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| Slums underwater seen from the Bassac Bridge |
I thought we should give you an update on the flood situation over here.
First some numbers (to the best of our knowledge - it's quite difficult to get reliable information):
First some numbers (to the best of our knowledge - it's quite difficult to get reliable information):
- 17 (out of 24) provinces affected by the flooding;
- the death toll stands at around 250, the majority of them children, having been drowned, lost, or bitten by fleeing snakes and the like;
- 300 schools closed;
- 2700km of roads damaged;
- 30,000 people displaced;
- around 400,000 hectares of rice paddies inundated; and
- $100 million set aside by the government to repair damage.
A report from a week ago says that the water is still likely to rise further, and threaten Phnom Penh ... so watch this space. Here are a couple of links:
- Record Mekong Flooding Threatens Bangkok, Phnom Penh
- Flooding Claims 250 Lives, as Government Response Continues
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| ... and this week |
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| Tonle Sap River last week ... |
In Phnom Penh the rain seems to have eased in the last week and we've had warmer, sunnier weather, but out in the provinces it is still raining. David and I went to have a look at the water level in the Tonle Sap River on Monday and it was slightly higher than last week.
The other day we had the closest thunderstorm that we had had in a long time... it was so close that we could hear the buz of the lightning and then less than a 1/4 of a second later the loud crack of thunder, not a rumble, but a bang. I don't know where it hit but it wasn't more than a block or so away from us.
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| Large flat lot with spacious front yard ... eerrrr... pond |
The other Friday I went out to LCDI with Loy, and right from Chbar Ampiv (the first town on the otherside of the Bassac) to LCDI there were flooded houses. They have only just this year completed rebuilding the roadway there. The road has been raised significantly and so the houses are quite a way below the road surface, and are well and truly drowned. Going past on the road you can see the flood waters and just the tops of banana palms, as the water is just that high.
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| Campground on the shoulder of National Road No. 1 (complete with livestock |
Nearer to LCDI people have moved out onto the side of the road, I'm not just meaning the normal shops and stalls, I mean people camping literally on the side of the road, or even partly on the road, together with their cattle and pigs and chickens, as the water has flooded their homes and land. It is a truly bizarre sight.
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| Phnom Penh is at the left of the image, almost surrounded by flooding from the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers |
The family homes of some of our brothers and sisters and some of the dorm students have been flooded, and their rice crops drowned. Kampong Thom has been particularly badly affected, and the homes of sisters Vichhem, Dany, Davy, Sokheing, and Phab standing in deep water, accessible only by boat (it's sensible how they build houses here up on tall concrete pillars). We are currently assessing the situation, but there is likely to be ongoing hardship for many people here throughout the coming year, as the financial implications of their decimated crops hit.
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Jonno and Ren