Cambodia warns of possible flash floods in 13 provinces

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology on Monday warned of heavy rains throughout this week and said some 13 provinces out of the country's 24 cities and provinces could suffer from flash floods.

"Over the past two weeks, a low pressure system has gone through and impacted Cambodia, causing rains and thunderstorms," according to an announcement on weather conditions on Monday.

The announcement, signed by the Minister Lim Kean Hor, said that the bad weather will continue influencing Cambodia for another week.

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UN forum in South-East Asia calls for more investment to reduce disaster risks

Flooding in Battambang, Cambodia in 2011

UN News Centre

20 February 2012 – Last year's devastating floods across South-East Asia were a “wake-up call” on the need for much greater investment in disaster risk reduction across the region, a United Nations forum heard today.

Delegates from nine countries attending the one-day forum, held in Bangkok and co-organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), called for much greater investment in disaster risk reduction in the future to protect economic growth.

The forum was held to discuss lessons learned from last year's floods and to devise ways to make the region's countries more resilient to future disasters.

Villages 20 $ 24 in Boeung Kak Lake flooded from the Shukaku Co.'s sand pumping

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lPPrAk94U0

Politiktoons No. 129: [Queenland, Australia] Under Water

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com
and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

People are seen on the rooftop of a house in Grantham, a township between Toowoomba and Brisbane, in this still image taken from video January 10, 2011. Tsunami-like flash floods raced towards Australia's third-largest city of Brisbane on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of its outskirts, flood warnings for the financial district and predictions that the death toll is likely to climb. REUTERS/Nine Network via Reuters TV 

Video of flood stricken Vietnam and Thailand

Cambodia's PM: floods causes more damages than Ketsana last year

October 18 2010
Source: Xinhua

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that floods that affects the country in recent weeks has caused more damages than Typhoon Ketsana last year.

Delivering speech to graduate students, Hun Sen said preliminary reports showed that floods that caused by heavy rains in the country have affected more damages than Typhoon Ketsana last year that hit several provinces.

He said at least four people have been killed by floods and at least 9,000 hectares of rice fields have been damaged.

But, he said total loss and damages caused by floods are being figured out.

Typhoon Ketsana hit Cambodia last September and the estimates of 100,000 people were affected by the floods and 15,000 households were in need of food assistance.

Keo Vy, communication officer of National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said this year's floods have hit 12 provinces and a city.

Flooding on Thailand-Cambodia border still critical

Oct 17, 2010

(NECN/MCOT: Sa Kaeo, Thailand) - The border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew province was under water for the second day on Sunday, with more than 1,000 households being affected.

Flooding in the municipal area and Aranyaprathet's market was described as the worst in 13 years, forcing local residents and vendors to move their belongings and goods to areas with higher ground. Buddhist monks had to wade through floodwaters while on their morning alms rounds.

Many roads in the Aranyaprathet municipal area were heavily flooded and several sections of them could not be used by small passenger cars.

At the border market of Rong Kluea, which was earlier heavily inundated, saw receding levels of floodwater and was returning to business as usual. However, officials were removing large amounts of garbage brought by floodwater.

At Sa Kaew's Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint, cargo trucks from Thailand were prevented by Cambodian authorities from entering that country due to severe flooding in Cambodia's border town of Poipet. The Cambodians said there was no space left to store new goods and the local warehouses were being flooded.

Officials at the Aranyaprathet customs house said the Cambodian authorities order continued for the second day Sunday.

They said each day more than 150 trucks carrying Thai exports to Cambodia pass the Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint. It was estimated that the suspension of cargo transport caused 50 million baht in loss of revenue each day for Thai exporters.

Authorities Count Storm Toll, Warn of Flooding

Since Monday some 13 provinces are facing flooding problems. (Photo: AP)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 15 October 2010

A total of four people have died in storms and flooding since Sunday, government officials said Friday, as officials nationwide counted the toll of heavy rain for the week.

A severe storm system battered the coast on Sunday, while continued rain flooded streets and fields nationwide. Authorities in several provinces have begun issuing alerts for anticipated flooding.

In Phnom Penh, flooding was reported in different neighborhoods as the week progressed.

Officials at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal were forced to work out of the office, as the premises became inundated.

