Seasonal floods are a blessing in rural Cambodia. The rich silt, fish, and water they provide have sustained life here for millennium. There’s a rhythm, a consistency, to these life nurturing flood waters.

This week Cambodia, especially the capital of Phnom Penh, experienced a different kind of flooding that is becoming more and more common here. This flooding is destructive, comes at unexpected times, and hits areas that traditionally were not floodplains. The course of the Mekong river and it’s tributaries have been changing. There’s always been a risk of destructive flooding but, as the risks increase due to climate change and mass damming upstream, the forests, sandbanks, and marshlands that offered protection from this are disappearing.

We only have one staff, Visal, who lives in an area that was hit by this week’s flooded. He moved into a new development to the south of Phnom Penh after getting married in December. These concrete all-in-one villages are being advertised constantly here. They include rows of buildings for shops and homes, a market, and a wall/gate for nighttime security. Some of his belongings were ruined but fortunately he was able to get most things elevated before the waters reached them.

Our Finance Staff’s brother was not so fortunate. He also lives to the south of Phnom Penh in one of the new all-in-one developments but his area was hit much worse by the flooding. He and his family were given evacuation orders in the middle of the night and were not able to prepare for the flood. This morning a group of us from MCC joined his family in trudging out into the flood zone and helping to move things to higher ground. We also helped out at a few other houses. The finale was attaching empty gas containers to his car and then pulling it several kilometers to dry land. It was an experience.

We’re currently networking with our partners on a formal disaster response. In our emergency preparedness plan, we have an outline for a flood response but it’s focused on traditional flood zones in rural areas. So we’re talking with partners who work with the urban poor and looking at ways we can support their efforts.

There’s a rumor that Laos is going to release waters from two more megadams on the Mekong later this week and the rain is still coming down… So this is an ongoing situation and we’ll keep you updated.

Edit: Some more photos of us ended up on social media and the news.