Prime Minister Hun Sen said he has asked Thailand to help relieve drought conditions in the western provinces by extending its cloud-seeding efforts inside Cambodian territory.
Hun Sen said he asked Thailand’s army commander in chief to spray chemicals to make rain in the Cardamom Mountains and the Aural Wildlife Sanctuary during a speech at a Kandal Stung district school inauguration broadcast on Apsara TV.
The prime minister said that if Thailand was willing to help, rainmaking planes would be allowed 10 km inside Cambodia.
Last month Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej personally took charge of an emergency cloud-seeding project launched from 22 air bases across Thailand, according to media reports.
Cloud-seeding involves firing chemicals into clouds to encourage water vapor to coalesce and fall as rain.
Hun Sen said in his speech that Banteay Meanchey and Battambang provinces are now facing water shortages. “If there is no food we can endure for days,” he said. “But if there is no water for a few hours it is quite hard.”
Mey Sok, governor of Kors Kralor district, one of the hardest-hit districts in Battambang, said it rained three times in recent days, relieving villagers’ plight.
“Parched grass for cattle started growing while some dry ponds held water,” he said.
On Thursday National Committee for Disaster Management First Vice-President Nhim Vanda said that the government did not have a plan for relieving the drought.
“This is the first time we have had this bad of a water shortage for the last 10 years,” he said.
