Fewer lives lost to the annual floods of the Mekong River would be the result if countries along the river’s course invested in monitoring stations to record its depth and advanced computers to predict flood levels, a panel of flood experts recommended Friday in Phnom Penh.
Flooding in 2000 and 2001 devastated portions of Cambodia, washing away bridges and villages while killing hundreds of people, mainly children.
The experts, assembled by the Mekong River Commission, said steady migration into the Mekong floodplain has created a population of people who must be warned about flood levels every year; many of the migrants are poor and cannot afford to move out of the flood-prone areas.
An existing network of 21 monitoring stations along the 4,400 km length of the Mekong provides scientists and government officials with some warning before the river makes its annual crest, swelling with summer runoff from the Himalayas.
Two more monitoring stations are planned in China, according to the MRC.
“Experts are saying we should install more gauges to get more comprehensive information,” said Delia Paul, the communications officer for the Mekong River Commission, an organization created by Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The technology must be supplemented with an effective communication system to reach remote villages. Such flood warnings are distributed on the emergency information network created by the Cambodian Red Cross.
