Children wade throught Russey Keo High School’s flooded campus on Tuesday. (Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN)Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Written by Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post
Missed classes and the risk of disease are the results of nearly two months of deluge that educators in Russey Keo district blame on poorly planned development projects
HEAVY flooding in Russey Keo district that has forced the closure of six schools is the result of poorly planned development that has filled in a nearby drainage lake, education officials say, blaming City Hall for failing to consider the consequences of the projects.
"Development projects that lack appropriate drainage system planning have affected residents in these development zones," Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodia Independent Teachers Association (CITA), told the Post Monday.
"City Hall has to be responsible for this issue," he said, adding that more than 20 schools in Russey Keo district have suffered flooding and the six that were closed have resulted in thousands of students missing classes for more than two months.
Poor planning
"The flooding has affected the quality of education students are receiving because many of them will not be able to complete their studies this year," Rong Chhun said.
Chin Sopholla, a physical sciences teacher at Russey Keo High School, said the flooding began after developers started filling in a lake behind the school to make room for a new dry port, residential housing and an electricity plant.
"The municipality has developed this zone with no regard for the impact their actions would have on drainage systems in the district," he said.
"Our school has never flooded before."
Klaing Hout, the district's governor, said he authorised the opening of an overflow gate at the Russey Keo dam to remove excess water from the area.
"We have tried our best to solve this problem by opening the overflow gate, but the flooding has persisted," he said.
A health risk
Meanwhile, educators say schools hit by the floods, but which have remained open, pose a substantial health risk to students and teachers forced to attend them.
"We know that this will affect the mental and physical health of students because we are all forced to wallow in filthy water that is full of disease in order to teach our students," Se Socheat, a Khmer literature teacher at Russey Keo High School, told the Post.
Hout Samreth, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Department in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, said many schools, including some universities, had been flooded, and that classes for hundreds of students are temporarily suspended until the flood waters recede.
Many high school students have been placed in alternate schools not affected by the floods.
Sen Vuthy, 19, a grade 12 student at Chea Sim Cham Reoun Rath High School, said his old school was still under more than a metre of water.
"I really care about my coming semester exam, but studying has been difficult," he said.
Koy Seda, director of administration at the ministry's Phnom Penh Department, said five schools in the district were closed and 20 others have remained partially flooded but are still open.
"Flooding this year has damaged the city's infrastructure and seriously impacted students, as well as local business owners," he said.
HEAVY flooding in Russey Keo district that has forced the closure of six schools is the result of poorly planned development that has filled in a nearby drainage lake, education officials say, blaming City Hall for failing to consider the consequences of the projects.
"Development projects that lack appropriate drainage system planning have affected residents in these development zones," Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodia Independent Teachers Association (CITA), told the Post Monday.
"City Hall has to be responsible for this issue," he said, adding that more than 20 schools in Russey Keo district have suffered flooding and the six that were closed have resulted in thousands of students missing classes for more than two months.
Poor planning
"The flooding has affected the quality of education students are receiving because many of them will not be able to complete their studies this year," Rong Chhun said.
Chin Sopholla, a physical sciences teacher at Russey Keo High School, said the flooding began after developers started filling in a lake behind the school to make room for a new dry port, residential housing and an electricity plant.
"The municipality has developed this zone with no regard for the impact their actions would have on drainage systems in the district," he said.
"Our school has never flooded before."
Klaing Hout, the district's governor, said he authorised the opening of an overflow gate at the Russey Keo dam to remove excess water from the area.
"We have tried our best to solve this problem by opening the overflow gate, but the flooding has persisted," he said.
A health risk
Meanwhile, educators say schools hit by the floods, but which have remained open, pose a substantial health risk to students and teachers forced to attend them.
"We know that this will affect the mental and physical health of students because we are all forced to wallow in filthy water that is full of disease in order to teach our students," Se Socheat, a Khmer literature teacher at Russey Keo High School, told the Post.
Hout Samreth, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Department in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, said many schools, including some universities, had been flooded, and that classes for hundreds of students are temporarily suspended until the flood waters recede.
