Stay signed in to save your points and redeem your rewards at Nexus. Stay signed in to save the points you've earned. Click on the points to redeem your rewards at Nexus before they expire. PHNOM PENH: (Bernama) Governments across the Mekong region are stepping up preparations as El Nino threatens to disrupt farming, food production, and the agriculture-dependent economies of the Indochina belt. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on Friday (July 3) warned that El Nino, the natural Pacific weather pattern characterised by the warming of sea surface temperatures, could increase in intensity over the coming months and trigger extreme weather events in many parts of the world. Meanwhile, about 20,000 hectares of rain-fed rice fields in Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia are reportedly facing a water shortage. In the Mekong Delta, the nation’s rice bowl and home to 20 million people, drought and water shortages could affect around 350,000 hectares of winter-spring rice, reported Vietnam News.