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From Our Own Correspondent

Cambodia’s sunken Mekong villages

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie presents stories from Cambodia, Colombia, India, Fiji and Kenya. The Mekong river provides a living for tens of millions of people who live along its banks across five East and South East Asian countries. However, new hydroelectric dams have upended communities which have lived along the river for millennia, with some Cambodian villages flooded to make way for new dam projects. Laura Bicker takes a journey to the heart of the Mekong river system to meet people recently displaced. Four people have been arrested in Colombia in connection with the kidnapping of the father of the Liverpool footballer, Luis Diaz, who was released after two weeks of being held captive. The suspects are said to belong to a gang called Los Primos, with ties to the leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army or ELN. Will Grant – an ardent Liverpool fan – was in Colombia as the situation unfolded. 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. Kava is a psychoactive drink made from the bitter kava plant, and has been enjoyed in by Pacific Islanders for centuries - but in recent years there’s been rising international demand for the drink. Mark Stratton travelled to Fiji to see how this is affecting communities there, and to try kava for himself. On Monday, 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: Viv Jones Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:05.0

Today, after the dramatic kidnapping of the father of Columbia's best-love footballer,

0:11.0

our correspondent asks what the incident means for the country's fragile peace process.

0:17.0

Delhi's winter smog season is back, but it hasn't discouraged many of the city's residents from celebrating Duwale with

0:25.2

traditional smoky firecrackers.

0:28.6

How an ancient intoxicating traditional drink from Fiji is finding its way to bars in New Zealand

0:35.8

and pharmacies in the US. And Kenya's government challenges people to plant a

0:41.6

hundred million trees in a single day.

0:46.1

But first, the Mekong River is one of the richest ecosystems on Earth.

0:51.8

It provides a living for tens of millions of people who live along

0:55.1

its banks across five eastern-southeast Asian countries, but there are increasing

1:01.4

signs that the river is in crisis.

1:04.3

New dams and sand dredging projects, coupled with the effects of climate change,

1:09.5

have scientists worried.

1:11.6

Laura Bicker travelled to Cambodia to meet communities who depend on the river there.

1:17.0

The monsoon rains hammer on the metal roof of the bamboo house were sheltering in in the northeast of Cambodia near the border with Laos.

1:26.3

The torrential rain is worrying us and put a halt to her news gathering. We've come a long way

1:32.4

to find out more about the indigenous Boonong community who've been

1:36.3

displaced by a hydropower dam. It was always a risk coming in wet season. The journey has been, well let's say, interesting. Our first van got

1:47.1

stuck in wheel deep mud. We were lucky and managed to get a lift some of the way even with all our equipment then came

1:54.8

vehicle number three now I use that term vehicle loosely our last hour of travel was in a

2:02.4

homemade tractor attached to a wooden trailer.

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