Disasters and emergency response

Thousands of students were unable to attend classes yesterday after returning from holiday, as more than 500 schools remained closed due to flooding that has claimed 50 lives so far this year. According to a report released by the National Committee for Disaster Management, 513 schools ...

A fleet of five speedboats set off from Sisowath Quay on Tuesday afternoon carrying Phnom Penh’s governor, 19 local officials, several bodyguards and a press team, as the municipal authorities’ plan to deal with flooding in several districts of the city switched into first gear. Over ...

As much of the country grapples with crippling floods, a comprehensive report on global climate change released yesterday predicts the situation could be poised to get even worse. According to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as the planet grows warmer, cyclones making ...

TBONG KHUM DISTRICT, Kompong Cham province – From November to May, the Mekong River is quiet. So is life for the hundreds of thousands of people who live along its banks, which in Cambodia forms a 155,000 square km basin covering six provinces and Phnom ...

Two more people died in Kompong Cham province on Monday as a result of flooding that has claimed at least 30 victims since heavy rains spawned by tropical storms over the past two weeks caused the Mekong to break its banks and inundate thousands of ...

The government’s National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) fails to meet regularly and is void of an annual budget to cover its operations while most of its staff members are totally unaware of their job description, according to a report released in March and funded ...

Though authorities have called on residents to move to higher ground, those in some of the worst flooded areas of Cambodia said yesterday that they had neither the means nor the ability to do so. Instead, they said, they will remain in their rapidly flooding ...

Phnom Penh will face flooding in certain areas in the coming days as the level of the Mekong River surpasses emergency level, while heavy rainfall from tropical storm Wutip, which made landfall in Laos from the South China Sea on Friday, prompted the government to ...

The death toll caused by severe flooding along the Mekong River increased by eight yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths over the past two weeks to more than 20, including 11 children, an official said. Keo Vy, deputy chief of the information department at the ...

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — Floods have killed at least 20 Cambodian people, including 11 children in the last two weeks, a disaster control official said Thursday. Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said nearly 5,000 families ...

Thousands of families continue to be affected by relentless flooding caused by heavy rains and the opening of dams in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam, causing a surge in the Mekong River in Cambodia that has inundated communities along its banks. The floods have claimed at least ...

The death toll from recent flooding continued to rise yesterday, with meteorology officials voicing concerns that floods in some parts of the country could rival the catastrophic ones of 1996, which claimed almost 170 lives and affected more than a million Cambodians nationwide. At least 25 ...

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 ...

Nearly 2,000 families have been evacuated from their homes and thousands of hectares of crops flooded in the wake of continuing rains and the opening of dams in Vietnam and Thailand. At least two people have died since Friday in the flooding, which has affected at ...

The number of Ratanakkiri residents trapped in their homes by floodwater that continues to rise amid relentless rain is now estimated by provincial authorities to be at least 4,000. Heavy rain has put five Lumphat district communes – Lbaing I, Chey Uddom, Batang, Seda and Kaleng ...

Flash floods left hundreds of families trapped in their villages, destroyed properties and killed livestock in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district Tuesday, officials said. Heavy rain had softened the walls of a canal, which gave way to the pressure, according to Khlem Sovann, chief of Lbaing I ...

City Hall has ordered all tourist boats and ferries operating on the Mekong and Tonle Bassac rivers to stock up on life jackets and prevent overloading as water levels continue to rise. “All drivers must turn lights on at night and all ferries must prepare ...

A storm on Saturday night killed one, badly injured two others and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes in Svay Rieng province’s Rumduol district, officials said Sunday. Ros Pharith, provincial administration director, said a rainstorm with strong winds hit the prov­ince about 8:30 p.m. [Svay Rieng ...

Flash floods have killed at least 13 people and affected about 3,000 families in Cambodia since early this month, a disaster control spokesman said Wednesday. Four provinces being hit by floods are Banteay Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom, and Kratie, Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet ...

Ten days ago, Loun Somaly, 33, left his house to deliver a deposit to the glass workers he hired to replace a window on his rickety sheet metal-panelled house. Ly Sophal, Somaly’s tenacious three-year-old son, followed him outside, asking if he could join. But with floodwater ...

Provincial authority and humanitarian NGOs are preparing for severe flooding in Kompong Thom province as floodwaters flow south from inundated Preah Vihear province along the Stung Sen River. Leng Vireak, senior manager for disaster response at NGO world Vision, said that the situation was stable ...

Flash floods have claimed nine lives and affected about 5,300 families in Cambodia since last week, a disaster control spokesman said Friday. Keo Vy, chief of the Cabinet of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said five of the dead were children. ...

Families driven from their homes in Banteay Meanchey province by flooding can now receive nearby healthcare, after a clinic opened near an evacuation area over the weekend. The makeshift clinic, set up by the provincial government, makes available medicine and care to about 100 families living ...

Relentless floodwater in Banteay Meanchey has killed at least seven people since late last month, when water began inundating the province, national disaster officials confirmed. Fatalities from the deluge in Banteay Meanchey include four adults and three children, National Committee for Disaster Management chief Keo Vy ...