The Mekong River has reached emergency flood levels in Stung Treng province and the Srepok River in Ratanakkiri province also surpassed emergency levels as other provinces along the Mekong prepared for rising floodwaters over the weekend, officials said Friday.
Tuy Chandara, deputy director of Stung Treng’s provincial department of water resources and meteorology, said Friday morning that the Mekong River’s level in the province had passed emergency and that four districts had been rained on heavily since Wednesday.
“We declare an emergency level when the water is past 10.70 meters, but this morning the water was already at 10.87 meters,” he said, adding that authorities had prepared boats to evacuate villagers.
“We are really worried about the floodwaters because the water is rising about .06 to .07 meters every day,” Mr. Chandara said.
Ratanakkiri provincial governor Pav Horm Phan said that the province has been partially flooded for the past four days, with Lumphat district the worst hit after flash floods left hundreds of families stranded on their roofs on Tuesday.
“So far, no human has died,” he said, adding that the water from the Srepok River passed emergency level by Friday and was at 13 meters.
Heng Rothmonida, director of the water resources department in Kratie province, said that five districts were flooded, with the water level at 21.05 meters on Friday morning, 1.95 meters short of the emergency level.
The level of the Mekong River in Kratie province is expected to rise to 22 meters on Saturday, which is the emergency level for the province, according to a statement from the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology dated Thursday.
“We will declare a level of caution when the water level is at 22 meters,” Mr. Rothmonida said, adding that if the Mekong reaches 23 meters, Kratie City will flood.
The statement from the Water Resources Ministry added that the water level of the Mekong in Kompong Cham province is expected to reach 15 meters on Sunday, just 0.2 meters below emergency level.
