Cambodia News (Phnom Penh): According to a Facebook post by Heng Ratana, the head of CMAC (Cambodia Mine Action Centre), his team has discovered a 500kg metal piece suspected to be a part of a navy warship that was destroyed during the war.
This may lead to a new discovery of a load of warheads at the bottom of the Mekong river that will need to be removed in order to avoid UXO accidents .

The above could be a tricky situation, locating and removal of UXO to a safe position. I would have suspected apart from boats that carried the weapon's at the time, because of so many of them on dry land, with many rainy seasons many will most likely found themselves in the countries water source.

CMAA continues to clear the Kingdom of landmines and ERWs

Senior Officials of the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) highlighted yesterday that from 2018 to 2020, around 421 square kilometres of contaminated land containing landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) was cleared, benefitting around 2 million people.
Speaking at a meeting on Technical Working Group on Mine Action Consolidating Achievements & Overcoming Challenges yesterday with officials, donors and partner NGOs via an online conference, First Vice-President of the CMAA Ly Thuch said that 49,256 anti-personnel mines, 956 anti-tank mines, and 221,372 ERWs were destroyed which benefited around 2 million people. Approximately 87% of the cleared land were used for agricultural purposes.
He said “The annual number of ERW casualties has dropped significantly from over 4,320 casualties per year in 1996 to 65 casualties in 2020, even though there was a spike from 58 casualties in 2018 to 77 casualties in 2019.”
He said “CMAA will coordinate with the relevant departments to map changing in national Official Development Assistance (ODA) budgets, policy landscapes, the budgetary and allocation processes that will assist in identifying specific threats and opportunities to access funding streams.”
“Cambodia continues to nourish the good relations with donors and development partners built on over many years of mutual trust and collective achievements, and we will continue to explore collaboration with prospective donors,” Thuch said.
Sonali Dayaratne of UNDP said that UNDP is working with CMAA on designing a feasibility study to guide efforts towards 2025 to identify the operational, technical, financial and scheduling requirements for a quantifiable pathway toward the goal of a mine-free Cambodia by 2025.

“Permit me to reiterate UNDP’s commitment to support the Royal Government of Cambodia and CMAA in their mandate to lead and coordinate all stakeholders involved within the mine action sector,” she said.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50923171/c ... -and-erws/

I hope they've all had their Tetanus shots.

Signing Ceremony between Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority and ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center
08/09/2021

On 19 August 2021, at CMAA office, H.E. Senior Minister Ly Thuch, First Vice President of CMAA and H.E. Pengiran Kasmirhan Pengiran Tahir, Ambassador of Brunei and Chairman of the Steering Committee of ARMAC, presided over in the Signing Ceremony between Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) and ASEAN Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC) on Co-Implementation of the Project «Enhance Victim Assistance Programme in the ASEAN Member States».

https://cmaa.gov.kh/detail/content/Ln4m4vJvtfs6qF8Z7Bf1

The Siege of Phnom Penh, 1975
some random snapshots, to highlight what these metal fragments from the bottom of the Mekong really mean

NYT - Feb 12 1975
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Feb. 12 — An expanded American airlift went into operation today in an attempt to replenish some of this city's dwindling vital supplies—ammunition in particular.

Air supply is becoming more and more important to the survival of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian government because the attacking insurgents, using mines end heavy guns from the river banks, have for the moment blockaded the Mekong River, the city's main supply line from the outside.

Two years ago, during the insurgents’ offensive of 1973, when the Mekong River was also cut for some time, the United States Air Force ran 40 to 50 flights a day into Phnom Penh from air bases in Thailand. This time the blockade of the vital river—which normally carries more than 80 per cent of the city's basic supplies from South Vietnam—is much more serious.

The insurgents have not only seized control of two‐thirds of the Mekong's 60‐mile length from Phnom Penh to the South Vietnamese border, but by laying mines for the first time they have significantly escalated the battle.

