Sunday, May 25, 2008
Facing Up To The Environment
Facing Up To The Environment
IPS Mekong Fellowship 2005-2006
“During the dry season my villagers work very hard to get enough clean water to drink. The lake level has dropped significantly in recent years. The low level of the lake cannot be blamed entirely on lack of rain, but it may be that there is a higher amount of sediment than there should be in the water,”
No one is yet able to foresee how badly affected Cambodia and Vietnam’s downstream waters of the Mekong River or the Tonle Sap Lake will become. Upstream countries like China have built dams, and many locals in both Cambodia and Vietnam, are voicing concerns about the environmental damage caused by the decreased water levels flowing down from the north.
Dams are not the only problem, growing populations in Cambodian and Vietnamese floating villages are creating more waste and the environment is paying the price. Some organizations are taking steps to turn this around and many living on the country’s great waterways are learning to appreciate the value of their environment.
Nguyen Thanh Ky is a 37-year-old fish farmer at Chau Doc in southwest Vietnam. Thanh Ky says that in the last few years, fish farmers have been facing a string of problems.
"Fish are not surviving in the bé [fish farm]. Five years ago, the fishing was good, and I never had problems with fish dying in large quantities," Nguyen says.
"Today, the number of fish in most bé in this area is decreasing and many of the bé are quite empty of fish. I don’t know what will4 become of our lifestyle in the future. Will there even be a future for floating fish farmers like us?"
"Some people have told me that fish farming is suffering because of water pollution, and even if we changed the type of fish we breed, the result would be the same: they’d die."
Kompong Loung commune chief Kev Sovannareth believes that with the population of floating villages in Cambodia growing at the rate they are, the environment is seriously at risk.
"I remember floating villages with just a couple of hundred people living on them, but now there are many thousands; ten times the amount," Sovannareth says.
"This poses a great risk to the water around the villages now, the water used to be so clear. At some spots you could see the bottom of the lake and fish swimming," he says.
Many fish have not been sighted for years now; fish like the chpin, the chra-keng [Barbus siaja], a fish found in swamps and flooded rice fields, the freshwater Elephant fish [Oxyeleotris marmorata] and the pruol [Cyprin laveon]."
"The fish are dying because plastic and oil are floating into their habitats … Plastic bags are floating about everywhere on the lake and around the village. They disrupt fishing activities all the time, and it’s popular nowadays to use those plastic bags isn’t it? It used to be the opposite, people would just use banana or lotus leaves.
"But the most frightening thing for me to see is the pollution from engines, from the oil and petroleum leaking into the water. Fish are choking. People’s health is affected and every year many of my villagers get skin diseases. I don’t know what kinds of diseases they are or from where they’re getting them from. But I have an idea, though: pollution," Sovannareth says.
Further south in Kompong Svay district, Kompong Thom province, another commune chief, Heng Monour, is worried about water shortages and illness too.
"Many of the commune people get the same stomach diseases and fevers. What if there was a dangerous epidemic of cholera?" Monour asks.
"The river is much lower and our commune hasn’t seen any of the Mekong dolphins for the last five years now. We used to see them here every season," he says.
"The amount of rain hasn’t changed in these parts, but the Mekong is just not flowing from the Tonle Sap Lake in as great a quantity as it used to. When I heard news saying that further upstream, the Mekong River
was being dammed, I put two and two together and figured that our water levels are lower now because of the dams."
In a story published in The Cambodian Scene Magazine (July/August 2005), the water levels of the Tonle Sap and its nearby tributary the Dang Tong Lake, were so low in May 2005 that residents in the area discovered an ancient tree, claimed to date back to the 11th century.
Coordinator for Environmental Education at NGO Osmose Keo Yada says Osmose selected Koh Chi Vaing commune in a trial to educate the residents about their river environment and to teach them how to look after it. Koh Chi Vaing is situated on a remote area of the Tonle Sap; people living there are poor and earn money on, and around the lake, fishing, hunting and cutting trees to sell.
