Jolie unveils new film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap

King Norodom Sihamoni gives flowers to Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie at the premiere of Jolie’s new film First They Killed My Father on Saturday in Siem Reap. STR/AFP

After the ministers, dignitaries and survivors of the Khmer Rouge had filed in Saturday evening, and Angelina Jolie had greeted the arrival of King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, the lights in the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom finally dimmed for the world premiere of First They Killed My Father.

For a brief moment, the rustling of insects was the only sound before the audience of more than 1,000 was transported back to April 12, 1975.

An adaptation of Loung Ung’s autobiographical book recounting her and her family’s suffering under the Khmer Rouge, the Jolie-directed film depicts in vivid detail the forced evacuations from Phnom Penh, the journey to the brutal labour camps in the country’s northwest, and, for Ung, the conscription of children as soldiers into the ranks of the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea. Ung, who is portrayed in a highly emotional performance by child actress Sareum Srey Moch, was five years old when her family was ordered out of the capital.

For some fellow survivors in attendance at the world premiere, the depiction on the big screen was a harrowing trip back to the country’s darkest chapter.

Say Vorphorn, a 45-year-old doctor in attendance, said that while his experience as a child-survivor of the Khmer Rouge could not be compared to Ung’s, the loss of his own father resonated strongly.

“I was 3 years old during that time, but I didn’t suffer as much because my mother was a cook … [but] I feel this deeply inside my heart because my father was killed during that time,” he said.

Ma Rynet, the star of The Last Reel, who played an extra in a scene in which a captured Khmer Rouge soldier is beaten by angry villagers, said that seeing the final product brought her to tears.

“I hope the world will know Cambodia through this film,” she added.

Shot in the country between November 2015 and February 2016, the movie employed more than 3,500 background actors to recreate scenes showing the population transfers and forced collectivisation of the Khmer Rouge, as well as battle sequences from the eventual Vietnamese invasion that toppled the regime. The film is in Khmer, with occasional French and Vietnamese, and will be released later this year on Netflix.

Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung arrive at a press conference for Jolie’s film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap on Saturday. Eli Lillis

In an interview with The Post, Jolie said that beyond highlighting the potential of Cambodia for filmmakers – foreign and domestic – she hopes the film will in some ways reintroduce the country to international audiences.

“I hope that people will not just look at this film as a history lesson but they will walk away with a new love and respect for the country,” she said. Attending the film with her six children – one of whom is Cambodian – Jolie has pledged to remain involved in supporting the local film industry.

After attending the premiere, Youk Chhang, the executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the movie represented a new approach to portrayals of the trauma of the Pol Pot regime.

“I think that this film, for the first time, would train [a Cambodian audience] to look for a beauty in the darkness,” he said, noting that human scenes, in which Ung shares a cricket to eat with her sister, or is hit by her brother after stealing rice, “really capture the heart”.

Himself a child survivor, Chhang felt that it accurately captures the emotional complexities of a childhood experience of mass atrocity.

“Children don’t use physical resistance, they use emotion. It’s the only form of resistance to fight [with] … I think Angie [Jolie] captured the complexities of the emotion on the camera.”

Jolie, speaking to The Post after the film’s Saturday press conference at the Raffles Hotel, said that rendering a child’s point-of-view on-screen was a central challenge in orchestrating the camera-work with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle.

A difficulty was not just having shots at Ung’s low height but deciding “what she will and will not look at”.

“That point of view grows. At a certain point she cannot look at blood, and when she’s older the POV matures and gets hardened and she starts to witness things she didn’t when she was younger,” she said.

Loung Ung, in an interview on Saturday, said that she hoped the film may break misconceptions about the emotional experience of surviving war and genocide.

“I think people will see that it takes more than anger, [and] it takes more than strength to survive. It takes love, it takes soul and we Cambodians have that in spades,” she said.

Another survivor, Sin Nou Visakha, 65, broke into tears as she spoke to The Post after the screening, calling “the image the same as reality”.

She hoped the film could educate Cambodia’s youth about the horrors of the past.

“I want the young children to watch this, more than old people, because we have been through it and some of them don’t believe that we suffered like that.”

First They Killed My Father will be screening in Phnom Penh at Olympic Stadium on Tuesday, February 21, at 6pm and in Battambang on February 23. It will be available on Netflix later this year.

Mon, 20 February 2017

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon l the Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia in brief: February 21, 2017

