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Flood Victims Pour Into Phnom Penh
Authorities struggled Thursday to cope with an influx of villagers flocking to the capital after their homes and crops were wiped out by recent flooding that has left at least 35 people dead.
The government says more than 135,000 people are homeless after heavy rains flooded southeastern provinces in the past two weeks.
Up to 100 people from Prey Veng province arrived Thursday in hopes of getting food. They said they came to the capital after seeing King Norodom Sihanouk on television providing aid to flood victims.
Some 500 more people from southeastern Cambodia took refuge in a Buddhist temple in the capital, Wat Svay Popae, after being ejected Wednesday from a prominent corner park between the National Assembly and the Royal Palace.
On Thursday, police used bullhorns to ask the villagers at the temple to return to their homes, and told some that they would be forcibly removed.
About 100 villagers packed into five vans empty-handed for the ride back to their homes in Kandal and Prey Veng provinces. The remaining stayed back in the pagoda, saying they were too poor and too hungry to return home, and would wait for help.
More than 40 policemen backed by wagons and two fire trucks stood guard outside the Royal Palace and prevented the destitute farmers from congregating at the corner park, which has been a favorite gathering place in recent years for the downtrodden.
The United Nations estimates that more than 35 percent of Cambodia's 11 million people live in poverty, making it one of the poorest countries in the world. The poor, who live on less than $1 a day, barely eke out a living and natural disasters can devastate their precarious existence.
Cambodia was hit last year by its worst flooding in 70 years as 347 people died, and $161 million worth of damage was done.
The government estimates damages caused by this month's flooding at $16.5 million, a total expected to rise as waters recede.
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