IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

Research article
erd

Spatial Analysis of Human Activities Performed in Cheung
Ek Inundated Lake, Cambodia
PHEARITH TEANG
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
E-mail: Teangphearith2006@yahoo.com

PUY LIM
Ecole Nationale Supérieur Agronomique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
Received 25 December 2009

Accepted 5 March 2010

Abstract Cheung Ek is an important lake for the livelihood of local communities throughdifferent functions, it acts as a wetland area to control flood waters and removes pollutantsfrom Phnom Penh city. However, industrialization, urbanization and uncontrolled humanoccupation on the bank of the lake has decreased the lake’s surface and caused the lake tobecome incapable of the evacuation and retention of storm water under the conditions ofheavy rain. Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping was undertaken to analyze the lakeborder, water spinach and water mimosa surfaces and other human activities while othersurveys were conducted to understand the method of cultivation and yield estimation of
the main aquatic vegetables. The surface area of Cheung Ek Lake in the dry season is 992
ha and more than 50% of the area is occupied by human activities: 429 ha of water
spinach; 32 ha of water mimosa; 13.5 ha of dry season rice field; 10-20 ha of fishingactivities and around 10 ha of duck raising. In Cheung Ek Lake, water spinach and water
mimosa are grown in rows secured by strings between the poles to prevent the crop fromfloating away. During the dry season, a water spinach cultivator can obtain an average
yield of 16-17 tons/ha for a six-month production cycle while a water mimosa producer
obtains an average of 15.5-16 tons from a production area of 5000 m2 during a five monthproduction cycle. In conclusion, during the dry season, the lake provides from 6864-7293
tons of water spinach and 992-1024 tons of water mimosa for human consumption.
However, aquatic vegetable production is also facing many problems particularly with
insect damage and disease outbreaks during the production period.
Keywords spatial analysis, GPS, aquatic vegetable, inundated lake, Cambodia

INTRODUCTION
The majority of untreated wastewater from the major cities in Asia is discharged into peri-urban
wetlands that serve as sites for natural treatment and extensive aquatic vegetable cultivation(Marcussen et al., 2004). The cultivation of aquatic vegetables in the peri-urban wetlands iswidespread throughout many cities in South and Southeast Asia and is found to a lesser extent in
Africa, Europe, Latin and North America (Bunting et al., 2005). Similar to many cities in Southeast
Asia, peri-urban areas of Phnom Penh are very important for food production and supply(Dalsgaard et al., 2004). The use of humid zones as a lagooning system to purify urban waste is
wide spread around the world and a lot of literature is available on this topic. In Southeast Asia,
lagoons are used and have been studied in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia (Lim and Chhouk,2008). In Phnom Penh, Cheung Ek Lake is a large body of water that receives a major part of thewastewater from Phnom Penh’s population and from industrial activities. The lake also receives
rain-water run-off (Seyha and Tuan Anh, 2004). The people living around the lake mostly produce
several types of aquatic vegetable, particularly morning glory which contributes to the purificationof urban waste water. In Phnom Penh, aquatic vegetable production systems in peri-urban areas,
especially in Cheung Ek Lake, provide many benefits, not just income for producers and low cost
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waste water treatment, but also the employment and income generation opportunities for manyseasonally hired labourers. However, uncontrolled human occupation on the lake’s bank has
decreased the surface area of the lake without any compensation from year to year. Moreover, rapid
urbanization and industrialization can be seen as the main future threat for the continued productionof aquatic vegetables in this peri-urban waste water fed lake. Thus, the mapping of the lake’s
surface, the area occupied by water spinach fields and other human activities, are necessary forunderstanding the problems. The purpose of this paper is to describe and make reference to thehuman activities on the lake with particular reference to the farming of aquatic vegetable used forhuman consumption. This paper consists of two specific objectives: (i) to map the Cheung Ek lakeborder, water spinach area and other human activities in the dry season and (ii) to understand thelife cycles of the aquatic vegetables (methods of cultivation and yield estimation).
METHODOGY
Site selection
The research was conducted at Chueng Ek lake which borders with the districts of Mean Chey,
Dang kor and Takmao in the South of Phnom Penh city and about 5 kilometers from the centre of
the city.
Table 1 Sample size selection
VillageAquatic vegetableproducers
175
21
10
11
10
48
75
350

