CHHNORK TROU (CAMBODIA), Feb 28: Cambodia’s floating villages have adapted to the ebb and flow of Southeast Asia’s largest lake for generations, but modernisation and a scarcity of fish are now threatening their traditional way of life.
Houses, schools, hairdressers and even dentists — entire communities bob around on the Tonle Sap, whose waters rise and fall dramatically with the seasons.
The huge lake, nourished by the mighty Mekong river, is home to hundreds of thousands of people eking out a simple — but for many rewarding — existence.
“Life in the floating village is much better,” said fisherman Sok Bunlim, who was born and raised in the lake community of Chhnork Trou, where fleets of canoes and small motorboats ferry people around.
The community of fishermen has been living atop the Tonle Sap since the time of their great grandparents, and many older residents cannot imagine any other life.
“If we move onto land, I wouldn’t know how to plant rice. I wouldn’t know how to plough. It is really hard,” Bunlim, 62, told reporters while repairing his broken net.
Modern life has not passed them by completely — nowadays many people have stereo systems, televisions and small motorboats.
But they still mostly depend on fishing or rowing around the village in canoes to sell food to earn a living.
The Tonle Sap is a source of sustenance and survival for more than one million people living on or around the lake, which has at least 149 species of fish, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) says.
It transforms between the dry and wet seasons, with the inundated area growing from about 3,500 square kilometres at its smallest to 14,500 square kilometres at the height of the floods, according to the MRC, a regional inter-Governmental body.
The lake’s minimum depth rises from about half a metre in April to as much as nine metres in September and October. (AGENCIES)
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