Village Still Suffers Effects of 2000 Floods

sananchay village, Preah Sdach district, Prey Veng province – Dur­ing last year’s floods, with everything under water between Route 1 and this village’s hilltop pri­mary school, every cow, chicken and family fled to those two sites, the only dry land around.

Now, all of the land is dry again, with just a small stream flowing through the village toward the Mekong River. Months ago, villagers, along with their surviving farm animals, returned to their homes. Rice is growing and the school, closed for a month during the worst part of the flooding, is in session.

But problems caused by the floods remain. More than 40 of the village’s 126 families still owe money borrowed at high rates of interest during the flood, according to village Chief Rath Vath. But the low price that buyers are paying for rice, due to a glut of Indon­esian rice on the world market, worries villagers who are counting on the next harvest to carry them out of debt.

The prospect of yet another devastating flood in the next few months also has villagers anxious.

“For two years already we have had flooding,” said commune com­mittee member Sar Sorn. “In 1999, we were able to save a little rice. But after last year’s floods, all of the rice was gone.

“If there is a flood again this year, we don’t know what we will do.”

After a four-month study of 12 Prey Veng villages, including San­anchay, the NGO CARE is searching for ways to help communities prepare for disasters, rather than simply “cope” once a disaster hits. But the traditional poverty of the province, which suffered floods in 11 of 12 districts last year and is one of the poorest in the country, has been exacerbated by a minor flood in 1999 and a major one in 2000, making any preparations for a possibly large 2001 flood more difficult, but also more important.

“The long duration of the floods and the extreme poverty of the maj­ority of the villagers mean that a significant number of families are being pushed further into the cycle of debt and poverty,” CARE’s report on the study states. “Such high levels of vulnerability in Prey Veng will be disastrous for tens of thousands of villagers should floods strike again this year.”

According to CARE, rural communities usually prepare for flooding by building raised homes and storing food for the flood months, which usually peak around September.

But this year in Sananchay, where almost all households are involved in rice production, much of the profit from the coming harvest will go toward paying back money borrowed to pay for rice seed and fertilizer.

With last year’s rice harvest ruined, many families who normally had enough rice seed for the next harvest have had to borrow from others, Rath Vath said. And the interest on that can be as much as 100 percent, he said.

“How can we prepare for next time when we now have nothing?” asked Ieng Yun, a 53-year-old villager.

Nonetheless, CARE is working with communities to figure out their needs should another disaster strike.

Sananchay villagers, for example, say they need more motorized boats. There are just four in the village. They can carry up to 15 passengers.

Last year, boat owners charged 7,000 riel to 10,000 riel to take a family from their home to Route 1 or to the school. That’s a lot of money for a village where, ac­cording to the CARE report, 83 percent of families rank as either poor or very poor.

“If a poor family has a problem, then no one comes to help that family,” villager Tol Yum said.

Boats also are important for villagers who want to fish or collect floating grass to feed the animals. But hiring a boat can also cost between 1000 riel and 1500 riel, according to Tol Yum.

To make ends meet during the flood, some villagers stole fishing nets and traded fish for rice, said Sar Sorn. Mindful of the difficulty of feeding farm animals while camped along a national highway, others tried to sell their pigs, chickens and cows.

“But during the flood, everyone was trying to sell their cattle,” he said. “So, it was hard to find buyers.”

Access to clean water, adequate shelter on high ground and donations from aid organizations are other issues that CARE has been discussing with villagers. Sananchay didn’t receive direct aid from the government last year, Rath Vath said.

Some kind of early warning system also needs to be put in place by villagers, the study said.

“I heard an emergency declaration on the radio by [Prime Min­ister] Hun Sen,” said Sar Sorn. “But by then it was too late.”

Since the flood, more and more villagers have been going to Phnom Penh to find work on construction sites or in garment factories or as motorbike taxi driver, villagers said.

With money earned in the capital and whatever else can be earned from the coming harvest, villagers can make it through the next few months, said Tol Yum. But that may require a little luck.

“If there is no flood, we are go­ing to have enough to eat,” she said.

 

 

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