#03 - When It Rains
Floods: Result of Poor Planning or Merely Natural Disaster?
Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia.
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In this issue: Severe rural and urban flooding, opposition arrests, Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement and more.
Photo by Daniel Hansen on Unsplash
We kick off this issue with the topic of water. Cambodia is in the middle of heavy rains, which means flooding is inevitable. Now, my country is no stranger to floods. My earliest memory of a flood was the one in the year of 2000. I remembered seeing a massive stretch of water – as far as the eyes could see – along National Road 1. However, flooding seems to have become worse recently due to climate change and deforestation.
As of 27 October, flooding has claimed 44 lives and misplaced thousands across the country, according to the Cambodian National Committee for Disaster Management. It has affected 20 provinces and some parts of Phnom Penh. Matt Surrusco and Nhim Sokhorn of VOD reports that while the PM downplayed the flooding, including that in Phnom Penh, as part of natural phenomenon, experts see this as consequence of the country’s disappearing lakes and forested land. Forested land, which Cambodia has lost significantly due to unplanned land use and illegal logging, acts as a natural defence against flooding and rising rivers. Regarding lake filling, I slightly touched on the topic in the previous issue. Simply put, the break-neck speed of the city’s poorly-planned development has caused the government to fill in a big chunk of Phnom Penh’s wetlands. Gerald Flynn and Phoung Vantha of Cambodianess did an excellent report looking at how the disappearance of wetlands can put the city at risk of flooding. On a similar note, Shaun Turton and Mech Dara did a piece for Nikkei Asia on the current flooding being an amplifier of the adverse impact caused by the filling of the city’s wetlands. Future Forum’s junior research fellow, Horn Chanvoitey also wrote an opinion piece for Southeast Asia Globe looking at the impact of flooding on Phnom Penh’s urban poor.
Adding salt to Cambodia’s flooding injury is a prospect that Tonle Sap might stop changing course. Abby Seiff’s report for Vice observes how droughts and dam construction contribute to obstruction of the phenomenon. Why does it matter? Tonle Sap’s reversing course has served as a major contributor in bringing in an abundance of fish, which is the country’s main source of food for thousands of years. Without the river changing direction, the entire ecosystem will be disrupted leading to a reduced amount of fish.
It is disheartening because growing up, I remember having fish most of the time as part of our diet. To give you context, this is during the 90s. I often jokingly reflect that back then in my household, fish was the staple because it was cheap. Meat was expensive. Beef was a delicacy in my house which we had once every few months. Things have changed. Fish is now more expensive than meat and I wonder how we got here. Losing fish, to me, is more than just losing our source of food but also a sense of identity.
While news on flooding dominates local reporting, the government’s quest for suppressing opposition quietly continues. Using the controversial lese majeste law, two opposition officials, Kong Bunheang and Hang Seng, were arrested for insulting the King, reports Mech Dara for VOD.
Wait, there’s more…
Cambojanews reports three more CNRP supporters were arrested while trying to gather people to submit a petition calling for the government to respect the Paris Peace Agreement. This happened during a peaceful protest to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Agreement. The protest was met with heavy police presence and blockade which led to police violence, reports VOD.
On the topic of bilateral relations, Cambodia and China recently signed the first Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) which will be fully implemented by 2021, reports Cambojanews’ Khy Sovuthy. The CCFTA will allow Cambodia wider access to the Chinese market both for goods and investment. It’s worth noting that the total trade volume between the two countries has reached $3.8 billion in the first half of 2020. In addition to the trade agreement, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged $140 million aid to Cambodia. The amount is coincidently close to the $150 million the US recently pledged to mainland Southeast Asia as part of its new Mekong-US Partnership, as David Hutt points out in his report for Asia Times.
Hutt analyses how Cambodia is biting both ends of the stick while the US is trying to rebalance China’s influence. In the short run, this looks like a win-win for Cambodia but considering how close Cambodia is to China, the result of the US’s effort is in question.
Arts & Culture
I’m a big advocate for different representation of Cambodia beyond temple and trauma. So, I have to share this with you. Cultural Institute - Swansea University and Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) are hosting a free online event titled, “It's not all Pol Pot!: Cambodian arts in the 21st century” as part of BEING HUMAN Festival. The event includes a screening of Cambodian contemporary dance performance followed by a Q&A with participating artists.
I get very excited when I come across young creative Cambodians and their platforms. I love how they, despite a rather depressing political backdrop, push on and continue to create, and be hopeful. Plasma Podcast is a weekly Khmer podcast by young Cambodian artists discussing everything design by Plasma Studio.
Have you ever heard of Cambodian mouth harp known as Angkuoch? British Museum’s project Endangered Material Knowledge Programme recently published a video documentary on Angkuoch researched by ethnomusicologist Dr. Catherine Grant.
Tweets We Live For
Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin from Word & Visual.
I’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or content ideas, please reach out via tey@wordandvisualmedia.com
Special thanks to Maryam Jillani for being my editor.