Disasters and emergency response

The number of fires in Cambodia increased by 14.7 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year, killing 35 people and consuming almost 600 homes. Electrical malfunctions were the leading cause of fires, accounting for 47 per cent of all fire incidents, with carelessness the ...

Bangkok’s Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) will test lower-water-volume distribution for 24 consecutive hours in some areas this week as it braces for an imminent drought crisis. The test will run from 9pm 24 February till 9pm 25 February. “We need to make preparations for any emergency and any ...

More severe drought is expected to hit Thailand between March and April, as authorities have already declared 11 provinces disaster zones due to water scarcity. State agencies are now regulating water more carefully and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered the 1st Army, which oversees the central ...

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered relevant ministries and Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces to prioritise the fight against drought and saltwater intrusion which have severely affected agriculture and fisheries and caused a crippling water shortage. Speaking at a seminar in Can Tho City ...

Drought and saltwater intrusion have worsened in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta this year, threatening rice crops and the daily life of residents. Le Thanh Hai, deputy director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said: “Saltwater intrusion [began in] November 2015, one and half months ...

At least 600 families in the remote Svay Chek district of Banteay Meanchey province are being threatened by a shortage of drinking water that began earlier this month, a provincial official said on 16 February. The water in the wells and rivers has been drying up ...

A giant new underground tunnel which promises much faster flood water drainage in Bangkok, expected to be complete early next year, will help six flood-prone areas of the capital, Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra says. The construction of the 6.4-km tunnel,linking Lat Phrao canal and the Chao Phraya River, is ...

Myanmar farmers are protesting against a plan they say will reduce their water supply. They say water is so short they have already been forced to abandon growing paddy and switch to beans and pulses. They demand that work to open up land around a nearby ...

The United Nations World Food Programme will support flood-affected people in Chin State with 500 tonnes of rice, as they continue to struggle after landslides and flood waters ravaged swathes of land in the country’s poorest state last year. More than 9 million people were affected ...

The second major fire of the Chinese New Year season ripped through a poor community in Phnom Penh on 9 February, completely destroying nine houses. The fire broke out at Niroth Pagoda in Chbar Ampov district’s Niroth commune at about 11:30am, according to district governor Eang ...