Nineteen supply ships—tugs, tankers, freighters and barges —have been sunk by the primitive mines and the gun emplacements along the banks. The last convoy to attempt the run from South Vietnam, consisting of four tugs pulling two ammunition barges, was blown apart a week ago. Three of the tugs were sunk. The other vessels steamed back to South Vietnam.

That was the last convey ^^
The background >>

Phnom Penh, which had a pre-war population of around 600,000, was overwhelmed by refugees (who continued to flood in from the steadily collapsing defense perimeter), growing to a size of around two million. These helpless and desperate civilians had no jobs and little in the way of food, shelter, or medical care. Their condition (and the government's) only worsened when Khmer Rouge forces gradually gained control of the banks of the Mekong. From the riverbanks, their mines and gunfire steadily reduced the river convoys through which 90 percent of the Republic's supplies moved, bringing relief supplies of food, fuel, and ammunition to the slowly starving city from South Vietnam.

After the river was effectively blocked in early February, the U.S. began an airlift of supplies into Pochentong Airport. This became increasingly risky, however, due to communist rocket and artillery fire, which constantly rained down on the airfield and city. The Khmer Rouge cut off overland supplies to the city for more than a year before it fell on 17 April 1975. Reports from journalists stated that the Khmer Rouge shelling "tortured the capital almost continuously," inflicting "random death and mutilation" on millions of trapped civilians

I have posted this first vid before but once again..
A huge salute to those brave river runners who tried to keep suppies running into Phnom Penh as the siege tightened
SYND 04/06/74 A CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT CONVOY UNDER ATTACK ON THE MEKONG RIVER


Some french footage which shows pretty graphically the situation was like in Phnom Penh in 1975 - it highlights the battle on land as well on on the water to keep this vital link open - and why?.

1975 Cambodia: VIETCONG KR ENCIRCLED PHNOM PENH (1of2)[FR&KH]

Lon Nol's army is trapped and encircled in Phnom Penh from heavy Vietcong Khmer Rouge attacks. Along both sides of the Mekong were the men-in-black were secretly waiting to attack on any convoy that came and went. The convoy brought just two weeks of supplies. It was the last ever to reach Phnom Penh. By the time the crews had recovered from their ordeal and set off back to Saigon, the Khmer Rouge had introduced a fatal new weapon. They stretched nylon line and wire rope, salvaged from tugs sunk in earlier operations, across the river. The lines were supported by bamboo floats and attached to them were small mines, supplied by China, which were detonated from the shore as ships passed over them. Several vessels in the empty convoy were sunk.

The refugees in Phnom Penh were in turmoil because they were running out of food supplies. The airlift of food prevented famine, but it did not stop starvation spreading through the city. In 1973 the government's estimate of the daily rice needed in Phnom Penh was 770 metric tons. During 1974, as tens of thousands more refugees arrived, the daily distribution fell to about 694 metric tons. Still more refugees streamed in during the new offensive, but after the Mekong was closed the amount of rice distributed fell further almost every day. It was average for that period was 543 metric tons a day. Throughout February and March the airlift managed to bring in only about 440 metric tons day.


Cambodia: VIETCONG KR ENCIRCLED PHNOM PENH (2of2)[FR&KH]

Other children had simply far too little to eat to be able to grow properly and were suffering from marasmus. Their match like limbs hung over the empty skin folds of their bodied, they had almost no muscular control, and eight-year olds looked like shriveled babies. For most of them there was no hope. The World vision child nutrition center had to turn away 1,758 severely malnourished children between December 1974 and February 1975; they had beds for only 235 of the worst new cases. The Inspector-General's report noted: "It requires little imagination to picture these wretchedly frail and sickly little bodies, borne away in their weak mother's arm, carried to an alley somewhere, to die; certain to suffer, untreated, and unhospitlized.

No one knows how many thousands of children died in Cambodia in those final months before the end of the war...

The last convey arrived in February. That signalled the end, there was no way enough supplies, (and armaments), could be airlifted in to sustain the population and continue the war effort after that.