97 people killed by floods in Cambodia

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-09/26/content_13795976.htm

PHNOM PENH - Floods hit Cambodia since last month has killed at least 97 people, a government official said on Monday.

Phay Siphan, spokesman of the council of ministers, said at least 97 people, including a British national, have died.

Cambodia's Council of Ministers on Monday held a special meeting to take measures to deal with the Mekong River and flash floods inundating most parts of the country.

The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Speaking after the four-hour meeting, the government's spokesman and information minister Khieu Kanharith said the meeting was to deal with the facing issues of floods and post- flood rehabilitation.

"For the facing issues, the cabinet decided not to let any person die of hunger during the floods--the cabinet decided to allocate 200 million riels ($50,000) and rice to ten worst affected provinces to help the victims," he said.

The cabinet also instructed all provincial governors not leave their provinces on overseas trips or trips to Phnom Penh during the flooding period and advised them to closely cooperation with the Cambodian Red Cross to help the victims, he added.

Kanharith said that the cabinet also advised all local authorities to help re-grow rice and other crops at the flood-damaged areas and prepared budget to rehabilitate damaged roads after the flood.

To date, 90,300 families in 15 flood-hit provinces have been affected, about 170,000 hectares of rice fields have been submerged and more than 300 schools were closed, according to Keo Vy, communication officer of National Committee for Disaster Management.

"As of Monday, the Mekong River flood has been receding, but very slow, and we're still keeping close watch on the situation, " he said.

Children are seen in houses affected by flood waters in Phnom Penh September 26, 2011

Photo: Reuter Pictures
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05lz877gLzfyP/610x.jpg

Children stand on sandbags placed in front of their house to keep out flood waters in Phnom Penh September 26, 2011.

Photo: Reuter Pictures
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00Sx7FjceHfFq/610x.jpg

Residents travel on a flooded street in Phnom Penh September 26, 2011.

Photo: Reuter Pictures
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/095Ybkd8n0192/x610.jpg

Cambodians travel on a boat over floodwaters at Kian Svay district in Kandal province, 20 kilometers east of Phnom Penh on September 24, 2011.

Photo: Getty Images
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aLcgzIc214Ak/610x.jpg

A Cambodian girl crouches on a raft made of banana trunks with a dish of meat floating in floodwater at Kian Svay district in Kandal province, 20 kilometers east of Phnom Penh on September 24, 2011.

Photo: Getty Images
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/056Bg5HcV39qj/610x.jpg

Children are seen in houses affected by flood waters in Phnom Penh September 26, 2011

Photo: Reuter Pictures
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05lz877gLzfyP/610x.jpg

whereabout in PP is this?

The number keeps growing :ohno:

Worst Cambodian floods in a decade kill 167


PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's worst floods in over a decade have killed 167 people, a disaster official said on Wednesday, as efforts intensified to provide aid to tens of thousands of families.

Sixty-eight children were among those who died in nearly two months of flooding caused by heavy rainfall that has also seen the Mekong River overflow, said Keo Vy, spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management.

Some 300,000 hectares of rice paddies have been inundated and more than 23,000 families had to be evacuated to higher ground in provinces across the country, he added.

"The government and the Red Cross are giving the necessary help to those affected," Keo Vy said, adding that aid, including food deliveries, had so far reached 40,000 families.

He estimated that nearly 230,000 families across the impoverished nation had been affected by the unusually severe floods but he indicated the situation was under control.

"As Prime Minister Hun Sen has said, we are not appealing for aid but we welcome any assistance," he said.

International relief organisation Oxfam, which has started handing out hygiene kits in some areas, has urged all relevant agencies in Cambodia "to urgently deliver food, clean water, sanitation supplies and shelters".

In neighbouring Thailand, the worst monsoon floods in decades have left more than 220 people dead.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1157468/1/.html

and it also damages large area of rice padding field in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011101152037/Business/flood-costs-to-surpass-100mn.html

Flood costs to surpass $100mn

Tuesday, 11 October 2011 12:00
Mom Kunthear and Don Weinland

PERSISTENT flooding in several areas of the Kingdom could result in more than US$100 million worth of damage, the National Committee for Disaster Management said yesterday.