Many high school students have been placed in alternate schools not affected by the floods.
Sen Vuthy, 19, a grade 12 student at Chea Sim Cham Reoun Rath High School, said his old school was still under more than a metre of water.
"I really care about my coming semester exam, but studying has been difficult," he said.
Koy Seda, director of administration at the ministry's Phnom Penh Department, said five schools in the district were closed and 20 others have remained partially flooded but are still open.
"Flooding this year has damaged the city's infrastructure and seriously impacted students, as well as local business owners," he said.
9 comments:
Cambodian leaders with their third world mentality are going nowhere!
Every fucken time they face problem and always complaining about the lack of money to solve the problem! But the fact is the money doesn't solve all problems and to solve most major problems is to have the will power to solve the fucken problem! It seems that the Cambodian leaders have no will power to solve anything besides wiping their dirty arse and hang on to their dirty low life! This is how the stupid Cambodian leaders lead their life!
Cambodian people have the right to lead a different life style from these dirty low life Cambodian leaders!
Hun Sen est un gros sans dessein, donc pas de surprise de ce côté là.
Too many cooks (in the kitchen) spoil the broth
Too many brailess ADVISORS (in the HUN SEN's Cabinet) Spoil Cambodia.
The recent and current flooding in many parts of Phnom Penh results from the best advice that PM Hun Sen have got from his advisors and his policy of "KEEPING THE OLD IN AND ADDING THE NEW". That makes his govenment bigger and bigger at the head and skinnier at the leg.
Hun Sen has plenty of advisors on Urban Planning, but not qualilified. They got their degrees from CPP Unifactory (University) that produced Fake Bachelors, Masters, and PhD's.
Developemnt or Destruction !!!!!!!
W.C
COMPLETELY WIPING OUT THE POORS!
KOH PICH, SAMBOK CHARB, BEOUNG KAK,
AND MANY OTHER AREAS!
GREAT RECTANGULAR POLICY - FUCKING STRATEGY
Phnom Penh streets are still flooded during the rainy season. Now, the corrupt City Hall officials are filling up the Boeung Kak Lake in their greedy plan for a real estate development. Needless to say, each of them will get a nice piece of the rotten pie when the lake is filled up. Phnom Penh can sink and drown for all they care.
If one happens to listen in on the conversations of those government advisors and officials, one can only hear cheap and dirty talks coming from people who show off their Masters and PhD certificates, issued by universities of nowhere, on their name cards and in public. And, their numbers are filling up the government's rank and file and eating up the national budget.
Underdog, you're right but not the complete sense.
COMPLETELY WIPING OUT THE POORS!
IS COMPLETELY KILLING OUT THE POORS!
It's difficult to wiping but killing is easier. I mean the strategy is let the poor die but slowly.
That is a big modern urban planning disaster. When they were warned about the high possibility of flood in the northern part of the mismanaged development city (besides good in casinos), they just responded that "don't look down the young generation (poor qualified urban planners)".City Hall is doing shit and its people eat theirs shit. Fucking a kep chop ta dollar.
A truly responsible and accountable government would action the below:
-performance review for all these bastard, minister of land management and the cabinet, minister of water resource and the cabinet, Phnom Penh Governor and the cabinet and local authority i.e. Sangkat and Khan, Drainage and sewage management service of Phnom Penh Municipality and all involving high ranking government official including the fucker Sok Ann.
-Punish the greedy developers and all its associates including families of the powerful government personel.
- assess the damages in financial term and pack back to all the victims of this silly development plan. These victims are mostly the poor and middle class people.
- ARRANGE A LAND MANAGEMENT, WATER MANAGEMENT CLASS AND SO ON FOR ALL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS INCLUDING HUN SEN, SOK ANN AND HUNDREDS OF OTHERS, TO LEARN ALL THE BASIS. ALL CLASSES MUST BE EXTENSIVE IF THEY CAN PASS THEN INVITE THEM TO FUCK OFF
Correction for the last sentence of the underdog's comment!
IF THEY CAN NOT PASS THEN INVITE THEM TO FUCK OFF
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