text: Recent history Phnom Penh resumed Water Festival celebrations in 1990, following a 20-year break under the Lon Nol regime and then the genocidal Khmer Rouge. A few of Phnom Penh's many foreign residents started to participate in the featured boat races in the mid-1990s, though in the first year of participation, their boat capsized along with two other teams in the wake of a larger ship. In 2008, five rowers drowned, and in 2009, a rower drowned during the boat races.
  The celebration turned tragic in 2010, when thousands became trapped and a Stampede#Human stampedes and crushes and crowd crush occurred on the bridge between Phnom Penh and Diamond Island, killing 351 people and injuring 395 more. Rumors spread that it was caused by fear of a coming storm or electrical shock from faulty wiring. The authorities ultimately laid blame on the swaying of the bridge.
  Phnom Penh authorities came under fire in 2016 for sanitation, after videos of cleaning crews sweeping trash into the Tonle Sap incited anger on social media.
  Upriver dams and a devastating drought in 2019 brought the Mekong to its lowest level ever recorded. The combination has left the Tonle Sap Lake, Southeast Asia's largest fresh-water lake, in crisis. The reversal of the Tonle Sap river lasted just six weeks, which may have consequences on fishing in the region.