Flood waters have killed 207 people since early September and forced more than 32,000 families from their homes, according to data from the NCDM. More than 445,530 hectares of the country’s most important agricultural product, rice paddy, have either been affected or destroyed. About 160 bridges are submerged, while 2,962 kilometres of roads have been impaired.

The dollar figure has ballooned since late last month as estimates on road, crop and building damages from Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces have become available.

About 318,900 hectares of rice, or 13 per cent of the country’s total crop, have been affected by the floods, with about 126,600 hectares completely destroyed. Also, more than 630 hectares of rice seedlings have been affected, putting at risk the harvest that runs between November and February. “We see the biggest effect of the flooding is on rice,” NCDM Vice President Nhim Vanda said yesterday at a press conference in Phnom Penh, adding that farmers depend on the crop for income and sustenance.

“So this is the point that the government and local authorities have to worry about the people’s living standards.”

Despite the NCDM’s bleak report, some experts said the recent doubling of rice prices in Thailand will protect the Cambodian rice industry from substantial loss.

A government-mandated jump from about $250 to about $500 per tonne of rice will see many Thai rice millers sourcing the grain from Cambodia in the coming months, Tim Purcell, director of consulting company Agriculture Development International, said yesterday.

The decline in rice production due to floods will be marginal, due to the 113,180-hectare increase in wet season planting between 2010 and 2011, which will supplement much of the flood damages, Purcell added.

Of the more than 11,700 hectares of other crops affected, 3,800 have been destroyed, according to NCDM, while about 1,657 livestock also perished in the waters.

The floods have destroyed 640 houses and 1,132 school buildings in the past three weeks. Although the NCDM did not provide a figure for structural damages, villagers in Kampong Thom who spoke with the Post late last month said new village homes, which traditionally are raised some three metres above the ground, cost about $6,000.

Doung Savorn of Teak Andoung village in Kampong Thom province returned to her home in mid September to find a corner of the raised building had collapsed into metre-high waters. The 52-year-old rice farmer said she will salvage wood from the now uninhabitable home and estimates rebuilding will cost about $1,500.

The floods, the worst in at least a decade, also destroyed 85 hospitals and 401 pagodas.

In cities and regions that attract travellers, all players in the tourism industry – from tuk tuk drivers to the resort owners – have been affected by the floods, Tourism Working Group co-chair Ho Vandy said yesterday.

Industry experts have yet to put an estimate on the damages to buildings and business, but he said the working group will submit a request for compensation to the government next month. Many tourist establishments have sustained damages in Siem Reap, which is visited by 60 per cent of Cambodia’s international tourist.

Renaud Fichet, a local restaurant owner, said his business has been spared major damages, but many restaurants and hotels in the city’s most visited area saw weeks of flooding and many closures.As the water recedes in some areas, communities are at work rebuilding small roads, Nhim Vanda said. The NCDM estimates $20 million of the approximate $100 million will go to road and bridge repair.

Submerged roads are also hindering aid shipments to affected families, Uy Sam Ath, director of Cambodian Red Cross disaster management unit, said yesterday. “We face difficulties in transporting aid to the people and sometimes we [have to] use boats where the roads are destroyed,” he said.

Ministry of Public Works and Transportation director general Kim Borey said the ministry is planning road rehabilitation nationwide, but declined to comment further.

A timeframe for the discussed repair project was unavailable yesterday.

The floods have destroyed 640 houses and 1,132 school buildings in the past three weeks.

this is very unusal statistic. we got more damage school building then houses by number.

I heard there is no water festival this year due to flooding. Keep the money and have time for flood victims

I heard there is no water festival this year due to flooding. Keep the money and have time for flood victims

where did you heard this from? the water festival is suppose to be the time where these water (or flood) is gone.

but yes, the rural residence may be too busy rebuilding their home and restoring their life.