"A few generations ago, the water in the Tonle Sap Lake was clean enough to drink, now people get skin diseases from just bathing in it," Keo says.
Osmose, established in 1999, is one of many non-profit organizations working around the Tonle Sap Lake, who are educating these floating village residents about how the future of the lake, and their livelihoods will be affected, if they do not change their habits and protect their environment now.
Besides Osmose, two other NGOs are playing a role in helping protect the Tonle Sap, like the Australian-based Live and Learn - Environmental Education (LLEE) and local organization Mlup Baitong.
Live and Learn country director Chum Som Onn says the organization selected five provinces around the lake to undertake training courses in primary schools: Kompong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang, Siem Reap and Kompong Thom.
"Live and Learn also work with the local media to broadcast news related to the lake environment. Our targets are those living on the floating villages because they are the people who are affected," Som Onn says.
Keo Yada says the organization’s goal is to educate the younger generations to love and respect their surrounds.
"We teach five sorts of lessons to children: forestry, fish, animals, water and pollution. Osmose has already taught over 700 students from public schools and over 200 children who do not attend school. We also teach floating village people how to make floating gardens to grow vegetables," she says.
"Fewer people are chopping down important trees, or hunting rare birds and animals now. They are beginning to understand the importance of looking after the environment. They are also throwing less rubbish into the water, particularly plastic items."
"As for the lake’s water levels, in the six years I’ve worked for Osmose on the Tonle Sap, I’ve noticed the flood season happen slowly, there is less water; while the dry season sucks up all the water very quickly," Keo Yada says. She blames the lower levels on the floodplains on the upstream damming of the Mekong.
Member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Observation Unit (OBSES) at the Office of the Council of Ministers Touch Seang Tana says before the dams were built, the Mekong flooded at high levels several times a year.
"All that water covered a huge area, providing irrigation, sustenance and life, for thousands of people and animals in the area. With lowering levels this could destroy the area," Seang Tana says.
IPS Mekong Fellowship 2005-2006
“During the dry season my villagers work very hard to get enough clean water to drink. The lake level has dropped significantly in recent years. The low level of the lake cannot be blamed entirely on lack of rain, but it may be that there is a higher amount of sediment than there should be in the water,”
No one is yet able to foresee how badly affected Cambodia and Vietnam’s downstream waters of the Mekong River or the Tonle Sap Lake will become. Upstream countries like China have built dams, and many locals in both Cambodia and Vietnam, are voicing concerns about the environmental damage caused by the decreased water levels flowing down from the north.
Dams are not the only problem, growing populations in Cambodian and Vietnamese floating villages are creating more waste and the environment is paying the price. Some organizations are taking steps to turn this around and many living on the country’s great waterways are learning to appreciate the value of their environment.
Nguyen Thanh Ky is a 37-year-old fish farmer at Chau Doc in southwest Vietnam. Thanh Ky says that in the last few years, fish farmers have been facing a string of problems."Fish are not surviving in the bé [fish farm]. Five years ago, the fishing was good, and I never had problems with fish dying in large quantities," Nguyen says.
"Today, the number of fish in most bé in this area is decreasing and many of the bé are quite empty of fish. I don’t know what will4 become of our lifestyle in the future. Will there even be a future for floating fish farmers like us?"
"Some people have told me that fish farming is suffering because of water pollution, and even if we changed the type of fish we breed, the result would be the same: they’d die."
Kompong Loung commune chief Kev Sovannareth believes that with the population of floating villages in Cambodia growing at the rate they are, the environment is seriously at risk.
"I remember floating villages with just a couple of hundred people living on them, but now there are many thousands; ten times the amount," Sovannareth says.
"This poses a great risk to the water around the villages now, the water used to be so clear. At some spots you could see the bottom of the lake and fish swimming," he says.
