Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Villagers are moving their belongings to safer ground in Ratanakiri province (Photo: Ratha Visal, RFA)

05 October 2009

By Ratha Visal
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer


The Stung Treng provincial authority indicated that almost 3,000 hectares of rice crops are flooded. The flood also affects 3 inhabited villages and communes along main rivers.

Loy Sophat, Stung Treng provincial governor, indicated on Monday 05 October that 95% of the flooded [rice crop fields] were completely destroyed and more than 300 families were evacuated to safety: “The flood is rising fast in the past few days….”

Rising water along the Sesan and Sre Pok rivers flooded numerous villages and communes along the rivers in Ratanakiri province. The flooding started on 28 September 2009, and it is taking place along 3 major rivers in Stung Treng province: the Sekong, Sesan and Mekong rivers. The flooding overcame houses where more 3,000 families are living in.

The Stung Treng authority said the up to 05 October, 81 villages located in 26 communes are flooded. Five districts are affected by flooding in the province of Strung Treng.

Pe Nou Korn, from Muong village, Siem Pang district, indicated that all roads are flooded and that water still continues to rise this Monday: “Due to the flood, the rice crops are all destroyed. Please help us the government!”

Sy Suon, the Siem Pang district governor, said that the authority has planned for the evacuation of people: “If they must be evacuated, we have the means to evacuate them to safe ground.”

The authority indicated that this year’s water rise is much quicker than usual, and people living the rivers, in particular in Ratanakiri, cannot take their belongings and animals out on time.

The authority and NGOs following up on this issue, indicated that the passage of the typhoon brought in a lot of rain to Cambodia and Vietnam, therefore, several Vietnamese hydro-electric dams had to open their gates to release the excess water.

Tep Bunnarith, director of the Stung Treng-based association for environment protection, said that the main cause of the flood is due to the release of water from Vietnamese hydro-electric dams.

Tep Bunnarith said: “The government must have a clear plan to evacuate people out so that they do not have to face this problem every year.”

Due to the flood, 3 people died in Ratanakiri province and a child was injured. Houses belonging to more than 7,000 families are flooded, and several hundreds of them fell down and were carried away by the water. 50% of the people are now homeless, 8,000 hectares of rice crop are flooded and numerous domestic animals (cows, pigs, chickens and ducks) were drowned, and numerous people’s belongings were also flooded. The extent of the damage is not known yet at this point. On Monday afternoon, Sekong villagers indicated that a farmer died due to flooding also. Nevertheless, there is no official number of deaths yet.

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