I heard people said there was a similar flood in 2000, how did the water festival go back then.

From a few local news websites this morning. It is a breaking news, the formal decision will be annouced later today after the council minister meeting

Registrations extended

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011101352109/National-news/registrations-extended.html

The National Election Committee yesterday extended the registration period for voters by three days in 16 provinces severely affected by floods. The NEC said the registration deadline would be extended for 367 communes to October 18. The communes are in Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Kratie, Preah Vihear, Pursat, Takeo, Kandal, Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, Siem Reap, Kep, Oddar Meanchey, Battambang, Pailin, and Kampong Chhnang provinces.

for the people that are affected, I think the last thing they are interest in is to register.

Phnom Penh's storm water still got a while to go, there are still lots of flood whenever it rain.

This happen on Monday, 10th Oct, about 5pm.

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/8885/imag0680t.jpghttp://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2694/imag0681h.jpghttp://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7762/imag0682j.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4636/imag0687.jpghttp://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8417/imag0689.jpghttp://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7274/imag0691.jpghttp://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8804/imag0695r.jpg

I know this is nothing compare to what the rural area gets, but this is the capital, this is the main road of PP.

The Total Petrol station area, is flooded almost every time there are some rain.

Cambodia cancels festival as flood death toll rises

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday cancelled the nation's biggest annual festival as he announced that the death toll from the worst flooding in over a decade had risen to 247.

The funds needed to put on the popular Water Festival, due to take place in the capital from November 9 to 11, would be better spent helping the tens of thousands of families affected, he said.

"If we don't spend the state budget for the (festival) preparations in Phnom Penh... we can save some money to improve the living standards of our people and repair the damage," Hun Sen said in a televised speech.

He also said the precariously high water level of the Tonle Sap river that flows through the city would present a "high risk" to revellers.

More than 270,000 families nationwide have seen their homes or livelihoods waterlogged in two months of flooding caused by heavy rain that has resulted in the Mekong River bursting its banks, according to official estimates.

Hun Sen said the government, the Cambodian Red Cross and several other relief organisations were racing to provide emergency aid to the victims, reaching more than 76,000 families so far.

The country's deadliest floods since 2000, which have inundated some 390,000 hectares (960,000 acres) of rice paddies, represent a huge challenge to impoverished Cambodia but the government has not appealed for international assistance.

In neighbouring Thailand, the worst monsoon floods in decades have left more than 280 people dead.

Cambodia's Water Festival, which marks the reversal of the flow between the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers, usually draws two million visitors to the capital to enjoy dragon boat races, fireworks and concerts.

Last year's event ended in tragedy when more than 350 people were killed in a stampede on a packed and narrow bridge.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gp0AoQ0ojiDF8iDjKMDmVDkMw5_Q?docId=CNG.7dbe9a730cea189265834a9542aa7568.341

The Chinese paper announced it today as well, but apprently only the national dragon boat race in PP is cancel, individual province can do their own dragon boat race if they can afford to, and other activities, (probably not government funded) is not affected.

Realy massive flooding , I don't where this Photo was tooken but I just know it was tooken in Cambodia.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o5CnHS1Mk4Y/Tpl4zvvcpbI/AAAAAAAASdQ/cGSnjvSN0rk/s400/flood%2Bnear%2BPhnom%2BPenh%2BInternational%2BAirport%2B2.10.11.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsyi8wHGcl1qbmnhvo3_500.jpg

Not only Cambodia,Thailand is still suffered from massive flood too.

Not only Cambodia,Thailand is still suffered from massive flood too.

Yes I know , but the Western Media just say that Thailand suffered from the floodings. They don't talk about Laos or Cambodia

^^^
Probably, the scale of disaster from the 2011 Flood in Thailand is now US$ 5 billion matter and the cost from the flood is growing - forcing US Government to mobilize US Marine from Okinawa to rescue Thailanders

Not only Cambodia,Thailand is still suffered from massive flood too.

