Cambodia: A millennium hydraulic system from Funan to Angkor Cambodia, unlike the other countries of Southeast Asia, has been richly endowed with potentially productive agricultural land covering 75% of the country’s land area km. This alluvial lowland has its soil fertility replenished with annual flooding of the perennial Mekong river system. The gigantic basin, called Cambodian Saucer, has a centripetal drainage pattern constituted by Mekong river and the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) whose collective drainage area km) accounts for 82% of the total area as well as about 24% of the entire lower Mekong Basin area (609,000 km 2 ) (Croizat,1967). The hydrographic conditions are peculiar, rather unique that the Lake metamorphoses into different sizes and configurations in accordance with the seasonal inflows and outflows through the km-long Tonle Sap river which links the Mekong river with the Lake. Thus, the water spread area of the Lake, as pointed out by Reddi (1970), increases from km during the dry season (when the Lake water flows in reverse direction into the Mekong river following the decrease in the flood discharge of river) to 7770 km in the rainy season (when the Mekong river flows into the Tonle Sap raising in the process the water level tom. Ina typical tropical monsoon climate characterized by well pronounced wet rainy summers (May– October) and dry winters (November– February) with a transition period of absolute dryness (March–April), Cambodia experiences spatio-temporal variations both in the amount of rainfall and rainy days (Yagama Reddy, 1995). Consequently, some parts are prone to severe flooding and submersion, while other areas affected by rain-shadow effects receive less-than- average rainfall resulting in drought conditions. With the prospects of crop damage looming large, for centuries an apparent need was felt for developing
