There has been bad flooding in Cambodia this rainy season which a couple of weeks ago resulted in a Dam near my home being breached to stop the reservoir bursting its banks.
A Khmer blog said that the villagers that had lost their homes had said that "the authority told them that their houses are deliberately flooded because the land in this area has already given as a concession to the company and they company tried to evict them along time ago but the people refused to leave. Now they deliberately flooded their houses in order to evict them from the land."
My friend went last week with a group of people to hand out tarpaulins & rice to the displaced villagers & help make temporary shelters for them. This weekend my assistant wanted to go to see the lake - it felt a little like disaster tourism but as we had lunch at an exorbitant price at least we gave back a little to the local economy. I have never visited the lake before - it is a 1 hour moto journey from my house - therefore I have nothing previous to compare what I saw to but suffice to say you don't need to have visited a place before to recognise devastation.
A Khmer blog said that the villagers that had lost their homes had said that "the authority told them that their houses are deliberately flooded because the land in this area has already given as a concession to the company and they company tried to evict them along time ago but the people refused to leave. Now they deliberately flooded their houses in order to evict them from the land."
My friend went last week with a group of people to hand out tarpaulins & rice to the displaced villagers & help make temporary shelters for them. This weekend my assistant wanted to go to see the lake - it felt a little like disaster tourism but as we had lunch at an exorbitant price at least we gave back a little to the local economy. I have never visited the lake before - it is a 1 hour moto journey from my house - therefore I have nothing previous to compare what I saw to but suffice to say you don't need to have visited a place before to recognise devastation.
 |
| Flooding all the way to the road we travel on once a month to the border hospital |
 |
| Deep enough to necessitate the white 4 x 4 car we go in. |
 |
| The lake still beautiful despite a UK-like grey overcast day & no longer threatening to burst its banks |
 |
| The path the breached water flow took through a village taking with it over 50 dwellings |
 |
| Life after the flood |
 |
| The expensive lake monster we had for lunch - looking at the teeth on it we didn't really fancy a post prandial swim |
No comments:
Post a Comment