So, what is your point? We know that, and it is sad. But, what does it have to do with this thread?

Yes I know , but the Western Media just say that Thailand suffered from the floodings. They don't talk about Laos or Cambodia

Cambodia and Laos, to them, are small potatos. They pretend to know only Thailand and Vietnam. Remember the Vietnam War? Cambodia and Laos were in the war too. But, the saying "Vietnam War" sounds better to Westerners ears.

Floods not yet an ‘emergency’
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011101852183/National-news/floods-not-yet-an-emergency.html

Although as many as 79,000 families in Prey Veng province alone face chronic food shortages for the next year due to the loss of their rice crops, the government has yet to declare the worst flooding to hit the Kingdom in more than a decade to be a national emergency.

Such a declaration would open channels for more and swifter delivery of aid to the more than one million Cambodians affected by around two months of flooding, tens of thousands of who are in immediate need of aid, relief workers said yesterday. But Keo Vy, director of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said that the “government has the ability to handle this, so it should not declare a national emergency”.

Kim Rattana, executive director of Caritas, described the flooding as Cambodia’s “worst natural disaster” in more than a decade and said it was far more devastating than typhoon Ketsana.

In 2009, Ketsana claimed 43 lives and displaced 66,000 people, primarily in Kampong Thom province. This year’s flooding has killed 247 people and affected more than one million people in 17 provinces, Kim Rattana said, adding that the floodwaters were receding at the slowest pace they had seen. “We do not have an estimate of the number of families who have yet to receive aid” in Kampong Thom, he said, adding that water levels were still rising there yesterday.

People who have fled submerged villages for higher ground have only received one delivery of aid, he said.

“The flooding is getting worse,” he said, echoing a warning from the United Nation’s humanitarian chief Valerie Amos on Saturday who pointed to rising river levels and forecasts for more heavy rainfall in the region. The UN and partners “stand ready to support” governments in the region, she said.

The tourist town of Siem Reap was also inundated yesterday for the fifth time since August, following heavy rainfall on Sunday night. Deputy governor Kim Chhay Heang said the tourism industry was suffering with some large hotels having to pump water out their premises, and shops and restaurants closing temporarily.

Deputy governor Bun Tharith said the rice fields of about 26,000 families in the province had been damaged by the flooding. Of these, about 17,000 families were in need of urgent aid but only about 9,000 families had received some. Bill Pennington, assistant country director for Care Cambodia, estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 households in the province of Prey Veng were in need of immediate aid. Between 15,000 to 20,000 of them would receive aid from international NGOs, including Care, Caritas and Save the Children. An estimated 79,000 families in the province, or about one-quarter of a million people, faced food shortages due to the loss of rice crops, he said.

Keo Vy said that the Cambodian Red Cross, rather than the NCDM, was overseeing relief efforts nationally. He said the government had selected the CRC, which is run by the prime minister’s wife, to take responsibility for the flooding because it had the resources, and people working at every level of each province. “They … also handle problems very fast,” he said.
Uy Sam Ath, director of CRC’s Disaster Management unit, said the budget for food aid for flood victims was larger this year than it was for cyclone Ketsana, but declined to give a figure.
Meanwhile, the Cambodia Microfinance Association will have a meeting at the end of the month to discuss how the flooding will impact its 30 members, most of which have given loans to farmers ahead of the planting season, its executive director Si Len said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY THIK KALIYANN

An island flooded by debt
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011102452302/National-news/an-island-flooded-by-debt.html

As residents of an island in the upper Mekong – where the floods hit first – they are adept at protecting their children, homes, livestock and food supplies from annual floods, but this year’s deluge swept almost everything off Koh Samraung.

During each of the five floods that have swept over the largest island in Kampong Cham’s Kampong Siem district since mid-July – submerging it entirely each time – parents managed to prevent their children from drowning by keeping them indoors, they said. As the floodwaters rose, they kept raising the floors of their houses to remain dry, but eventually gave up and began sleeping on soggy sacks of sand.

