Disasters and emergency response

Nearly 690 million of the world’s 2.3 billion children live in areas most exposed to climate change, facing higher rates of death, poverty and disease from global warming, the UN children’s agency said 24 November. Almost 530 million children live in countries hardest-hit by high floods ...

As the weather pattern known as El Niño threatens to wreak havoc on climactic 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 ...

Many people are still missing after a massive landslide at a jade mine in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state. At least 104 bodies have now been recovered, with some estimates saying more than 100 people are still missing. The incident happened in Hpakant on 21 November when a huge ...

In the wake of mass flooding, the company behind Cambodia’s first major hydropower dam used a government visit last week to distance itself from recent controversies and quell fears about the project’s alleged downsides. In September, Kampot province experienced widespread flooding that left thousands temporarily homeless ...

A brief and savage storm blew down about 100 power poles in three districts of Ayutthaya province on Friday, damaging vehicles, residences and shops. No fatalities were reported. The freak storm struck Bang Pa-in, Uthai and Wang Noi districts at about 3pm. The areas with the heaviest ...

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 Cambodia’s reservoirs. “Drought . . . has been threatening our agricultural production, therefore relevant authorities and ministries have to ...

The increased cultivation area of Kampot pepper has offset losses due to drought, with farmers of the premium quality peppercorn estimating that production could reach 80 tonnes in the coming harvest, nearly 40 per cent more than last season. “Even though our farms were impacted by ...

Ho Chi Minh City is seeking the prime minister’s approval to spend VND9.85 trillion, or more than US$443 million, on a massive anti-flooding project that will include a seven-kilometer riverside embankment.  Keep reading ...

Despite the Cambodian government’s uncertainty last month, US satellite imagery has confirmed that haze from Indonesian peat fires that has bedevilled the region did in fact reach Cambodia in October, with haze from local forest fires likely to succeed it as the dry season progresses, ...

The Mekong Delta, one of the most vulnerable deltas in the world in regard to climate change, must begin to take urgent measures to deal with the continuing consequences of changing weather patterns, experts at a seminar held on 27 October in Can Tho urged. The seminar ...