Wednesday August 31, 2022
Khmer Times —
Two new fishways, whose construction finished on August 24 will connect fish with critical upstream habitats vital to their life cycle. These fishways also demonstrate that small-scale fish passes are a feasible, relatively inexpensive solution to the problem of declining fish stocks.
Thanks to the two new fishways funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), fish and other aquatic organisms in Cambodia will be able to travel upstream and bypass irrigation structures, increasing the amount of fish available to local communities in Pursat province, said a press release of the USAID AKP received yesterday afternoon.
“Locally-caught fish serve as a key source of food for many Cambodians,” said Ms Rebecca Black, USAID/Cambodia Acting Mission Director. “By protecting fish populations and their habitats, we hope these fishways will also contribute to improved health for the communities that depend on them.”
The new Pursat fishways are part of a regional Fish Passage Initiative, supported in partnership with Cambodia’s Department of Fisheries, the Mekong River Commission, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre, Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, and Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.