Last week, they began receiving their first deliveries of medicine and food. By then, most of the cattle that had not been swept away were either unable to stand or too thin to sell, children in every household had fallen ill, and nearly every family was in debt to Acleda and other microfinance lenders, rice merchants and moneylenders, residents said.

“This was the year the floods took everything. We had nothing left to eat. No food for people or livestock,” explained Num Chanran, 55, as she waited on Saturday morning for her first delivery of aid: food for one month, a water filter, mosquito net, blanket, soap, medicine and advice on how to prevent communicable diseases from sweeping through the island’s health-impaired communities.

“Everything was washed away – our crops, our fruit trees, livestock, our poultry,” she said, as she received medicine for a stomach ache, fever and dizzy spells.

Villagers said they had spent the cash borrowed to plant their annual tobacco crop, on rice for their families and grain for the cattle their livelihoods depend on.

The swiftness of this year’s floods caught them off guard.

Om Ith, a mother of six, recalled walking home from a pagoda along a dirt road that turned into a knee-deep stream just three hours after she had left home at 7am. When she returned, the cooking area beneath her home, along with the rice she had cooked for her six children, had been swept away. The first thought to enter her mind, she said, was, “Where are my children?”

It was only early last week, after the fifth flood began receding, that a sliver of land on the western bank of the island widened enough for relief workers from Save the Children to deliver aid.

The third delivery, on Saturday, drew the residents of five villages. They began arriving at dawn, about four hours before the first of three boats arrived with 50-kilogram sacks of rice, noodles, canned fish, water filters, mosquito nets and blankets. By 7am, more than 700 people were waiting.

They thronged around the mobile medical clinic, getting prescriptions from medical staff at one table and picking up medicine at a distribution point. Adults needed medicine primarily for fever, coughs and headaches, while children suffered mainly from diarrhoea, fever and skin diseases, medical staff said.

Om Ith said three of her six children were sick, two of them severely. The only health centre on the island had been submerged for weeks, and when it was open, access was cut off by the floods, residents said.

Food aid was rationed to the most vulnerable households: single mothers, families with many children, the landless and those whose homes had been submerged. The week before, rapid assessments had been conducted, lists drawn up with village chiefs then double checked, and signs posted explaining the criterion for food-aid eligibility in order to minimise conflict between those who received it and those who did not. Medicine, however, was delivered to all those who needed it.

“Another reason we have to ration aid is that we don’t have enough,” explained Sen Jeunsafy, Save the Children’s spokesperson. The organisation is dependent on donors, and because the government has yet to declare the flooding a national emergency, access to funding that requires such an appeal is blocked.

Still, it has been able to raise enough funds through its network in several countries, as well as USAid, to mobilise the largest relief effort it has ever conducted in Cambodia.

“Since starting our field operations in Cambodia in 1987, this is the biggest flood response that Save the Children has put together,” Andrew Moore, the agency’s country director said. Logistics and food-security experts from Save the Children operations in Africa and other regions have been flown in to assist local staff.

Its relief effort, which has so far delivered aid to more than 3,200 families and medical aid to nearly 1,900 people in Kampong Cham province alone, is dependent on how quickly the floods recede, Moore said. Another 3,770 families, in two provinces, are due to receive aid by the end of this month, he said.

Most of the families who received aid on Koh Samraung are among the 1.2 million people described by the National Committee for Disaster Management as “affected” by the flooding. In Kampong Cham, about 150,000 people have been affected, according to the NCDM. Only a handful of families on the island were among the more than 46,000 (230,000 people) the NCDM said were evacuated due to flooding nationwide.

No one on Koh Samraung died in the flooding and only 13 houses were destroyed - only four of which were swept away, said commune chief Son Sok. The island’s four primary schools and one secondary school may reopen as early as next month, he said.

The gravest threat the island’s residents face now is debt. Because they could not plant their tobacco crop in July, there will be no harvest in January when repayment of loans is due, Son Sok said.

