Oxfam and its partners brought together over 150 participants from various communities to watch educational and entertaining art performances and visit a riverine community, with the aim of exploring the vital roles of women and marginalized groups in safeguarding water resources.

The traditional performances included Chapei Music, Yike Music, a film documentary by famous Cambodian actor and singer “Sai”, and dancing and performing from youth and indigenous communities, combining traditional and modern ways to draw attention to important messages about the rivers.

Throughout the two-day event, sharing sessions provided a platform for people with disabilities and from LGBTQ community to share life experiences, along with music, and performances about water pollution, the importance of rivers to local communities, and all lives on the planet in the face of the “world water crisis”.

Kha Sros, an elderly woman from Siem Bok district of Stung Treng province who led the Kouy traditional dancing team wrote a song specially for the day. She is very happy to share her cultural identity with her fellow participants and also to learn about other cultures. “We learn from other people’s experiences and also we share our experience with others.”

“We all need forest, land and water to survive, and without it, we cannot.”

Kha Sros
An elderly from Siem Bok district, Stung Treng province

Sros’ song was expressing concerns that the natural resources are diminished, which caused the Khmer to live in poverty, and that we all and the government need to protect it for the next generation. 

Sros has been working on conservation in her community since the 2000s and although  she is at an age where she could relax she still wants to be involved in how to protect national resources.

“Now I am old but still I have a heart for the forest, I love national resources,” she said.

Sros added that forests and rivers are critical to the lives and cultures of indigenous communities like hers, especially now that climate change that has affected the community’s rotational agricultural traditions.

 “We have to love what belongs to us, like forest, land, and river, if we don’t strive to protect, it won’t last long,” the 63-year-old said.

The two-day event is celebrated for ‘International Women’s Day, International Day of Action for Rivers, and World Water Day. It was organized by Oxfam in Cambodia and local partner organizations as part of Oxfam’s Mekong Regional Water Governance Programme (2020-2024) seeking to bring all stakeholders involved for more informed, transparent, and accountable Water Resource Governance and Renewable infrastructure decision-making in the Lower Mekong and its tributaries.

The program aims to promote the importance of greater participation by all stakeholders in embracing gender equality and working together to protect and manage water resources and ecosystems.