For many areas of the world, flooding is a normal and often necessary part of life. Floodwaters create conditions for fish to spawn and bring in silt that naturally fertilizes farmland. Unfortunately, due to climate change, once predictable weather patterns have become erratic and unpredictable, putting communities that already live hand to mouth in an even more unstable situation. Cambodia is one of these countries that have borne the brunt of climate change. In fact, it has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries in Asia due to its low adaptive capacity and limited resources to address the issue. Last summer, I traveled there on my honeymoon and witnessed firsthand what life was like.Here are a few stats on Cambodia:
• One in three people live on less than a dollar a day.
• Eighty percent of the population makes a living in the agricultural sector.
• Thirty years of civil war left an estimated two million people dead out of a population of seven million.
• Cambodia only contains 0.2% of the world’s population
On the trip we visited a variety of ancient, awe-inspiring temples, but my favorite part of the trip was when we visited a rural town that sees few tourists pass through. After the hardships of war, extreme poverty and natural disasters, it’s a wonder the Cambodians have anything to smile about. But smile they do and in Kompong Khleang near Tonle Sap Lake the smiles, waves and giggles are abundant. The town primarily relies on fishing and related activities for its income and nutritional needs. Fish provide up to 80 percent of all animal protein in the diet. The homes here are rudimentary at best, mostly made from forest materials, scrap lumber and corrugated metal. The one-room, open-air nature of the homes assures both lack of privacy and vulnerability to the elements.At the end of each rainy season the water flow in Tonle Sap changes direction and instead of flowing from the Mekong river into the lake, it begins to flow outward again into the Mekong. This change of direction of the water signals the start of the fish migration and work and food are plentiful. Because of the change in water levels the houses in KK are built on precarious-looking stilts to allow for the 8-9 meter rise in the water level during the rainy season. This causes the villages around the lake to be nicknamed “floating villages” because of the illusion created when the water rises. On channels that run from the town to the lake, there are actual floating houses that ride the ebs and flows of the water each season.
To cope with changing water levels, the community created floating vegetable gardens and even floating livestock pens. Still more adaptation and clean technology is desperately needed. Climate change has increased and worsened flooding, and villages aren’t able to recover from one flood before the next one rolls in to wipe out homes and crops that were just rebuilt. Where climate change increases rainfall in the wet season, it also decreases rainfall in the dry season. This means a country like Cambodia experiences extreme flooding and extreme drought within a very short amount of time. Additionally, increased temperatures and rainfall provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying diseases like malaria and dengue fever.Only one fifth of once percent of the world’s population resides in Cambodia. This small population and those of similar developing countries have contributed the least to climate change. Yet they are the ones bearing the brunt of its effects. In the developed world it is our responsibility to reduce emissions and invest in adaptation solutions and clean technology to help vulnerable communities around the world cope. Ancient Cambodian villages like Kompong Khleang have weathered the seasons for thousands of years. However, global climate change has threatened these people, their way of life and ecosystem in ways that may be irreparable if the developed world fails to make a commitment to our planet and the people we share it with.
