights to the land by government order, as the Kampong Speu provincial administration pursues lawsuits against the residents for not making way.
Preah Vihear’s Prey Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary is dotted with clearings and fresh stumps. As a local patroller walks through the protected forest, he points out dozens of logged areas, many now being cultivated by local residents. Some say they were pushed out from plantation land or are struggling with debt.
Mondulkiri’s provincial spokesman says widespread loss of protected land — amid the creation of a new anti-logging task force on Tuesday — “has nothing to do with powerful people or high-ranking people.”
Alleging renewed large-scale illegal logging, environmentalists around the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary said authorities should take action to stop deforestation before it was too late, just as officials had reclaimed 60,000 hectares of protected flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake.
Dozens of villagers blocked a road to stop a trash company from bringing its trucks to a 1-hectare field near the village, which has been overflowing with bags of unprocessed, unburned garbage.
Fishers say their daily catch has plunged again. According to researchers, disturbances to Mekong water flows due to hydropower dams and climate change have disrupted fish habitats, breeding grounds, abundance and diversity.
Despite making her jump through administrative hoops, a rights monitor from Adhoc says the Preah Sihanouk court is blocking her from attending hearings, hampering a critical function of the country’s rights workers — trial monitoring.
Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the Justice Ministry permission to sell 140 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake and use the proceeds for infrastructure upgrades, according to a royal decree, with the new diktat coming weeks after the ministry was given land in the lake area.
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