Tens of thousands of families across the country have been hit by flooding, spurring the prime minister to ask for leniency from microfinance institutions and to set out on a visit around the Tonle Sap lake.
According to the National Committee for Disaster Management, Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces have been worst-hit by the flooding, affecting 25,000 and 18,600 households, respectively. Tens of thousands of hectares of rice fields have been inundated, it said in a report dated Wednesday.
Khat Sophal, Pursat province’s secretary for disaster management, said more than 10,000 families had also been impacted in his province, especially in the districts of Bakan and Kandieng as well as Pursat city.
But floodwaters were subsiding, and the flooding was not as bad as two years ago, he said.
“This year does not have as serious an impact as 2020, but it has rained many times so our streams have flooded four times,” Sophal said.
The Humanitarian Response Forum’s compilation of provincial disaster management statistics paint a similar picture, with the area of farms and number of households affected currently around half to one-third of 2020 figures.
Compared to the forum’s latest update from a week ago, the national committee’s statistics show flooding seemingly abating in some areas and worsening in others.
Speaking in Takhmao city on Thursday, Hun Sen said he would visit the flooded provinces around the Tonle Sap lake starting Friday, and focused his speech on criticism that he was electioneering by doing so.
“When the people are facing suffering and difficulties — does the prime minister have to sleep at home and do nothing and watch the people [suffer] because he is afraid of being accused of conducting an election campaign? This is impossible,” he said. “Do not allow such language to happen.”
He would not ask people which party they supported before helping them, he said. “So you must be grateful to me because among the people that I distribute [aid] to, there will be people who vote for other people. So you have to thank me.”
Earlier this week, Hun Sen called on microfinance institutions to provide leniency to people struggling to repay their loans due to flooding. On Wednesday, the Cambodia Microfinance Association said it would consider avoiding foreclosure of customers, and potentially provide relief on interest and fees depending on circumstances.
Hun Sen said on Thursday that microlenders had supported his call. “There is no confiscation for people who have been impacted,” he said.