Number of households

Prek Takong 1
Prek Takong 2
Prek Tanou
Thnoat Chhrum
Thnoat Chhrum 3
Kvar
Cheung Ek
Total

341
309
416
569
296
749
424
3077

Sample size
25
4
2
3
3
10
30
77

Data collection
Secondary data collection: Existing relevant documents were collected from research institutions,journals and information obtained from personal contact with scholars and researchers who had
carried out studies in the project area to better understand the issues involved. A satellite image ofCheung Ek Lake was also obtained which was used to determine changes in the lake border andhuman activities compared with aerial photos taken in 2008.
Primary data collection: Two steps were used in primary data collection. Firstly the area ofaquatic vegetable cultivation, lake border and other human activities were mapped using GPS.
Secondly was an interview with key informants and farmers. A semi-structured questionnaire (a)was used for key informant interviews and a structured-questionnaire (b) was designed for ahousehold survey which focused mainly on cultivation techniques for aquatic plants (setting-up,
maintenance and harvesting).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Human activities in the lake
Activities within Cheung Ek Lake represented an important source of household income for many
households in the Phnom Penh peri-urban area. Floating vegetable production particularly water© ISERD

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2010) 1–1

spinach and water mimosa, rice cultivation, fishing activities and duck raising contribute to the
dynamic economic activities in the Cheung Ek area.
Table 2 Area occupied by human activities at Cheung Ek Lake in the dry season
Human Activities
Water spinach area
Water mimosa area
Dry season rice fieldFishing activity
Duck raising
Other aquatic plant and water surface
Total lake surface

Total area (ha)
429
32
13.5
15
10
492.5
992

Percentage (%)
43.2
3.2
1.5
1.5
1
49.6
100

Fishing activity
Cheung Ek Lake is in general not used for fish production. However, fishing of wild fish species isdone by men from the nearby households. A diverse range of fish species is caught such ascommon carp (Cyprinus carpio), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), tilapia (Orechromis
niloticus), Snakehead fish (Channa striata) and Walking catfish (Clarias batrachus). The fish aresold at local markets or used as a supplement in the house diet.
Dry season rice cultivation
The people living around the Cheung Ek Lake started growing paddy rice after they returned totheir village after the Pol Pot regime (1975-1979). However, by the late 1980s many families hadabandoned rice farming in order to cultivate aquatic vegetables, particularly water spinach, when
they could see greater market demand and higher prices for aquatic plants. Currently rice farmingin the Cheung Ek lake area is only practiced in the dry season by a small number of households inthe western part of the lake particularly in Kvar and Cheung Ek village for use as a daily foodsupply and sold in emergency cases. The area of dry season rice cultivated in the Cheung Ek area isonly 13.5 ha with a high yield of 2.5 - 3 tons per hectare.
Duck raising
Duck raising is popular within the lake surface area especially in the western part mainly in Cheung
Ek village. There are around 20 households in Cheung Ek village who raise ducks on both small
and large scale from 100 ducks to 1,000 ducks. The KORKY variety is most popular because it is agood egg producer, resistant to disease and adapted to the climate conditions. Duck raising helps
people to improve their living standard by earning profits from sale of eggs and can be sold formeat after two years of egg production. Moreover, this animal and their eggs can be used for daily
food consumption.
Water spinach (WS) production
Water spinach is the most common species grown in Cheung Ek Lake in terms of aquatic vegetableproduction. It is grown in rows secured by strings between two poles to prevent the crop fromfloating away. Water spinach or water morning glory (Ipomoea aquatica) is also planted on land
and watered from ponds near the village with motor pumps and hoses. These plants are raised as
seedlings and planted in the lake as the water level rises. Large water surface areas around 429 hain the north and northwest part of Cheung Ek Lake are overgrown with water spinach, covering
43% of the total lake surface in the dry season.

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Water mimosa (WM) production
Water mimosa (Neptunia oleracea) is the second aquatic vegetable which is grown in Cheung Ek
Lake. Similarly to water spinach, it is grown in rows secured by a string between two poles toprevent the crop from floating away. Because of higher input requirements and greater technicaldemands compared to water spinach cultivation, water mimosa is only planted by a small numberof households in the western part and northeastern part of the lake particularly in Cheung Ek andPrek tanou village. It occupies a small area of water surface covering 32 hectares equal to 3.2% of
the lake surface.