Flooding of National Road No. 2

Report and Video by Mom Sophon

Are you soaking wet yet?

A cyclist pushes his bicycle through a flooded street near the royal palace in Phnom Penh July 21, 2010, after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
A motorcyclist pushes his vehicle through a flooded street near the royal palace in Phnom Penh July 21, 2010, after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
A cycle rickshaw driver pulls his vehicle through a flooded street near the royal palace in Phnom Penh July 21, 2010, after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Children play in a flooded street near the royal palace in Phnom Penh July 21, 2010 after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Farmers protest loss of dam

Villagers in Kampong Thom province gather Tuesday morning to protest the dismantling of a Khmer Rouge-era dam in Santuk district. (Photo supplied)

Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

MORE than 500 people from Kampong Thom province’s Santuk district on Tuesday protested the dismantling of a Khmer Rouge-era irrigation project that they say has led to the flooding of their farmland.

Villagers say the dam, when it functioned, had been used to flush water in and out of farmland belonging to residents of Santuk’s Boeung Lvea, Ti Pou, Kraya and Kampong Thma communes. Government officials dismantled it last year to build a reservoir.

“My land has been totally flooded – I can’t plant rice anymore,” said Khaul Choeun, who claimed to own 2 hectares of flooded land.

In a meeting at Santuk’s Boeung Lvea pagoda, Santuk district governor Pich Sophea told villagers that the government would not be paying compensation to families affected by the flooding because they had planted their rice on state land.

“This is the government’s project to renovate the irrigation system,” Pich Sothea said, adding that the newly built reservoir provided water for residents of five communes in Santuk.

The villagers, he added, understood that they had no right to plant rice on state land but had been incited to protest for compensation by the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP).

“We have prohibited them from planting crops there, so when their crops are flooded over, we are not responsible,” he said. “We have prohibited them again and again – they know already.”

Men Sothavarin, an SRP lawmaker from Kampong Thom, denied that the SRP had incited the protest.

Cambodia hit by inclement weather

(Photo: Pring Samrang, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

20 July 2009
By P.B.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

For several days in a row, Cambodia is hit by irregular rains accompanied by storms. Several provinces are submerged by flood. The ministry of Water Resources called for precaution.

Several coastal regions, areas near the Tonle Sap Lake and rivers were flooded these past few days. The inclement weather was caused by a weak depression which should leave the country on Wednesday 22 July, a communiqué of the ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, indicated on Sunday 19 July.

Rains and storms are already announced in some provinces, in particular in Kandal, Pursat, Battambang, Pailin, Beanteay Meanchey and Siem Reap. Under these conditions, the ministry called on residents and travelers to be cautious, especially in the area surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake.

Cambodia: IOM maps vulnerability of indigenous people

19 Jun 2009
Source: International Organization for Migration (IOM)

IOM this week presented the findings of a six-month assessment conducted in the remote provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri bordering Viet Nam and the Lao PDR.

Most of the population in the two provinces is composed of ethnic minority groups, who have traditionally relied on the forests and natural resources to meet their food and livelihood needs.

But rapid economic change now poses a threat to their traditional livelihoods and is making them increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards.

Large areas have been logged, weakening the ecological balance and removing their control over land and access to natural resources.

The assessment carried out by IOM in partnership with the Cambodia National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), shows that both provinces are prone to natural disasters including floods, drought and insect infestation.

These risks have increased due to deforestation, logging concessions to large businesses, plantations, climate change and environmental degradation.

The two provinces are also vulnerable to flooding, drought or changes in water quality caused by dams across the border in neighbouring Vietnam.

The findings of the assessment were presented at a workshop chaired by NCDM Secretary General Peou Samy, who welcomed the assessment as a breakthrough.

"We now have for the first time tangible data relating to the risk of natural disasters in these two provinces and we will include them into our national disaster preparedness national action plan," he said.

Two short documentaries commissioned by IOM - "The Lizard's Tail and The Trech's Nest" - illustrating the findings and showing how the indigenous communities perceive the threats to their traditional way of life were also shown at the launch. The firms will be available for wider dissemination in July.

The assessment was funded by Finland and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.

