As of Tuesday, residents in 38 communes were affected, according to the committee. Two health centers and 26 schools were also flooded, while 25,223 hectares of rice was inundated, it said.
Road repairs following recent nationwide flooding will cost $91 million, the Rural Development Ministry estimated this week, as farmers say they are struggling with rising costs due to broken transport links.
While recent floodwaters are receding, farmers who spoke with VOD say they are weighed down by heavy debt and years of failed crops, and see fear and hopelessness ahead of them.
Residents in Phnom Penh’s flooded Dangkao district say they are running out of options as food prices rise and bills arrive, but the incomes of thousands in the community have been disrupted after floodwaters halted production at the neighborhood’s main employer.
About 16,000 factory workers are currently unable to go to work due to flooding in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kandal and Takeo, the Labor Ministry said on Wednesday, with an economist warning of a hit to the economy and rising prices due to the recent extreme weather.
More than 1,400 female and juvenile prisoners have been evacuated from Prey Sar Prison’s Correctional Center 2 and squeezed into Phnom Penh’s other overcrowded prisons amid flooding over the past two weeks, officials said on Tuesday.
Banteay Meanchey province has recorded at least 14 deaths out of the country’s 25 total flood fatalities, with authorities blaming an upstream dam in Thailand for the extra damage.
Heavy rain warnings remain in place after more than a week of flooding, leaving rice farmers increasingly anxious about their harvests — the longer their fields are flooded, the more likely their crops will be lost.
With more heavy rainfall expected this weekend and ongoing flooding that has killed at least 21 people this month, Prime Minister Hun Sen cast doubt that the in-filling of capital lakes had contributed to severe flooding in Phnom Penh.
As the country continues to be inundated by heavy rain and flooding, a man grapples with the death of his wife, which has not been counted among the 12 official deaths from the past week’s storms.
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