APAD 146: Rainy season
Folks, the rainy season has officially started.
The roads in most rural areas in Cambodia are now, more or less, like this:
This photo was taken years ago when I was on a fieldwork in Kamchai Mear district in Prey Veng. The soil has turned into a red, sticky, slippery matter that was ankle-high. In some areas, there were lots of potholes filled with water. When this dried up, they were as hard as cement. I kid you not. I can show you my shoes, if you insist, lol.
I pity the guy as he maneuvered his moto through this sticky mess. A little further down the road, it was even worse that our 4WD got stuck for an hour. It took about a dozen village folks to extricate our vehicle from the mud. Imagine the schoolchildren who walks to school everyday. The villagers we interviewed wished for better road conditions.
Several years after that fieldtrip, this wish was somehow granted. A former colleague told me that almost all of the roads to Kamchai Mear are now better, wider and cemented. Thanks to international funding, life is now easier in this rural area. Good news indeed.
APAD 175: Hard life
In my previous posts, I posted a photo showing the flooded ricefield in one Cambodian province. Apparently, there are areas where the water has subsided a bit. But look at what the rains did to the only only road that links this village to the next.
While the rainy season provides the much-need water for irrigation of crops and domestic consumption, too much of rain also is a bane to farmers, drowning their crops and other sources of livelihood. Such is the life of farmers and villagers in rural areas. While I’m writing this, the sky is getting darker and I can see the rain clouds hovering. Looks like it is going to be a wet, wet afternoon again.
This is my entry to this week’s Our World Tuesday. Click on the logo for more pictures of our world.
APAD 172: Flooded ricefields in the Cambodian countryside
Due to heavy monsoon rains in the countryside, most ricefields have already been flooded and damaged, like the one below. Dotting the flooded area are sugar palm trees.
The ricefield looks beautiful, isn’t it?
To many unknowing foreigners, this is a very exotic, postcard-pretty sight.
But – and a big BUT – rice plants that are submerged in water for more than two days will die. And if this happens to the rice crop of the many affected farmers around the country it is going to be a huge disaster! I couldn’t help but imagine how many families will experience food shortage and, possibly, starvation.
Please do give something. Contact the Cambodian Red Cross or any non-government organisations, both local and international, to inquire how you can help.
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