Cambodias giant life-giving Tonle Sap lake in peril

Cambodia's giant life-giving Tonle Sap lake in peril

As night falls over his floating village, fisherman Leng Vann puffs on a cigarette and heaves a sigh for Tonle Sap, the great inland lake that has sustained Cambodia for centuries.

More than a million people live on or around the lake, the world's largest inland fishery, but water levels have plummeted and fish stocks dwindled because of climate change and dams upstream on the Mekong.

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Tonle Sap was once renowned for its abundance of fish and wildlife -- 43-year-old Leng Vann recalls catching hundreds of kilos a day in his nets.

His house, which floats on the lake, sits five metres (16 feet) lower than it should in mid-October, at the end of the rainy season, and when he draws his net from the waters, it is empty.

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"We fishermen survive by water and fish. When there is no water and fish, what else can we hope for?" said Leng Vann.

"Our future is dark," he said, as he rowed his boat back to his modest home.

- Reversing fortunes -

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The lake, a world heritage ecological reserve, depends on an unusual seasonal reversal -- in the dry season, it drains into the Mekong via a fast-flowing river artery.

But when the rains come from May to October, the mighty Mekong is so powerful that the water flows backwards, replenishing the lake.

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It swells over four times its smallest size to 14,500 square kilometres (5,600 square miles) at the height of the floods, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) -- an area bigger than Lebanon.

But lately the reverse flows have been seriously delayed.

Last year the amount of water that flowed into the lake was down around a quarter from the average levels seen around the turn of the century.

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The reverse flow effect has been at its lowest since 1997, leading to "extremely dry conditions", the MRC says.

Weather conditions linked to climate change, such as a major drought last year and the "El Nino" climate effect, have contributed to the crisis.

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Environmentalists also point to the dozen or so major dams built across the mainstream Mekong as a factor in slowing the flow, along with smaller irrigation dams built on tributary rivers.

- Habitats lost -

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The change in water levels is having a major effect on surrounding wetlands, precipitating a decline in endangered species living around the lake.

Nearly one-third of the Tonle Sap's natural habitats vanished in the 25 years to 2018 and half of the lake floodplain was now under rice cultivation, according to a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

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"Without urgent, coordinated action... the ecosystem that has sustained Cambodia for generations may be lost," it said.

Low fish stocks have pushed most of the 2,600 fishing families living in Koh Chivang -- a community of five floating villages on the lake -- to grow chilli and other crops to supplement their living.

They are now farming land that used to be fish breeding grounds, and the community's deputy leader Hun Sotharith says the illegal clearing of surrounding forests for agriculture was on the rise.

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"If we don't protect the remaining natural resources, there will be difficulties in the future," he told AFP.

Rangers also warn that other animal habitats are under imminent threat, including a huge bird sanctuary where desperate fishermen are seeking new places to cast their nets.

- Changing times -

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Floating villages have adapted to the ebb and flow of the lake for generations, mostly depending on fishing or rowing around the village in canoes to sell food to earn a living.

Whole communities with schools, hairdressers, coffee shops and even dentist surgeries bob around on Tonle Sap, where fleets of canoes and small motorboats ferry people around.

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But drought and disappearing fish are now threatening a traditional way of life in Koh Chivang, where youngsters are leaving for urban jobs while their parents stay to keep their homes afloat.

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"Children from this community go to work in factories now because there are no fish in the lake," said fisherman Sim Suom, 59, adding that his daughter now works in a cigarette factory in Siem Reap.

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Leng Vann says he may soon need to travel to Siem Reap -- about a one-hour boat ride from his home -- to look for work for a few months.

"We fishermen depend on water, fish and forests, so when these are gone, we can expect nothing," he said. "It's over."

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The EU's drug regulator will decide on Monday whether to authorise the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, with desperate countries hoping for the green light to finally start inoculating their citizens.

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency dramatically moved the decision on the jab ahead from December 29, following pressure to accelerate the process from Germany and other EU states.

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The clamour for action grew as Britain and the United States have already started giving their citizens the vaccine developed by US giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech under emergency national rules.

The EU will start Covid-19 inoculations on December 27 providing the EMA grants a one-year conditional marketing authorisation, the European Commission has said.

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The regulator said it had worked around the clock to speed things up, but needed to make sure the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was safe and effective, in order to avoid any doubts that could affect uptake.

"We have been able to revise the timetables for the evaluation of the Covid-19 vaccines due to the incredible efforts of everybody involved in these assessments," EMA chief Emer Cooke said last week.

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"The number of infections is increasing across Europe and we are aware of the huge responsibility we have to get a vaccine to the market as quickly as is feasible, whilst maintaining the robustness of our scientific review."

The EMA said that if a decision is not possible at the meeting on Monday, then it will hold another meeting on the original December 29 date to rethink.

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A decision on another vaccine produced by US firm Moderna is due by January 6.

- German pressure -

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has proven to be 95 percent effective in global trials where two doses are injected three weeks apart.

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It must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit), a temperature much lower than standard freezers and which forced the company to develop special containers for transport.

The EMA has been carrying out a so-called "rolling review" on the vaccine involving lab tests and large-scale human trials over the past few months, speeding up a process that normally lasts years.

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The regulator can grant medicines a conditional marketing authorisation for the EU in public health emergencies. It then follows up with further tests to make sure there are no problems down the line.

The EMA had originally said it would decide at a meeting of medicines experts to be held at the latest on December 29.

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But Britain -- the pre-Brexit home of the EMA until last year -- the United States and Canada meanwhile pushed through emergency authorisation which meant they could start vaccinating sooner.

EU leaders complained at an EU summit earlier in December, and Germany then weighed in last week.

Hours later, the EMA announced it had received new data from Pfizer-BioNTech and would make its decision on December 21 instead.

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Meanwhile, the EMA has also had to contend with a cyberattack in which data from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines was stolen.

If the EMA gives the green light on Monday, the European Commission will then rubber-stamp it within days so vaccinations can start on December 27 across the bloc of 450 million people.