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From Our Own Correspondent: Cambodia’s sunken villages

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A Cambodian fisherman on South-East Asia’s largest lake, the Tonle Sap, which is fed by the Mekong

18/11/2023 GMT

Cambodia’s sunken villages

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Cambodia’s sunken villages

The Cambodians who had to leave ancestral villages flooded by Mekong river dams.

Cambodia’s hydroelectric dams displacing Mekong communities; how hurricane Otis devastated Acapulco in Mexico; winter air pollution in Delhi; planting millions of trees in Kenya.

Pascale Harter introduces stories from Cambodia, Mexico, India and Kenya. 

The Mekong river supports millions of people who live along its banks across five South East and East Asian countries. However, new hydroelectric dams have displaced communities which have lived along the river for millennia, with some Cambodian villages flooded by new dam projects. Laura Bicker takes a journey to the heart of the Mekong river system to meet people who recently had to relocate.

When a tropical storm turned into Category 5 hurricane Otis in the space of 12 hours, it inflicted massive damage on the city of Acapulco on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Forty-eight people died, while many others suffered the destruction of their homes. James Fredrick visited in the immediate aftermath.

Delhi’s air pollution is a year-round, chronic problem, but the city’s toxic smog becomes especially dangerous each winter. This year is no exception and the levels of pollutants in the air have been measuring close to ten times the acceptable limit in recent weeks. Geeta Pandey reports on how her fellow Delhiites are coping.

On Monday 13th November, Kenyans were given a special holiday to plant trees as part of the government’s ambitious goal to plant 15 billion new trees over the next ten years. Although the national tree planting initiative has proved popular, some have criticised the government for its recent decision to lift a ban on logging, reports Anne Soy.

Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Production Co-Ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

(Image: A Cambodian fisherman on South-East Asia’s largest lake, the Tonle Sap, which is fed by the Mekong. Credit: Lindle Markwell/BBC)

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