Many Succumb to Diarrhea in Prolonged Heat

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 13 May 2010

Health officials are now meeting with villagers to explain to them proper hygiene and food preparation.

Serious diarrhea pushed by a prolonged hot season has killed at least 35 villagers since March, including two who died in Kampong Cham province on Wednesday, officials said.

The most serious cases occurred in Ratanakkiri province, where 15 people died in just over two weeks in April. And since March, seven total have died in Kampong Cham province, five in Kratie, four in Battambang, and two each in Prey Veng and Kampong Chhnang, according to provincial health officials.

The officials say the villagers drank water or ate food infected with microbes exacerbated by high temperatures. Cambodia is undergoing a prolonged hot season, which began in late March and has continued into May, when little rain has fallen.

Typically, Cambodians expect rainfall sometime shortly after Khmer New Year, in mid-April.

Minister of Health Mam Bunheng is now urging provincial offices to monitor the development of diarrhea outbreaks, following Wednesday’s deaths in Kampong Cham.

In that case, two people died in a rural village called Trapeang Chua in Chamkar Leur district, near the border of central Kampong Thom province. In that village, 185 villagers alone have severe diarrhea, according to Yim Navy, deputy chief of the district health center.

Sok Touch, chief of the Ministry of Health’s infectious disease department, said he and other health officials took a delivery of serum and medicine to the area Thursday morning.

Health officials are now meeting with villagers to explain to them proper hygiene and food preparation. Health officials say people should urinate and defecate in proper toilets, keep their houses clean and be careful with cooking and cleaning water.

Hot weather, lack of supply causes Phnom Penh's blackouts

May 12, 2010
Xinhua

Rolling blackouts are being conducted in areas of Phnom Penh because the city's power usage is exceeding its capacity, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) official, who declined to be named, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying that the current stretch of hot weather was to blame for the blackouts in Phnom Penh.

"The requirement of people using power is higher than our ability .... It is 10 percent higher than our ability," he was quoted as saying. "The blackout relates to the hot weather and the electricity generator being broken from overuse."

The official said EDC has been cutting power to difference areas in Phnom Penh for one to two hours each day to mitigate the problem.

The official said that Phnom Penh customers currently demand about 270 megawatts of power, but EDC only has the ability to supply 240 megawatts.

Keo Rattanak, director of EDC, confirmed that the blackouts were due to a lack of supply, but added that other factors were involved, such as equipment maintenance before the coming rainy season and the renovation of the Phnom Penh roads and drainage system.

Oum Ryna, deputy director of the meteorology department at the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, said that the weather in April and May was hotter this year than last year.

Ryna said the temperature had risen to 40 degrees in Phnom Penh on Monday, adding that the temperature had been averaging about 41 degrees in Battambang and Siem Reap provinces since the end of April.

No Borders for Global Warming: Experts

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
05 June 2008

Click here to listen to the program in Khmer

Developed countries are pushing climate change that poorer countries suffer from, officials said Thursday, on World Environment Day.

Cambodia will suffer from global warming as coastal areas such as Koh Kong and Sihanoukville will feel an increase in heat, Prach Sun, secretary of state for the Ministry of Environment, told VOA Khmer Thursday.

Global warming can also lead to the spread of diseases, such as diarrhea, he said.

Cambodia is implementing the Kyoto Protocol and other international environmental agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve forest cover to help the Earth absorb those gases, he said.

UNDP Country Director Lay Khim said Thursday global warming affects all countries, from Egypt to Vietnam. Developed countries are responsible for the most gases, but developing countries feel the most effects, he said.