Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Denmark doubles aid for Cambodian flooding victims

01 November 2011
ScandAsia.com

The Danish government has doubled its financial assistance to flood victims in rural Cambodia, with a US$60,000 grant to rural development agency Life With Dignity to provide emergency food aid to about 7,000 people in Kampong Chnang province, where parts of the provincial capital remained flooded last weekend.

It said officials in the central province, which the Tonle Sap River runs through, estimated that as much as 60 per cent of the rice crop had been destroyed. “Most of the communities affected by the floods are in rural areas, which are difficult to access – some are accessible only by boat,” the Royal Danish Embassy in Phnom Penh said yesterday, writes Phnom Penh Post.


It also warned that the impacts on food security would be severe because “affected families will have no rice to harvest in November/December”.

As many as 1.7 million Cambodians had been affected by the flooding and 100,000 famil-ies (about 500,000 people) had been displaced, it said.

“Poor households have lost food stocks, both in-house stores and rice paddy, which creates an immediate rice deficit for households who are already vulnerable,” the embassy said, adding that “the price of essential commodities, such as rice, is steadily increasing”writes Phnom Penh Post.

The Danish government previously donated about $50,000 to Save the Children for emergency relief in Kampong Cham and Prey Veng provinces.

Another international NGO, Church World Service, is raising nearly $180,000 for emergency relief that will be disbursed to about 3,000 families through its Cambodian office, writes Phnom Penh Post.

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