Many fish have not been sighted for years now; fish like the chpin, the chra-keng [Barbus siaja], a fish found in swamps and flooded rice fields, the freshwater Elephant fish [Oxyeleotris marmorata] and the pruol [Cyprin laveon]."
"The fish are dying because plastic and oil are floating into their habitats … Plastic bags are floating about everywhere on the lake and around the village. They disrupt fishing activities all the time, and it’s popular nowadays to use those plastic bags isn’t it? It used to be the opposite, people would just use banana or lotus leaves."But the most frightening thing for me to see is the pollution from engines, from the oil and petroleum leaking into the water. Fish are choking. People’s health is affected and every year many of my villagers get skin diseases. I don’t know what kinds of diseases they are or from where they’re getting them from. But I have an idea, though: pollution," Sovannareth says.
Further south in Kompong Svay district, Kompong Thom province, another commune chief, Heng Monour, is worried about water shortages and illness too.
"Many of the commune people get the same stomach diseases and fevers. What if there was a dangerous epidemic of cholera?" Monour asks.
"The river is much lower and our commune hasn’t seen any of the Mekong dolphins for the last five years now. We used to see them here every season," he says.
"The amount of rain hasn’t changed in these parts, but the Mekong is just not flowing from the Tonle Sap Lake in as great a quantity as it used to. When I heard news saying that further upstream, the Mekong River
was being dammed, I put two and two together and figured that our water levels are lower now because of the dams."
In a story published in The Cambodian Scene Magazine (July/August 2005), the water levels of the Tonle Sap and its nearby tributary the Dang Tong Lake, were so low in May 2005 that residents in the area discovered an ancient tree, claimed to date back to the 11th century.
Coordinator for Environmental Education at NGO Osmose Keo Yada says Osmose selected Koh Chi Vaing commune in a trial to educate the residents about their river environment and to teach them how to look after it. Koh Chi Vaing is situated on a remote area of the Tonle Sap; people living there are poor and earn money on, and around the lake, fishing, hunting and cutting trees to sell.
"A few generations ago, the water in the Tonle Sap Lake was clean enough to drink, now people get skin diseases from just bathing in it," Keo says.Osmose, established in 1999, is one of many non-profit organizations working around the Tonle Sap Lake, who are educating these floating village residents about how the future of the lake, and their livelihoods will be affected, if they do not change their habits and protect their environment now.
Besides Osmose, two other NGOs are playing a role in helping protect the Tonle Sap, like the Australian-based Live and Learn - Environmental Education (LLEE) and local organization Mlup Baitong.
Live and Learn country director Chum Som Onn says the organization selected five provinces around the lake to undertake training courses in primary schools: Kompong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang, Siem Reap and Kompong Thom.
"Live and Learn also work with the local media to broadcast news related to the lake environment. Our targets are those living on the floating villages because they are the people who are affected," Som Onn says.
Keo Yada says the organization’s goal is to educate the younger generations to love and respect their surrounds.
"We teach five sorts of lessons to children: forestry, fish, animals, water and pollution. Osmose has already taught over 700 students from public schools and over 200 children who do not attend school. We also teach floating village people how to make floating gardens to grow vegetables," she says.
"Fewer people are chopping down important trees, or hunting rare birds and animals now. They are beginning to understand the importance of looking after the environment. They are also throwing less rubbish into the water, particularly plastic items."
"As for the lake’s water levels, in the six years I’ve worked for Osmose on the Tonle Sap, I’ve noticed the flood season happen slowly, there is less water; while the dry season sucks up all the water very quickly," Keo Yada says. She blames the lower levels on the floodplains on the upstream damming of the Mekong.
Member of the Economic, Social and Cultural Observation Unit (OBSES) at the Office of the Council of Ministers Touch Seang Tana says before the dams were built, the Mekong flooded at high levels several times a year.
"All that water covered a huge area, providing irrigation, sustenance and life, for thousands of people and animals in the area. With lowering levels this could destroy the area," Seang Tana says.
# posted by FunMan @ 7:59 PM 