Fig. 1 Map of Dry season rice field in the LakeFig 3 Map of WM surface in the Lake

Fig. 2 Main area of duck raising

Fig. 4 Map of WS in the Lake

Aquatic plant cultivation methods
Setting up
Seed Propagation: Water spinach or water mimosa stems are folded into a small piece and buried
into a hole in the soil of depth 20 cm width and 10cm depth, with two sides of the stems exposed tothe air. The seedlings should be planted in rows with 30 - 50 cm between each seedling.
Taking care of aquatic plant seed: Aquatic plants are regularly taken care by removing weeds
and applying pesticides in order to allow them to grow well. One week after planting the seedlings
should start growing and the farmers usually apply fertilizer and pesticide at this point. In the dry
season, in the absence of rain, the farmers need to irrigate the aquatic plants with water from the© ISERD

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lake every 2 or 3 days. The seedlings can then be transferred to grow in floating rafts in the lake
after 3-4 weeks of propogation on land.
Transferring water spinach seedlings to the water: Aquatic plants in water need to be in a raftfloating on the surface, the propagated seed are bound with string tied up to poles which are alreadyin place in the lake.
Pole preparation: Poles are set up in a rectanglular design of 20 to 30 meters long, depending on
the length of water surface owned by the farmer, and the rows of poles should be 3 to 4 metersapart. Floating ropes are then attached to the poles.
Water spinach Seedling braiding: Water spinach seedlings are folded as a forearm-size plant andbraided with string, with 10 to 15 cm between each plant on the string. Whereas water mimosashould be selected 3 to 5 meters long with a big trunk and many stems twisted around by big whitefloating sponges. Two selected seedling plants are put together facing opposite directions andbraided with string with 20 to 30 cm between each knots.
MaintenanceTaking care of aquatic plants: In order to make aquatic plants grow well, the farmer needs toregularly keep the floating aquatic plants bed/raft clean by removing water hyacinth and water
lettuce. A suitable amount of duckweed needs to be kept to cover the open water surface but kept
from growing too thickly around the water mimosa. Weeds such as water hyacinth need to be
removed. Snails need to be removed as they prey on aquatic plants. The strings, ropes and poles
need to be maintained and the plants need to be irrigated with lake water to prevent leaves fromwilting during the dry season and especially when new buds are emerging. Pesticide and fertilizer
should also be applied as required.
Fertilization: Fertilizer and pesticide should be applied 5-7 days after plants have been transferredto the water. By this time, most leaves have fallen off and the new buds begin to develop at thebase of the plant. To make the crop grow well and resist attack from diseases and insects, thefarmer usually mixes many kinds of chemicals and pesticides together in one container and sprays
once. However, this is not recommended. After applying chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides,
aquatic plants are left at least one week before harvesting.
Harvesting and yield
Harvesting: Water spinach can be partially harvested for the first time after 3 to 4 weeks whilewater mimosa can reach the first harvest after 2 to 3 weeks following planting. During harvesting,farmers have to tidy up their water spinach by arranging stems into a well disciplined format, as
this allows the plants to continue to grow well and avoid blocking access for boats between therows. Farmers always use a knife or sickle to cut the stems of water mimosa from both sides of the
middle knots, and leave a 20 cm interval from knots on the stems in order to let the plant grow forlater harvest.
Yield: In the dry season, the gross yield of water spinach is estimated to be 16 to 17 tons/ha. The
yield is higher than previous estimates of 12 tons/ha/year reported by Khov et al. (2005) who
conducted a survey among 133 water spinach producers in Cheung Ek Lake and 15.5 tons/ha/year
observed by Huy and Moustier (2005) in a survey among 400 water spinach producers. However,these yields are very low compared to the yield of 73 tons/ha/year observed by Muong (2004) in asurvey carried out among 205 producers in Cheung Ek Lake. Moreover, the finding (1617tonnes/ha in the dry season) is also very low compared to the water spinach yield using similar
cultivation techniues in other cities in South East Asia.
Phuong et al. (2006) conducted a survey among 63 households producing water spinach with
wastewater use in Tran Phu and Bang B villages. They showed that the average yields of water
spinach were 119 and 172 tons/ha/year respectively. Another study conducted by Ruangvit et al.
(2002) on the water spinach production in and around Bangkok showed that, the gross yield isestimated at around 50.0 - 62.5 tons/ha/year for a total growing period of 95 to 105 days. On the© ISERD

