International Conference on Mainstreaming Human Security:
The Asian Contribution
Bangkok, Chulalongkorn, 4-5 Oct 2007
FLOODS ARE GOOD
BUT THEIR IRREGULARITY LEADS
TO CHANGING RURAL LIVELIHOOD SYSTEMS
By Suon Seng, CEDAC-R&D Director
suonseng@online.com.kh
ABSTRACT
Cambodia is a south-east Asian country characterized by monsoons which form two seasons: the rainy
season and the dry season. Topographically, Cambodia has a higher altitude around its borders and
lower flood plains in the central parts of the country. This leads to flooding experiences every year.
Based on this natural and favorable condition, Cambodian people have used this situation to their
advantage; the riches of rivers and their tributaries as a means for improving their livelihoods:
transportation, farming and fishing activities.
Rice-based farming systems of Cambodia are strongly related to the flood regime: deep water rice
(floating rice included), rain fed lowland rice, recession rice, upland rice...etc. Since the pressure of
human demand for economic growth and well-being emerged, forests were exploited, roads were
constructed, irrigation schemes were built, and natural water bodies were fulfilled in order to gain land
for construction to expand the urban areas. These developments have caused an irregularity of the flood
regime. Irregularity of floods continues to cause a negative impact on the people in the flood-based
livelihood system mainly as floods are coming at the wrong time and in the wrong scale. Irregular
flooding has led to loss of livestock and crop harvests as well as the loss of some lives of community
people. In Particular, deep water rice and rain fed lowland rice are mainly affected from the irregularity
of the flood regime. To survive this irregularity, better-off farmers have invested in irrigation tools or in
the building of irrigation schemes, in addition to changing their farming practices to irrigated
agriculture. However, poor and poorest farmers are not able to afford investing in such systems. They
have had to self-forcefully sell their land and migrate to cities and urban areas for off-farm jobs or for
serving as farm workers in the community.
All in all, flood disasters in Cambodia have not only caused a loss of lives and livelihood assets, it has
also caused landlessness, changed farming systems, livelihood systems and increased rural poverty. To
prevent or reduce the risks from flood disasters, there is a need for multi-level societal involvement:
from regional to local and improved coordination of effective actions.
,
Cambodia geographical settings and flood regime
Geographically, Cambodia shares a border with Thailand to its north and west, with Viet
Nam to its east and southeast, with Laos to its northeast, and the Gulf of Thailand to its
south. Cambodia is covered by a surface of 181,035 Km². The country experiences
tropical monsoons which form 2 seasons (the rainy season and the dry season) with a
temperature ranging from 10oC to 38 oC (on average 28 oC). The rainy season starts from
May to October and the dry season starts from November to April. Rainfalls are recorded
at approximately 1,200 mm in the central area, 1,800 mm in the plateau area and about
3,500 mm to 4,000 mm in the mountain and costal areas.
Land topography and river systems in Cambodia
Topographically,
the
central
part
of
Cambodia
is
a
floodplain with rivers,
and its tributaries at the
borders are in the
mountains and plateau
areas (Altitude: less
than 100m in central
floodplains, about 400500m in plateau areas,
and 800 to 1,000m in
mountain
areas).
Flooding in Cambodia
depends on the country
rainfall flowing down
the central areas and
water from the Mekong
flood regime which has resulted from the melting of snow from mountains in China.
Observed hydrograph (MOWRAM: 2000-2004)
At hydrological station of Neak Luong on Mekong River (Weekly update)
Map of Flood Priority Index
Demographical setting and flood based livelihood systems
Historically, and due to the limited development of road infrastructure, rivers and its
tributaries have played a very important role in the facilitation of people’s movement and
in the transportation of goods. It has attracted people to make their living and
accommodation along the rivers and their tributaries.
Distribution and concentration of population
By taking advantage of rivers and floods, most populations have been accommodated in
the easy access condition of rivers, and are able to make their living depending on floodbased activities: rice and non-rice crop cultivation, fishing raising and fishing. Up to date,
Cambodia has determined itself as an agricultural country in which 75 percent of the rural
population is paddy-based farmers (NIS, 2004). Paddy cultivated land is about 2.2
million hectares (80%) of total cultivated land. Agricultural sector employs about 74%
percent of Cambodia’s workers, and accounts for about 33 percent of the economy. The
agricultural sector grew at about 2.5 percent per annum over the last five years. Not only
in terms of the cultivated surface and labour force involvement in this sector, rice is also
the staple food of the Cambodian diet. Rice consumption has been estimated at
approximately 151 Kg / person / year.
Production of Agricultural Sectors (% increase)
However, rice production is most
strongly related to the flood
regime both in terms of time,
manner of flood arrival, and the
level of the floods. Two rice-based
farming systems are very sensitive
to the irregularity of floods: deep
water rice (floating rice is
included) and rain fed lowland
rice.
Land coverage in Cambodia
When floods are small, arrive too late or too early, compared to its regularity, low
productivity of deep water rice and recession rice will be affected. This will also lead to a
low rice harvest in the country. On the contrary, while floods are too large, low rice
productivity is affected as well. In addition to this, floods do not only affect the deep
water rice and recession rice, they also affect seasonal rice. Technically, seasonal rice
varieties are not able to withstand being under water for periods longer than one week.
Paddy production and rice food balance in Cambodia
Irregularity of floods and its impact on livelihood systems
Historically, people living in the traditional flood areas are worried about the irregularity
of floods, as this will affect their agricultural production. Currently, they also worry about
losing lives and livelihood assets as they have experienced extraordinarily large floods.
