World Heritage?

UNESCO's World Heritage Centre wants to designate the Tonlé Sap Lake as a World Heritage Site. The lake provides a living for nearly three million people and represents much of Cambodia's annual fish catch. There are several floating villages that move according to the season. They call it the Heart of Cambodia.

Now the esteemed PM is not having any of it. He said soon there will be oil underground - not only in the sea. When we admit it in World Heritage we have to discuss it will others. It is ours - why do we need to consult with them if it is ours. Oil is corrupting before anyone draws a drop. Drilling for oil in the Tonlé Sap would be an ecological disaster. The lake feeds into the Mekong Delta so Cambodia would not be the only country affected. Three million people depend on the lake for industry, water and fishing. Yet the government will not accept the Heritage label just in case there is oil.

The second issue is fishing. His take on that is Khmer people have been catching fish since Angkorian times. They are used to getting fish for eating and they would not be able to if the Tonlé Sap area became a World Heritage site.

While that is true, the most common fishing method at the moment is to build a small dam and dynamite the fish. Obviously that method kills everything - fish, eggs, plants, insects. Many NGOs and international organisations have programmes to educate fishermen on how to fish in an ecologically-friendly manner. But education takes time and most fishermen follow the path of least resistance. As a World Heritage site UNESCO may be able to ban dynamite fishing, while others continue to teach.