By Kuch Naren and Whitney Kvasager
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema has told municipal officials to search for blockages in the city's drainage system, following recent heavy flooding of streets in the capital. But several Phnom Penh residents said they felt the flooding was partly due to the fact that, people have been filling in the lakes that previously provided the city's drainage.
"The drainage system is a really complex matter. The municipality is trying to find a strategy to set the city free from floods," Kep Chuktema said at a City Hall meeting Monday.
He ordered district governors to find out where clogged drains are located, saying that blockages were the main cause of the problem.
"I want all district governors who work for the municipality and go out to check when it's raining, to find out where drainage system jams are happening," he said.
Nhem Saran, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works and Transportation, blamed the flooding on unusually heavy rain, saying that the city's drainage system is in the same state as it was last year. Residents in flooded neighborhoods said extensive landfill operations by the powerful were to blame.
"My home flooded two weeks ago after there was much heavy rain. Several other homes in my village flooded because there is no drainage system, and wealthy businesspeople just fill in lakes where water normally flows," said 48-year-old Meas Heng-song, a resident of Meanchey districts Boeng Tumpun village.
Suos Sarin, chief of the district's Boeng Tumpun commune, agreed.
"I have witnessed that some homes are flooded because their location is lower than the other residents' who have filled the land," he said.
Meng Chan Vitol, program officer for the Japan International Cooperation Agency's infrastructure division, said a Japanese Embassy grant aid project to improve drainage and flood relief facilities will help relieve some rainy season problems, but added that the project will take until 2009 to complete.
"There are many factors [for the flooding]," he said. "Areas are flooded because the old drainage system was designed for a small population and the pipes are broken."
"The drainage system is a really complex matter. The municipality is trying to find a strategy to set the city free from floods," Kep Chuktema said at a City Hall meeting Monday.
He ordered district governors to find out where clogged drains are located, saying that blockages were the main cause of the problem.
"I want all district governors who work for the municipality and go out to check when it's raining, to find out where drainage system jams are happening," he said.
Nhem Saran, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works and Transportation, blamed the flooding on unusually heavy rain, saying that the city's drainage system is in the same state as it was last year. Residents in flooded neighborhoods said extensive landfill operations by the powerful were to blame.
"My home flooded two weeks ago after there was much heavy rain. Several other homes in my village flooded because there is no drainage system, and wealthy businesspeople just fill in lakes where water normally flows," said 48-year-old Meas Heng-song, a resident of Meanchey districts Boeng Tumpun village.
Suos Sarin, chief of the district's Boeng Tumpun commune, agreed.
"I have witnessed that some homes are flooded because their location is lower than the other residents' who have filled the land," he said.
Meng Chan Vitol, program officer for the Japan International Cooperation Agency's infrastructure division, said a Japanese Embassy grant aid project to improve drainage and flood relief facilities will help relieve some rainy season problems, but added that the project will take until 2009 to complete.
"There are many factors [for the flooding]," he said. "Areas are flooded because the old drainage system was designed for a small population and the pipes are broken."
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