‘Not enough water’: Cambodia’s farmers face changing climate

Communities around Southeast Asia’s biggest lake are feeling the effects of droughts and rising demand for land.

Tonle Sap, Cambodia – During Cambodia’s monsoon season, rice farmer Sam Vongsay’s backyard fills with water and the plastic trash of his houseboat-dwelling neighbours as the Tonle Sap lake grows with floodwaters from the Mekong River.

But during the dry half of the year, which runs from December to May, Vongsay can hardly access a drop of lake water from his home in Chong Khneas, which is located about 220km (137 miles) north-west of the capital Phnom Penh.

The 40-year-old farmer lacks a viable well or the equipment to pump the lake’s water the 2km (1.2 miles) distance to his property, and blames farmers upstream for diverting much of the flow to irrigate their crops. “The water is not enough to come downstream, because the other farmers upstream also block the water,” Vongsay told Al Jazeera.

read more https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/1/14/nothing-to-harvest