For more information, please contact Giuseppe Crocetti at IOM Cambodia, Tel: +85512900224, Email: gcrocetti@iom.int.

Vn to lose all the lands it stole from Cambodia with climate change?

Flooding will become even more of a problem as sea levels rise

Climate change, sea level rise to cost Vietnam dearly

Saturday, January 12, 2008
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Vietnam is highly vulnerable to climate change, with rising sea levels to affect vast areas of the country, including heavily populated regions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said Friday.

A sea level rise of one meter will flood up to 12 percent of Vietnam's land and affect nearly 11 percent of its population, according to a MARD report released at a climate change conference in Hanoi.

A one meter sea level rise would inundate about 5,000 square kilometers of northern Vietnam's Red River Delta and up to 20,000 square kilometers in the Mekong Delta in the south.

River and sea dike systems would crumble in destructive typhoons and storms caused by climate change, the report said.

Higher sea levels would also decimate the nation's crops, with food output reduced by 12 percent, or five million tons a year.

Extreme weather would cause natural disasters such as severe floods, which could lead to outbreaks of human and animal diseases.

Deputy Minister Dao Xuan Hoc action must be taken immediately or it would be too late.

The ministry is conducting research to develop a plan to promote afforestation, the use of environmentally-friendly production technology and upgrades of the nation's dikes and irrigation systems.

Hoc said scientists were drafting plans for reinforcing dikes in the Mekong Delta and the central region.

The resettlement of vulnerable residents from flood and landslide-prone areas had already been carried out effectively.

However, the number of residents that still need to be resettled was massive, he said.

Southern hub concern

In a talk with Thanh Nien on the sideline of the conference, Hoc said the ministry was conducting studies on how to reduce flooding in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Under a draft plan, the city will build eight major drains at a cost of about VND8 trillion (US$500 million) in the precincts of the Saigon and Dong Nai rivers.

Hoc said the plan would be put to the city administration before being submitted to the government.

The ministry also recommended the municipal administration increase the capacity of water reservoirs in order to reduce city flooding.

Reported by Quang Duan

Flood death toll rises to 45 in central Vietnam

Soldiers lead families in a boat to safety after they were stranded by flooding in the central city of Danang, Vietnam, 13 November, 2007. EPA/XUAN QUANG/VNA

HANOI, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Flooding caused by torrential rain in Vietnam's central region killed 45 local people, left 7 missing, and injured 61 others on Nov. 10-15, local newspaper Youth reported Friday.

Quang Nam province suffered the biggest human loss with 20 fatalities, Quang Ngai province, 10, Binh Dinh province, 6, and Thua Thien Hue province, 4.

The floods also inundated some 376,000 houses, damaged over 2,500 hectares of paddy rice, and isolated some areas in the region, causing total property losses of trillions of Vietnamese dong (VND)(hundreds of million U.S. dollars).

The region may face a new wave of flooding, after a spell of torrential rain is forecast to occur there on Nov. 16-25, according to the National Hydro-Meteorology Forecast Center.

Natural disasters including typhoons and hails in Vietnam killed 339 people, left 274 persons missing, and injured 2,065 others in 2006. The estimated losses totaled 18.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the year.

New warning for people living along rivers

A woman crosses a road as Typhoon Sepat approaches in Taipei August 17, 2007. A typhoon gathered strength and set course for Taiwan on Friday after side-swiping the Philippines where it left parts of the capital, Manila, under chest-high water. REUTERS/Nicky Loh

Friday, August 17, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The ministry of water resource and meteorology issued a statement on Thursday, indicating that the Sepat Typhoon is currently moving from China and it will cross Taiwan in the next 3 to 4-day. At the same time, a low pressure system is building up over the Chinese Hainan Island. This situation will bring a lot of rainfall in the upper Mekong River basin, in particular, over Thailand and Laos, for 4 to 5 consecutive days. Furthermore, Cambodia’s northeast and north, such as the province of Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng, Preah Vihear, and along the sea shores will also see a lot of rainfall. Therefore, in the next 3 to 6 days, the water level of the Mekong River will see a rise along the provinces bordering the upper Mekong River, the provinces of Stung Treng, Kratie, and Kompong Cham could face a high river water level and a caution warning is issued for the danger posed by potential flooding.