CHONG KNEAS, Cambodia: At the edge of Cambodia’s great Tonle Sap lake, a wall of red, blue and yellow metal drums rises bright against the muddy water.
Meas Chou stockpiles these drums wherever he can and sells them to families who use them to keep their houses afloat on Southeast Asia’s largest lake. About 1.5 million people live on Tonle Sap, their homes rising and falling with the ebb and flow of the lake’s water levels.
This year’s record-breaking El Niño is predicted to bring hotter, drier weather across Southeast Asia, threatening both fisheries and farms. For Cambodia, which is already in a time of extreme drought, this could stunt Tonle Sap’s annual water flows from the Mekong River, which usually refill the lake each monsoon season.
In early October, the water level in the town of Prek Kdam — about halfway between the capital city of Phnom Penh and Tonle Sap — stood at nearly 7 meters (nearly 23 feet). That’s more than a meter below average and 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) lower than last year.
Lower water levels mean meager fish catches and less business for Chou. Higher fuel prices due to the Iran war also are hurting his sales and other aspects of life on the lake.
