Table Of Content“In Abby Seiff’s rendition, the Tonle Sap Lake sometimes appears
nymphlike, alluring and magical, like the celestial bodies carved on
the walls of Cambodian temples at the lake’s edges. It appears human
at other times, meshed into the lives of those who live around it, off
of it. Seiff’s Troubling the Water is a beautiful and powerful ode to an
ancient but rapidly disappearing world of interdependence between
people and nature. A gifted writer and sensitive observer, she re- creates
a world readers will want to save. A must-r ead.”
— Saumya Roy, author of Castaway Mountain:
Love and Loss among the Wastepickers of Mumbai
“Abby Seiff has courageously covered Cambodia’s troubling trajectory
in the twenty-fi rst century. This book is her testament to the life and
death of the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, one of the most
productive inland fisheries in the world, a people and way of life quickly
disappearing.”
— Sophal Ear, author of Aid Dependence in Cambodia:
How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy
“A powerful book that perfectly captures the vulnerabilities of one of the
world’s most important lakes, Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, by documenting
the fragility of life for the millions who subsist on its floodplain. Seiff’s
painstaking research, coupled with her years of reporting from Cambodia,
gives voice to the marginalized and the unheard. Troubling the Water is
a unique, lyrical, and immensely readable account of the impact posed
by the building of dams on the Mekong and of the profound risks that
the lake’s demise holds for a nation. Highly recommended.”
— Robert Carmichael, author of When the Clouds Fell
from the Sky: A Disappearance, a Daughter’s Search,
and Cambodia’s First War Criminal
“Troubling the Water is a haunting and lyrical eulogy to Cambodia’s once
magnificent Tonle Sap Lake and the water culture of Cambodia. With
precise reporting Abby Seiff reveals how centuries of rich fishing and
abundant water have been depleted, replaced by an emerging dystopia.
Chinese dams choked off water from the Mekong River while Cambodia’s
corrupt government exploited the lake’s riches, leaving the Tonle Sap
defenseless against the droughts, dry winds, and extreme weather of the
climate crisis. Seiff’s is an important addition to the literature on our
planet’s global warming.”
— Elizabeth Becker, author of You Don’t Belong Here:
How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War
“Abby Seiff’s groundbreaking book deals with one of the most important
and disturbing ecological issues facing mainland Southeast Asia. Little
noticed away from Cambodia, that country’s great lake, the Tonle Sap, is
being dramatically degraded as a consequence of dams built by China on
the Mekong River, climate change, and destructive human activity. There
are now doubts that the Tonle Sap can continue to act as the essential
source of fish, the key source of protein in the Cambodian population’s
diet. The author exposes the human costs of this development with
empathy and a deep understanding of the issues involved.”
— Milton Osborne, author of The Mekong:
Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future
“The destruction of human life can occur slowly, indirectly, and even
imperceptibly, which makes it no less of a crime. When natural resources
supporting human life are maliciously destroyed in a similar manner
and on such a great scale, there is no difference than committing a crime
against humanity. This book reminds us of how much our humanity is
connected to our environment.”
— Youk Chhang, founder and executive director of
Documentation Center of Cambodia and executive
producer of A River Changes Course
Troubling the Water
T R O U B L I N G T H E W A T E R
T R O U B L I N G T H E W A T E R
A Dying Lake and a Vanishing
World in Cambodia
Abby Seiff
Potomac Books An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press
© 2022 by Abby Seiff
Portions of this book were previously published as “In
Cambodia, Holdouts Fight a Rising Tide,” Devex,
August 3, 2017, https:// www .devex .com /news /in
- cambodia - holdouts - fight - a - rising - tide - 90789; “In
the Mekong, Questions Arise over Impact of Favoring
Hydropower,” Devex, April 11, 2018, https:// www
.devex .com /news /in -the -mekong -questions -arise
-over -impact -of -favoring -hydropower -92384; “The
Tonle Sap,” Mekong Review, November 2020, https://
mekongreview .com /the - tonle - sap/; “The Water
People,” Mekong Review, February 2018, https://
mekongreview .com /the - water - people/; and “When
There Are No More Fish,” Eater and Vox Media, llc,
December 29, 2017, https:// www .eater .com /2017
/12 /29 /16823664 /tonle -sap -drought -cambodia.
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint
of the University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Seiff, Abby, author.
Title: Troubling the water : a dying lake and a
vanishing world in Cambodia / Abby Seiff.
Description: [Lincoln, ne] : Potomac Books, an imprint
of the University of Nebraska Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021035776
isbn 9781640124769 (paperback)
isbn 9781640125247 (eub)
isbn 9781640125254 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Tonle Sap (Cambodia : Lake) |
Water resources development— Cambodia. | Water-
supply— Cambodia— Management. | bisac:
nature / Ecosystems & Habitats / Rivers | social
science / Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies
Classification: lcc hd1698.c36 t76
2022 | ddc 333.91009596— dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021035776
Set in Adobe Garamond by Laura Buis.
Designed by N. Putens.
To Mom and Dad
Pull the boat without leaving tracks; catch fish
without troubling the water.
—C ambodian proverb
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
A Note on Translations xi
Prologue 1
1. The Tiger Depends on the Forest 13
2. Where There Is Water, There Are Fish 23
3. Don’t Let a Hungry Man Guard Rice 35
4. Navigate a River by Following Its Bends 47
5. When the Water Recedes, the Ant Eats the Fish 61
6. Do Not Rely on the God of Mercy 71
7. Spare Yourself One Hundred Days of Tears 81
8. Frogs Get Lost in Lakes 93
9. The Gourd Sinks, Broken Glass Floats 105
Acknowledgments 111
Notes 117
Index 127