The traditional preparedness methods used previously cannot control these large floods
which cause a loss of human lives and livelihood assets. In particular, floods increase
very rapidly. People are not able to displace their cattle on time. The study of Kimsan et
al. (2005) found that 30% of respondents in those areas that experienced irregular floods,
lost their crop harvest and also their poultry, while 10% have lost cattle during the large
flood of 2000/01
Since 1996/07 to 2000/01, Cambodia has experienced large and long droughts. Changing
weather patterns have strongly affected the seasonal rice harvest and deep water rice
harvest. People in the flooded areas have lost their traditional deep water rice varieties.
Thus, they have had to self-forcefully change their rice farming practices; from deep
water, to recession rice by the adoption of short term rice varieties (IR Rice Varieties)
(Seng, 1997 and Seng et al., 2000). Poor and poorest farmer families cannot adopt the
new system of rice cultivation due to the high investment demand, mainly irrigation
facilities and chemical fertilizers (Pel Sokha et al., 2007). Poor and poorest farmer
families have faced land sales due to the pressure of agricultural investment of well-off
farmers from the urban center (Seng et al., 2006).
By taking into account the indirect impact of floods, since the adoption of recession rice,
the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has increased and leads to the loss of aquatic
resources, and a land loss among poor and poorest households (CEDAC, 2004 and Pel
Sokha et al., 2007). CEDAC’s large scale evaluation study of approximately 2,300 farmer
families found that the harvesting of natural fish has strongly decreased (CEDAC, 2007).
Causes and effects illustration on the irregularity of flood in Cambodia
Man-made factors
Lack of, or poor
coordination among
Mekong countries
Changing
farming systems
and livelihood
systems
Deforestation:
Mountains and
flooded areas
Poorly planned
construction of
dams and roads
Irregularity of
floods: Coming at
the wrong time
and wrong scale
Fulfilling of
natural water
bodies
Poor and poorest
farmers: Selling
land and migrating
Loss of human
lives, animals,
households assets
Causes leading to the irregularity of floods
There are man-made and natural made factors which cause the irregularity of floods. Man
made factors identified include the following:
-
Deforestation: As Cambodia is topographically higher at the borders, and lower at
the floodplains in the central part of the country, deforestation at the border areas,
leads to the increasing speed of water flowing downward to the central areas due to a
loss of forest coverage. Implicitly, it also causes shallow water bodies. This leads to
the area’s lower capacity to absorb water during the flooding season. In the last two
decades, forest coverage has decreased from about 73% to 60% of the country (FAO,
1999).
-
Road construction and irrigation infrastructure: Due to limited knowledge on the
recording of floods, roads were constructed to block the water flow and create
flooding in the upstream area. Poor assessment of the affected areas from the
irrigation scheme has also caused the flood disaster (IFAD, 2002).
-
Fulfilling natural water bodies for construction purposes: Flood in the urban areas
and peri-urban areas caused by the fulfilling of natural water bodies for construction
purposes. This can be due to the lack of urban planning, or poorly coordinated
planning. But it can also be due to poor enforcement and private interests.
-
Lack of, or poor coordination among the Mekong countries: There are several
cases of Cambodian experiences with flooding from the hydro-power of upstream
countries. For example, Yalli Dam in Viet Nam which caused the loss of assets, and
also, in the lives of rural people in Ratanak Kiri province, Cambodia. This is due to
the lack of, or poor coordination of the Mekong countries (CEDAC/NGO-Forum,
2000).
So, what we are we going to do now about disasters and threats? Surely, to prevent and
reduce threats from man-made flood disasters, there is a need for multi-level
involvement: from regional to national and local levels, and from improved coordination
towards effective action. An in-depth understanding about the impact, resolution and
preparedness methods is now required.
List of references
CEDAC (2004) Pesticide use and consequence in Cambodia, CEDAC.
CEDAC/NGO-Forum (2000) Environment Magazine, Issue No: 01, 2000, CEDAC/NGOForum.
Didier Pillot et al, (2000) Scenarios for the rural sector of Cambodia and the agricultural
education system, GRET/IRAM/CEDAC
Didier Pillot, (2005) Rizières et chamcars du Cambodge- les enjeux du développement agricole
FAO, (1999) FAO-Nutrition country profile, Cambodia
IFAD, (2002)
Participatory Rural Livelihood Study in Prey Veng and Svay Rieng
Kea Kimsan et al. (2005) Assessment of Local Authorities and Communities Practices and
Information Needs to Face Disaster: Case study of Prey Veng Province, Cambodia,
CEDC/GRET.
NIS, (2004) First Revision, Population Projections for Cambodia 1998-2020, National Institute of
Statistic, MoP.
Pel Sokha et al. (2007) Study on Land Transaction in Cambodia: Case study from four provinces
of Cambodia, CEDAC/GRET.
Suon Seng (1997)
Evolution of Rice-Based Farming System in Kampong Trabek district, Prey Veng province,
Cambodia, GRET.
Suon Seng et al. (2002 Conservation of traditional varieties of depth water rice and associated
bio-diversity, CEDAC.
Suon Seng (2005) Opportunities and constraints to the development of quality rice in Sihanouk
Ville, Cambodia, CNEARC/CEDAC/GRET.
Suon Seng et al. (2006) Agricultural dynamics in areas under urban influence: Consumers’
demand and sector dynamics in Kampong Thom province, CEDAC.