Cambodia - where the rivers run backwards<
Have you ever tried to pour water into a container too quickly? What happened? Yes, it goes everywhere else instead!
But in the case of Cambodia that's a good thing. Around May so much water flows down the Mekong River from the Himalayas that it backs up into the Tonle Sap lake. So a river starts running backwards
>>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~>>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>>~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~ >>> ~~~>>> ~~~
and the lake grows 5 times bigger from 27,000 hectares to 150,000 hectares (that's about a third the size of Greater London). This means the Khmer people can catch 100,000 tons of fish every year – an incredible 80% of their protein intake.
The Tonle Sap lake is one of the natural wonders of the world. Cambodia needs to take care of it but the lake is in danger of being spoiled by over-fishing, massive logging upriver (which causes flooding) and dams planned by other countries.
Each year when the river changes direction, to flow back down to the sea like rivers should do, the Khmer have a BIG party. Read about it here.
Source: www.circleofasia.com