Tonle Sap
Cambodia's Tonle Sap, or "Great Lake," is one of the unique geographical wonders of the world. Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake, Tonle Sap is located in the center of the Cambodian Basin, a low-lying area of land only 30 to 100 meters above sea level. Bounded by the Dangrek Mountains, a steep escarpment on the edge of the Khorat Plateau to the north, and the Chuor Phnom Kravanh (Cardamon range) to the south, the Tonle Sap Basin extends west to the border with Thailand.
Connected to the Mekong River by the Tonle Sap River, the lake is part of a unique hydrological phenomenon unknown in any other part of the world: during the monsoon, or rainy season, the enormous amount of rain causes the Mekong to rise so much that the Tonle Sap River can no longer empty into it. Instead, the two rivers reverse course, and the Tonle Sap River then flows north into the lake, causing it to triple in size from 27,000 hectares during the dry season to more than 150,000 hectares during the rainy season. Flooding almost one-seventh of Cambodia, the rise in water levels provides irrigation for crops and an abundance of freshwater fish (the largest source of protein for the Khmer people), while the deposition of silt created by the river's reversal enriches the agricultural soils surrounding the lake. As a result, an estimated 75 percent of the total land area surrounding Tonle Sap— approximately 100,000 hectares—is fertile lowland.
However, there are critical concerns over the increasing environmental degradation caused mainly by human activities. Further economic development, in addition to the lack of effective policies to manage and protect the watershed, poses significant threats to the Tonle Sap ecosystem in the future. The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve, officially recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on 28 October 1997, is the first step in addressing these issues at local, national, and international levels.
Further Reading
Boner, Neou. (1998) The Creation of Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve. Bangkok, Thailand: Mekong River Commission.
Ringer, Greg. (2000) "Tourism in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar: From Terrorism to Tourism?" In Tourism in South and Southeast Asia: Issues and Cases, edited by C. Michael Hall and Stephen Page. Oxford, U.K.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 178–194.
Stensholt, Bob, ed. (1997) Developing the Mekong Subregion. Clayton, Victoria, Australia: Monash Asia Institute.
This is the complete article, containing 384 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