Farmers said the earliest they will be able to harvest this year would be mid-May and the crop, if they succeed in growing one, would likely be less lucrative than usual because it will grow in the dry season.

“We may have to sell our livestock to pay down the debt,” Num Chanran said. “Or maybe we will have to borrow from other places to pay back Acleda.”

When told that the Cambodia Microfinance Association had scheduled a meeting at the end of the month to discuss how the flooding would impact its 30 members, Son Sok said it would be helpful if the lenders rescheduled repayments or froze interest on loans to farmers who lost their crops due to flooding.

According to the NCDM, about 9 percent of the Kingdom’s rice paddies were destroyed by the flooding and 16 percent were at risk.

The CMA’s members, however, may not be as sympathetic to the indebted farmers as Son Sok and the farmers told about the meeting assumed they would be.

Speaking to the Post last week, CMA executive director Si Len said the worst flooding in more than a decade did not mean the farmers would be unable to repay the loans they took out ahead of planting.

“The floods also provide an opportunity,” he said. “They allow the farmers to catch fish,” he explained, saying they could sell the fish in markets to repay their loans.

As they deliver emergency aid, Save the Children and other international relief agencies are also preparing assessments for the recovery period that will follow. Their top priority will be ensuring that farming households can escape their debts and become self-sufficient. Until then, those affected by the flooding face at least six months of what NGO’s call “food insecurity” and what rural Cambodians call “hunger”.

Cambodia plans nearly 200 mln USD for post-flood rehabilitation

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The government of Cambodia has planned 199 million U.S. dollars for rehabilitating the infrastructures, mainly schools, hospitals and roads that had sustained damages during the recent floods, Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon said Tuesday afternoon.

Of the planned budget, 54 million U.S. dollars came from the freeze of 2011's new development projects, and the other 90 million U.S. dollars was from the state's budget, he said at the opening of a meeting at the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

Also, negotiations are underway with the Asian Development Bank to secure another 55 million U.S. dollars for post-flood rehabilitation of infrastructures which is expected to start implementation toward the end of 2012.

"The recent floods have clearly been a set-back for many people as well as for the country more generally. We are confident that Cambodia is today a more resilient and capable country and we feel sure that our recovery will be swift as the floodwaters recede," said Keat Chhon, also minister of economy and finance. "Our urgent priority is the rehabilitation of the infrastructures after the floods."

Cambodia has suffered the worst flooding of the last decade since August and 18 cities and provinces have been submerged.

At least 250 people were killed and some 1.5 million people have been affected, according to the reports of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM).

The floods had destroyed 230,000 of rice paddies, or 9 percent of the total rice paddy production this year.

Nearly 3,000 kilometers of gravel roads and some 180 kilometers of national roads have been damaged. Also, more than 1,000 schools and hundreds of health centers and pagodas were inundated.


China's Huawei donates telecom equipment, flood relief goods to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The China's Huawei Technologies on Monday provided telecom equipment and flood relief goods worth 550,000 U.S. dollars to Cambodia's Ministry of Interior.

The hand-over ceremony was held at the Ministry of Interior between Yang Shu, president and CEO of Huawei Technologies to Southeast Asian Region, and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, minister of interior, with the participation from the Ambassador of China to Cambodia Pan Guangxue.

The contribution includes two sets of video conference system, 10 tons of rice and 1,000 boxes of portable drinking water for the purpose of post-disaster recoveries, according to the firm's statement.

"On behalf of Huawei Technologies (Cambodia), I honorably extend my sympathy to the Cambodians inflicted by the flooding," Yang Shu said.

Meanwhile, Sar Kheng expressed sincere thanks to the company for the generous donation and said the video conference system would help the ministry strengthen its working capacity in protecting security, safety and public order for Cambodian people and foreign investors. Moreover, the relief goods would be very useful for Cambodia to relieve the difficulties of flood- affected people.

Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. The firm's products and solutions have been deployed in over 140 countries, serving more than one third of the world's population