Flooding across the country has now killed seven people, including four children, since water reached emergency levels in some areas on Friday, the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC) said Monday.
Flooding is affecting a total of seven provinces and authorities have already evacuated hundreds of families across the country.
“From Friday to Sunday, seven people died in the floodwaters,” said Keo Vy, deputy director of the information department inside the NDMC.
Chhin Chanty, secretary of Kompong Cham’s Provincial Committee for Disaster Management, said one of the people killed was a 15-year-old boy, who drowned when his house in Kompong Reap commune flooded.
He added that an eight-year-old girl had drowned after falling into waters in front of her house in Koh Sotin district’s Prek Tanong commune on Sunday.
In Oddar Meanchey province, a 70-year-old man drowned when he fell off a bridge into the floodwaters in Anlong Veng district on Saturday, said Mr. Vy. A 50-year-old man also died on Friday after electric wiring from lighting in his home fell into the water and electrocuted him in Samraong district.
Mr. Vy said that another man had drowned in a stream in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district on Saturday.
The deaths of a 1-year-old and a 6-year-old girl from Kratie province were confirmed on Sunday, Mr. Vy said, adding that the total death toll of flood victims this year was 20.
Flooding on the Mekong also reached Kandal province’s Sa’ang district on Monday, where emergency levels are close to being reached, said Sriegn Sopha, a commune level water management official.
“We will declare emergency level when the water reaches 7.5 meters. Now the water level is at 7.48 meters, so tonight we will declare emergency level,” Mr. Sopha said.
In Stung Treng province, where the emergency level was already reached on Saturday, water rose by about another 20 centimeters Monday, resulting in a further 11 villages being flooded.
A total of 664 families have been evacuated to elevated areas in Stung Treng province, while in Banteay Menachey province 350 families have been evacuated. A total of 2,000 homes have also been inundated in Kratie.
