Cambodia in Flood

Street 105, Phnom Penh 3/10/2013
Recent flooding caused the sewerage canal (submerged right)
 to discharge raw sewerage onto the street

Flooding in Cambodia this wet season has, so far:

~Claimed the lives of 152 people.

~ Forced more than 27,000 families to seek higher ground.

~ Partly submerged more than 200,000 homes, and

~ Nearly 1,500 schools, and

~ Approximately 500 pagodas.

~Destroyed 300,000 hectares of paddy fields

When the Rain Falls

When the rain falls it's time to run for the....

Shower!

Why waste fresh and plentiful water?

Our neighbours don't: for when the rains come, out come motorbikes to be cleaned and bodies to be washed.

Cambodian Floods Sweep Away New School Term

The Cambodian floods are receding but the effects for many will be felt for a long time, yet.

• Flooding forced 323 Cambodian schools to close, and while some have since reopened, many have not.
• 77 schools are beyond repair.
• At least 20,000 students still cannot attend flood-ravaged schools.
• The floods have swept away school materials and thus the already woeful shortage of textbooks has worsened.
• Thus, many schools opened their doors on a new term without being able to provide a single coursebook.

Cambodia's Flooding - Death Toll Keeps Rising

Continued flooding has seen Prime Minister Hun Sen declare on Friday that Phnom Penh's annual boat racing during the November Water Festival was to be cancelled due to Cambodia's worst flooding in a decade.

The Prime minister said that the money usually spent on the Water Festival would be better utilised dealing with the damage from the devastating floods. The main issue is food security, because of the 190,000 hectares of rice paddies that have been destroyed.

With the rainy season not yet over, the death toll for this small country has now risen to 247, nearing the 297 deaths in neighbouring Thailand.

Frantic Flooding - Cambodia and Thailand

'At least 167 people have died in Cambodia amid what has been called the "worst floods in a decade."

Children among the dead numbered 68, according to a report by the Straits Times on Wednesday.'

'Thailand's prime minister says rising floodwaters that have caused havoc across the nation are now threatening the capital Bangkok.

The death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose on Saturday to 253.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says the flooding - which has severed rail links with the north, shut dozens of highways and swamped ancient Buddhist temples in the city of Ayutthaya - has reached a crisis level.'

`NZ Herald

Anyone with an interest in Southeast Asia will be well aware of the havoc that flooding is causing in Thailand and Cambodia.

So there isn't much to add except this photograph taken from the air as we began our descent to Phnom Penh airport. Says it all...