Cambodia hopes a new canal will boost trade. But it risks harming the Mekong that feeds millions.

Associated Press

PREK TAKEO, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has broken ground to build a $1.7 billion, China-funded canal to eventually link its capital Phnom Penh to the Gulf of Thailand. The hope is that the 180-kilometer-long (110 miles) canal will cut transport costs and reduce dependence on Vietnamese ports. Cambodia’s plans to build the massive canal linking the Mekong to a port on on its own coast on the Gulf of Thailand are raising alarm that the project could devastate the river’s natural flood systems, worsening droughts and depriving farmers on the delta of the nutrient-rich silt that has made Vietnam the world’s third-largest rice exporter.