In 1996, floods in this area killed more than 150 people. In Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, city authorities and local people are battling to shore up the banks of the Mekong and Bassac Rivers as the rising waters threaten to breach sandbag defences and pour into low-lying, poorly drained streets. If the rivers spill over, an unprecedented human disaster will beset a quarter of a million squatters who have already experienced the worst possible ravages of war and human cruelty and who remain some of the poorest people in the world. Ruin for the rural poor Eighty-five percent of Cambodians live in rural areas. Outside the capital, more than 80 children and adults have died as houses collapsed and fishing boats overturned.
Many roads are under water, hindering access to markets and relief services.
The current disaster comes on top of serious flooding in July, which claimed 19 lives and ruined over 16,000 hectares of rice and other vegetable crops in Cambodia. The September floods have already killed hundreds of domestic and draught animals. Thousands of wells, vital for irrigation and clean drinking water, are damaged or under water. In the Mekong Delta, Vietnam's main food bowl, half the country's annual rice crop is under threat-potentially a major catastrophe for a country in which rice is the most vital staple. Meteorologists predict further severe storms for the region in the coming weeks.