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| Farmlands are flooded in Cambodia, threatening the country's food supply. [ABC] |
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Australia Network News
Development agencies say Cambodia will require food support for at least another three months during the country's largest floods in more than a decade
A group leader from Australian aid group Caritas, Lindsay Daines, says food supplies are currently in good condition but he is concerned about the long term as more than 200 thousand hectares of rice plantations currently underwater .
"The after effects are really very difficult to deal with, because the rebuilding of infrastructure can a number of years. One of the issues is, where do you replant? Are we planting in places that are continuously flooded like this?" he told Radio Australia's Connect Asia.
Floodwaters have killed 250 people, and submerged 17 of the country's 24 provinces.
Festival cancelled
Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced the cancellation of the Water Festival that was scheduled for next month.
The three day festival typically draws more than one million people to Phnom Penh to watch traditional rowing races.
The government said that high water levels in the Tonle Sap River that run through Phnom Penh could endanger people competing in the race.
Hun Sen said floods had destroyed 8 per cent of the country's rice crop and damaged twice that amount.
The government said that money saved from cancelling the festival will go towards flood relief.
1 comment:
i know, when looking at cambodia from the sky, it seemed like almost the entire country is submerged under water; cambodia is so flat in many areas.
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