Cambodian Climate Profile: Mr. Hun Sothy

The Deputy Director of the Department of Hydrology and River Works, Mr. Hun Sothy, describes the hydrology field as ‘a doctor of water’ saying, “We only think of doctors as people who take care of patients in a hospital. But hydrology can also be healed and treated.” With 39 river basins, Cambodia is a country extremely rich in water resources. Therefore, good management of these resources is crucial to people’s livelihoods and hydrology is an integral part of the country’s development. In the past, members of his department had to physically collect and record data from hydrological stations manually. Today, these stations have been transformed into automatic ones. Twenty-nine stations have been installed by the United Nations Development Programme and handed over to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology in March 2019 as part of a four-year project to strengthen climate information and early warning systems.