PM Hun Sen Calls for the Restoration of the Tonle Sap Lake Ecosystem  

This photo taken on October 14, 2020 shows fisherman Team Nhim (R) dropping a fishing net into the Tonle Sap river by Prek Toal floating village in Battambang province.

The prime minister added that the sediment removed could be used as fertilizer on farms



PHNOM PENH – Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the relevant ministries and authorities to work together to restore the Tonle Sap Lake ecosystem and to ensure fish species conservation.



While delivering a special statement on May 27, Hun Sen said that every year, the lake is getting shallower due to the accumulation of sediments and leaves. Therefore, the relevant authorities including the Tonle Sap Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology must work together to determine where work must be done to address the issue.  



“Normally during the rainy season, the water tends to bring sediment and fallen leaves in the lake, causing it to become shallower, and making it difficult for fish conservation,” the prime minister said. “Therefore, to ensure fish species conservation in the Tonle Sap Lake, we must determine the locations affected so that we can seek funding to help pump [sediment] or restore those areas.”



All the relevant ministries and institutions must study the possibility of processing the sediment from the lake and turning it into agricultural fertilizer for farming, Hun Sen said.



“It is impossible to pump and dump the soil back into the Tonle Sap Lake,” he said. “Therefore, we need to study carefully the transformation of lake sediment into natural fertilizer for farmers. Since the lake sediment is fertile, people should benefit from the recycling of sediment as fertilizer.”



According to a report by Cambodia's Fisheries Administration, the total output of freshwater fisheries over the last three years has declined significantly. The fish catch in 2020 was 413,200 tons, down 13.71 percent compared to that of 2019, and the fish catch further declined by 7.3 percent in 2021.   



The Tonle Sap Lake, which is the biggest freshwater body of water in Southeast Asia and the most important lake in Cambodia, has been affected by a series of factors ranging from the loss of flooded forests and the increasing frequencies of droughts driven by the climate crisis, to man-made elements such as dam construction and overfishing. All this has also greatly affected fish habitat and driven the decline of fish species in the country.



During the closing ceremony of the Ministry of Agriculture's 2021 annual review meeting in March 2022, Hun Sen had ordered the relevant ministries and authorities to plant seedlings in an area of ​​more than 60,000 hectares, which had been confiscated for illegal possession, and to turn those hectares into flooded forest areas to provide shelter for fish and increase fish population.


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