Catastrophic flooding from heavy rainfall has caused widespread devastation across Cambodia. Heavy rains have overfilled dams, causing flash floods, inundating roads and destroying buildings.National and local authorities, as well as aid agencies including Caritas, are providing immediate relief assistance to affected families who have been evacuated to safe areas.Over half a million people have been affected by the floods, with huge swathes of the country underwater. A total of 160,000 households have been affected by flooding that has hit 16 of the country’s 24 provinces (including the capital, Phnom Penh).Caritas Cambodia has provided emergency kits, including 25kg of rice as well as sanitary pads, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and water containers to about 4,000 families in Kompong Cham, Kratie, Ratanakkiri, Banteay Meanchey and Battambang provinces.Caritas Cambodia Executive Director, Kim Rattana said many areas are impassable and thousands of families await further assistance. where thousands of families await assistance. The affected families especially those who were evacuated to safety places have faced problem with food, safe drinking water and sanitary facilities.Water, sanitation products and health care are needed in most areas,” Kim said.Caritas’ humanitarian assistance will help in the immediate and longer term development of 7000 affected families. It will include:    Immediate relief packages (25kg of rice and 10 canned fish per family for 7,000 families)    Temporary shelter (2,200 mobile shelters and 1,000 tents)    Water and sanitation (water containers, soap and hygiene materials)    Health referrals and mobile health posts    Rice and vegetable seeds (20kg per hectare per family) Majority of the affected families are poor farmers who depending on rice farming as the main sources of livelihoods. They cultivated small plots to grow rice, do small scale fishing and forest gathering. Many are also land poor and rely on daily wage labour and now they have completely lost their livelihoods.

For more information please contact Patrick Nicholson on +39 06 6987 9725 or by e-mail at nicholson@caritas.va.