Vulnerable family
Prey Tom village located in Kampot’s Prey Khmum commune, is a quiet village. The golden rice fields and the mountains add beauty to this village. But it could not avoid villagers from remembering the flash flood in September 2009 when most parts of the village were damaged and one person died. The flood came unexpectedly that local people did not have enough time to prepare for it.
“Before the flood, I had prepared nothing because I didn’t expect that there will be such a heavy flood. I supposed that the flood was quite simple as every year,” said Chann Meth, 42, a farmer in Prey Tom village.
She said that she lost one brother and 100 kilogram of rice. Her children had to move to stay with neighbors until the flood had gone.
“My family did not have enough food to eat,” said Chann with her pale face.
Kampot experienced flood every year; especially the three main disaster records—1999, 2006 and 2009. In a report by Reuters, the 2009 flood end the result of two people to death. The same flood also affected 5,000 families and damaged 350 hectares of crops.
The flood condition was not simply related to the water level of the Mekong River. Much of the water contributed to the floods came in a form of heavy raining, actually from surrounded mountains, according to the Phnom Penh Post.
Chann Meth still remembers well about how her brother, Hem Prak Yat, died, but she could do nothing to help him besides expressing her sadness over the death.
Consequently, Chann and some villagers blame that the cause of the death is the result of limited awareness on pre –flood preparation and disaster management. Ignorance is the first issue and the lack of alert from the authority is another concern.
“There has no training about flood preparation conducted by NGOs and government before. And I also have never received any information before flood, but only two to three days after the heavy rain,” said Chann Meth.
Attention to the weather forecast
The villagers reached limited information about flood management. The weather forecast is the only available source, but the attention to it is out of their interest.
Chheun Sok Keo, a farmer in the same village explains that for the educated people, they find news interesting and worthy. To her, this kind of news such weather forecast is totally out of her interest because she cannot understand it. “I felt I don’t care about it,” she said.
“I’ve never watched the weather forecast. I turn off the television or change to another channel immediately after I saw this program,” said Chheun by adding that the high cost of electricity also discourages her to watch this program.
She claims that with the electricity price of 2000 riel per kilowatt, she prefers watching movies or other entertainment programs rather than weather forecast. Besides weather forecast she says there is no any news about flood management.
Most of the information about flood, storm and weather changes reached her by words of mouth from one person to another. Similar to other villagers, she said that there was no any source of news about flood that could be an alert. “The village chief didn’t even know about that too,” she believed.
To Heng Phethra, a teacher at Chakrya Vong secondary school who also lost hundreds kilos of rice and jars of palm sugar, weather forecast is very important. He said it can compare to the tip that allows us to foresee the disaster and be able to be well-prepared for future flood.
Though he says so, he addresses that the weather forecast is not a hundred percent correct and he needs more information from the authority and NGOs regarding the flood management. “I am applauded if there’s such training,” said Heng Phethra.
In response to the action of flood management, Pal Sarith, 60, Prey Tom village chief claims that during the flood, the village cooperated with the nearby pagodas beat the pagoda’s drum as a sign to tell the villagers about the arrival of flood and called to the sub-village chiefs in order to spread the information to the villagers they were closely in charge of.
As a result he said that a crippled couple in the village was successfully recued in the 2009 flood. The village chief, though, admitted that these actions were done during the flood.
He added that not many of households who own television or radio set concentrate on the weather forecast as they believe that the news is not worth for them.
School: Insert flood preparation into the course
Another way to increase the flood awareness and management is by including the awareness of disaster risk reduction to children at school. Since the province experienced flood every year, the lesson about flood protection plays a crucial role for the attentiveness of children.
As an example, Sovy Visal, 9, niece of another dead by flood, told that she knows clearly about her responsibility before and during the flood.
“In the pre-flood, I help my parents by reserving some grass for cows, move dishes to my grand parents’ house where the ground is higher than my house,” she said.
She continued that, “When my village is flooded, I know that I won’t go anywhere besides staying at home looking after and playing with my siblings in order not to let my parents worried about me.”
Besides knowing her own task, Visal also tells her friends to do like her.
According to Sun Cheng, the director of Wat Prey Tom primary school, “there is no course about flood management. But, students gain the knowledge of flood awareness from teachers who tell them in class.”
He added, “As we know that children like playing with water which brings them to risk, this extra knowledge can be seen as an effective way since students have never experienced drowning or affecting by flood.”
Though local people are at risk of flood damage, the recalling for flood awareness from authority and NGOs affiliated is very important.
The victim family and Heng Phethra shares the same answer that through the experiences of losing, they said they need to be ready before the flood next year concerning the food security, the properties and proper places for animals.
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