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other hand the research also found that the gross yield of water mimosa was estimated to be 15.5 to
16.0 tons from a production area of 5000 m2 during a production period of five months in the dry
season. Unfortunately, there is no available information about the yield of water mimosa
production in Cambodia from previous years. However the yields recorded in this study were very
low compared to 37.50 - 46.87 tons per hectare throughout the whole cropping period of 75 - 90days or 112.5 - 140.6 ton/ha/year reported by Ruangvit et al. (2002) for water mimosa cultivationin and around Bangkok.
Table 3 Cropping calendar of aquatic plants (AP) in Cheung Ek Lake
Month and activities
Seed cultivation
Taking care
Fertilization
Pole design
Seed braiding
Seed transfer to the water
Fertilization
Taking care
Harvesting

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11

12
y
yy
y
y

y
yy yyy
y

yyy

yyy

yyy

yyy yyyyyy
yyy

yyy yyy

yyy y y y yyy

yyy yyy yyy yyy

yyy

yyy

yy

yyy

yyy

CONCLUSION
Cheung Ek is an important lake for local resident’s livelihood as most of them practice some
activities such as aquatic plant cultivation, rice cultivation, fishing and duck raising. However,rapid urbanization has caused people to move into the peri-urban area of Phnom Penh and this has
decreased the lake surface from year to year. The lake surface of 992 hectare is occupied by 429
hectares of water spinach, 32 hectares of water mimosa, 13.5 hectares of dry season rice field, 15
hectares of fishing activities and around 10 hectares of duck raising. Farmers can obtain an average
yield of 1105 kg/ha/harvest or 16 to 17 tons/ha of water spinach while water mimosa producers canobtain an average yield of 1217 kg/5000 m2/harvest or 15.5 to 16 tons/5000 m2 during the dry
season. The results show that, within a similar area of water surface, mimosa producers produce
double the yield of water spinach. During the dry season, the lake can provide around 7584.7 tonesof water spinach and 1012.5 tones of water mimosa for human consumption. However, aquaticplant production is faced with many problems included lack of labor for harvesting, decreased
production due to the increase of water pollution, insect damage and disease outbreaks during the
production period. Moreover, land use change is occurring on some parts of the lake which arebeing reclaimed for development purposes. This is causing concern to aquatic plant producers in
the Cheung Ek area.
REFERENCES
Bunting, S., Little, D. and Leschen, W. (2005) Urban aquatic production. Urban Agriculture Magazine, 1-47.
Dalsgaard, A., Klank, L.T., Vuong, T.A., Phung Dac Cam, P.D., Marcussen, H., Jorgensen, K., Holm, P.E.,
Brocca, D.,Simmons, R., Lan, T.P.L. and Mara, D. (2004) Food safety of aquatic plants and fish raisedin wastewater-fed ponds. PAPUSSA Annual Report.
Huy, E. and Moustier, P. (2005) Baseline characterization of urban and peri-urban vegetable production in
Phnom Penh. Sustainable Development of Peri-urban Agriculture in South-East Asia Project (SUSPER).
Khov, K., Sok, D. and Chouk, B. (2005) Overview of peri-urban aquatic food production system in Phnom
Penh. Urban Agriculture, 14, 13-15.
Lim, P. and Chhouk, B. (2008) Functioning of Cheung Ek Lake and floodable plain, Environment receiving
Phnom Penh waste water and offering a high productivity and purifying capacity. Royal University ofAgriculture, Cambodia.

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Marcussen, H., Joergensen, K., Dalsgaard, A. and Holm, P.E. (2004) Accumulation of toxic metals in aquatic
production systems receiving urban wastewater in Cambodia and Vietnam. Royal Veterinary andAgricultural University (KVL), Denmark.
Muong, S. (2004) Avoiding adverse health impacts from contaminated vegetables, Options or three wetlands
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia, 1-47.
Phuong, N.T.D., Tuan, P.A., Tien, N.T.H., Bau, P., Diep, H.K. and Tan, N.T. (2006) Report on baseline andmonitoring survey in aquatic producer households in peri-urban Hanoi. Vietnam.
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techniques for aquatic plants cultivation in and around Bangkok, Kasetsart University, Thailand.
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in Boeung Cheung Ek. 1-6, Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia. National Institute of Hygieneand Epidemiology, Vietnam.

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