Cambodia: fighting extreme weather

Reducing vulnerability to drought: Cambodian community members work together to improve the water supply to their village [Development Partnership in Action]

Some communities in Cambodia have been hit by drought, floods and typhoons in the past three years - all evidence of climate disruption which is harming health, crops and livestock.

CAFOD’s partner organisation, Development Partnership in Action (DPA), is working with communities to cope with the impact of this extreme weather.

Mr Vanna is a volunteer vet with DPA in Chum Kiri, in southern Cambodia.

“Our community is really concerned about increasing frequency of drought,” he says.

“If drought happens every year, it will continue to cause infectious diseases in our community and also in our livestock. And we depend on our livestock for income generation and to help us with our labour.”

Water everywhere - or nowhere

DPA works with poor communities in the north-east and the south of Cambodia. Drought has hit some districts, floods and typhoons have hit others, while some districts - like Chum Kiri - have had to deal with all three types of disaster.

This extreme weather has resulted in:

• death and injury to people and livestock
• damage to crops
• the spread of communicable and waterborne diseases
• reduced access to potable water supplies
• related health problems like dehydration and diarrhoea.

Ecological disruption is having a drastic impact on agriculture and incomes. Pests have increased in prevalence, and crops have failed because they cannot survive the harsh climatic conditions.

Washing away progress

Kim Rattana of Caritas Cambodia says: "One of the biggest challenges we are facing in our development work is the increasing occurrence of natural disaster.

"What we have achieved over many years is being destroyed by storms and washed away by floods."

Climate variability has also brought health risks for some of Cambodia's most vulnerable communities.

Both sudden disasters and longer term ecological disruption increase migration. Individuals who have been separated from their families and communities are at greater risk of contracting HIV-AIDS.

In turn, people living with HIV-AIDS are more vulnerable to other illnesses associated with increasing climate variability, such as malaria, dengue fever, dysentery and cholera.

Mam Sambath of DPA says: "Villagers, particularly in the dry season, are being forced to migrate outside the village to find jobs, and many have returned having contracted HIV-AIDS. This is a real problem in the communities which we are working in."

Changes afoot

Doung Som at the community rice bank - a vital means of survival when the rice harvest fails [Development Partnership in Action]

DPA has been helping communities cope with these impacts on their health and livelihoods. It assists communities to adapt their agricultural practices to changing climatic conditions, for example by introducing more resilient strains of rice.

DPA is also encouraging communities to develop disaster preparedness and disaster response plans to reduce their vulnerability to sudden disasters.

It has also introduced mobile health clinics for remote communities, along with services to treat those with HIV-AIDS and prevent it from spreading.

Community rice banks have also provided a lifeline.

Doung Som lives in Chum Kiri. She says: "Paddy rice cultivation in our village is mainly dependent on rainfall. Increasingly we have been experiencing drought and low rice yields. We no longer are producing enough rice to eat for the full year."

Without the rice banks, villagers would be forced into the arms of private money lenders who charge high interest rates - around 30 per cent a month.

Doung Som adds: "We are relying on initiatives such as the community rice bank for our survival."