Families have been receiving relief kits from Plan.

17 October 2011: “It is the worst flooding I have ever experienced in more than 20 years… It’s been raining so much and makes me very worried,” says 49-year-old Khim Sokheng, a deputy-village chief in Khun Ream community, in the Banteay Srei district of Siem Reap province.

“Recently, only Plan was helping here and gave out water filters, water containers, soap and mosquito nets to my villagers.”

Those villagers were among the flood-affected 1,845 families who received relief kits from Plan Cambodia during the initial response to flooding, which has now reemerged thanks to on-going downpours. 

An agricultural nightmare

“I have no hope that my rice can survive this flooding and heavy rainfall. If it continues for another three days all the rice paddies in my villages will be inundated and ruined,” says Roeun Ean, 43, a rice farmer and father of 3 from the badly hit Prey community in the Srei Snam district of Siem Reap, where Plan is responding. 

Because of the flooding that destroyed roads in his area, Mr Ean has to accompany his kids back and forth to school by boat. The whole community now depends on one Plan-supported clean water well as the rest have been contaminated.    

The return of flooding in Cambodia has claimed at least 247 lives, the majority of them children.

Sizing up the impact

The flooding now covers more than two-thirds of the country, affecting 10 percent of the population and displacing 30,000 families.

Plan is planning to dispatch mosquito nets to 2,500 families and survival kits to another 1,130 in areas affected by the flooding.

The flooding has damaged at least 590,000 hectares of agricultural land, mainly rice paddies, as well as 2,500 kilometres of roads and 2,000 kilometres of irrigation facilities.

The annual national celebration of Cambodia’s Water Festival in November has been cancelled due to the crisis.

See how flooding is also impacting the lives of people in Thailand and Pakistan.