BATTAMBANG: The Minister of Interior, Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, has called on provincial authorities to take care to prevent the destruction of natural resources in the Tonle Sap Lake. He made this call while speaking at the closing ceremony of the meeting to summarize the work results of 2021, and set the work direction for 2022, of the Battambang Provincial Administration on Thursday, 10 March, in Battambang City.

Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng urged the provincial authorities in the Tonle Sap Lake area to visit and teach people about the benefits of natural resources so that they can take care and protect the environment together.

"The Tonle Sap Lake authorities must teach the people around the lake area to help protect, take care and help manage the natural forest, so that the provincial administration and the Samlot district governor can prevent our natural forests from disappearing," he said.

He also instructed all professional and relevant officials to disseminate information to the local people on the boundaries of the flooded forest in the Tonle Sap Lake area, in order to set up the correct posts and to further advise the district governors adjacent to the lake to carefully manage and protect the natural resources in the area. He especially urged all district governors around the Tonle Sap Lake to not be involved in illegal encroachment of flooded forest land.

The Deputy Prime Minister also asked the Royal Government to support the provincial administration in this endeavor, emphasizing that if not done well, they will receive criticisms from the future generations.

More than 15,000 families in six provinces around the Tonle Sap Lake have voluntarily returned nearly 70,000 hectares of illegally occupied land to the state, three months after the government issued a rule by order of the Prime Minister, on 28 November 2021, to reclaim this land.