Flooding

There are several flash floods going on in Cambodia these days, 164 people have died so far, 15 provinces are affected and 215 000 people have been displaced. It's the worst one they've had for a decade, in July 2000 there was a flood that killed 347 people, but there was a lot less damage to roads and rice paddies than there is now. Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Pakistan are also struggling with the same problem.

Photo of a brave little kid in the middle of the flood in Cambodia

 

I have never previously worked with an enviroment project before the Let’s do it-project in Phnom Penh. But as so many others, I remember the earth quake and tsunami in South East Asia in 2004, and the focus it put on climate change and natural disasters. The Norwegian media focused mostly on Thailand, because this where most of the 84 deceased Norwegians had been on Christmas vacation when it struck. But where Thailand lost an estimated 8000 people, one thinks as many as 167 000 people lost their lives in Indonesia. 230 000 people altogether. In a small country like ours, everyone knew of someone who died. In my case it was a teacher at my elementary school, and her little daughter. I remember her being pregnant when I was still in school, and was very sad to hear these news when it happened.

Scary, scary photo of the tsunami in Thailand. Taken from Wikipedia.

A more recent event that has brought a lot of attention to natural disasters in the region (and nuclear power in general), is of course the earth quake and following tsunami east of Japan in March. It caused almost 16 000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated because of the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

When talking about global environmental issues in Cambodia, people were very concerned about the Phillipines. Greenpeace has used them as an example of one of the countries that suffers the most from man made climate change, with extreme weather occurrences such as floods, droughts, forest fires, land slides and an increase in tropical cyclones.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report in 2007 saying that the sea level could rise between 18 and 59 centimeters (7 to 23 inches) by century's end. Rises of just 10 centimeters (4 inches) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia. The students I talked to in Cambodia were interested in these facts, recognizing that even though their country doesn't pollute a lot compared to the rest of the world, they are very vulnerable to these changes.