© Pha Lina CPP amends Party Law, opening door to dissolving opposition "The triumph of dictatorship": Observers say the swift passage of amendments to the Law on Political Parties severely curtails human rights and could see the ruling party dismantle its chief political rivals. Former CNRP president Sam Rainsy, who resigned from the opposition ahead of the new law, called on the international community to "address the fact that they paid for a democratic system which is now lurching towards a one-party state". READ MORE Plans to excavate in PP dug up A large-scale project to dig and transport soil was recently given the green light by Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong in Por Sen Chey district in contradiction with a longstanding government ban on the practice. In 2005, the government decided to halt soil digging in the capital. READ MORE  Woman delivers baby on bridge Twenty-nine-year-old expectant mother Ny Chamroeun was rushing to the hospital yesterday morning when congestion on the Monivong Bridge slowed her down, forcing her to deliver her baby in the middle of Phnom Penh traffic. Chamroeun felt contractions at about 7am and had hopped onto a motodop to take her to hospital. READ MORE  Cluster model to entice SEZ investors Kerry WorldBridge Logistics SEZ will partner with German experts to make its industrial park more attractive to German manufacturers and other potential tenants. READ MORE Thai firm to energise Poipet industrial park Phnom Penh SEZ inks a deal with a private Thai energy firm to connect its nearly-completed industrial park in Poipet to the grid. READ MORE Most popular story from yesterday  © STR/AFP Jolie unveils new film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap After the ministers, dignitaries and survivors of the Khmer Rouge had filed in Saturday evening, and Angelina Jolie had greeted the arrival of King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, the lights in the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom finally dimmed for the world premiere of First They Killed My Father. READ MORE

Cambodian hotel industry shows growth

Rooms and lobby area in the 5-star Sokhalay Resort in Siem Reap. Supplied

A recent study has found that the hotel service quality in Cambodia is improving due to rising competition and the industry’s readiness to compete regionally.

A recent report by the Bunna Realty Group shows that as of the third quarter of 2015, there are 317 hotels with 15,000 rooms in Phnom Penh, and 417 hotels with 17,000 rooms in Siem Reap; 133 hotels with 4,000 rooms in Sihanoukville, and 45 hotels with 1,600 rooms in Battambang.

The same study also identified that within Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, only 892 hotels could be deemed to have at least a two-star ranking.

In addition to the breakdown of the sector, the study also looked at hotel occupancy rates. Of the hotels surveyed in Phnom Penh from January to November of this year, occupancy reached 68 per cent; while it was 66 per cent in Siem Reap, 74 per cent in Sihanoukville, and 75 per cent in Battambang.

The study also looked at the hotel’s ranking compared to price. Two-star hotels offered rooms ranging from $21 to $60, whereas 3-star hotels cost from $60 to $200 for a room. 5-star hotels saw the greatest range of prices at $150 to $2000 per night, based on the room type, size and amenities included.

Hen Socheat, Bunna Realty Group director announced that private online bookings cost more than bookings made through travel agencies.

“The rate of hotel occupancy via online booking is about 71 per cent on average,” he said.

He added that the improvement in services seen in the growth of the hospitality sector came from better coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and private sector training programmes.

However, the study concluded that during the peak months from December to February every year, hotels reach near full occupancy especially in Siem Reap when bookings rise to 100 per cent. Socheat said that this signifies the need for hotel expansion.

Room and service quality in Cambodian hotels is constantly increasing. Supplied

However, Ho Vandy, an adviser to the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said these statistics are not credible due to the fact that the study was undertaken via an online survey, and did not consult with private hospitality companies that work directly with clients and their partners.

Socheat admitted that the statistics in this study could have been skewed.

Based on the Ministry of Tourism’s statistics from 2013 to 2014, Vandy explained that in Phnom Penh there were a total of 7,807 rooms across 170 hotels, and 477 guesthouses adding an additional 6,614 rooms.

“Meanwhile, in Siem Reap, there were only 175 hotels but they had a total of 11,620 rooms, with an additional 3,927 rooms from 254 guesthouses,” he said.

Government data also showed that there were only 54 hotels in Sihanoukville, totalling 2,697 rooms with an additional 2,734 rooms from 187 registered guesthouses.

For Battambang, the government study yielded 32 hotels with 1,620 rooms.

From this comparison, the number of hotels in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanouk province have more than doubled, while those in Battambang province has also seen a notable increase, all within one year.

Nevertheless, both statistics show that the hotel industry is growing.

Thu, 26 November 2015

Siv Meng l the Phnom Penh Post

Din Somethearith: Chief Executive Officer of eight hotels

Learning from the experience of someone successful in both goal setting and goal achieving is very important. Many people know how to set goals, but not many people know how to achieve them.

“My first goal is to get higher education,” says the businessman behind the success of Frangipani Villa Hotels, a famous accommodation group. “Those who are well educated will have a successful life.”

“I knew that business is a big dream. To make the dream come true, I needed higher education,” he elaborates.

With the mention of Frangipani Villa Hotels, some may already know who this man is. Din Somethearith, 40, is a co-founder and chief executive officer of Frangipani’s eight hotels located in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Growing up, Somethearith lived with his mother, his father was killed in Pol Pot regime. He couldn’t afford to study all high school subjects part-time. On top of that, he walked to school everyday until he was in grad 11, when he got his first bicycle.

Despite the hardship, he still received good grades on his high school final exam. “Only 20 to 30 students got the grade at that time,” he recalls. For his bachelor degree, he decided to pursue his passion in structural design by studying Architecture and Urbanism at the Royal University of Fine Arts.

A Bachelor of Arts wasn’t enough for Somethearith, he wanted a master degree. Without sufficient money to pursue his Master’s, he knew he had to score high on English and computer skills to get a scholarship.

Students typically spend hundreds of dollars a month to study English and computer at good schools. Somethearith didn’t have this luxury. He says, “I spent 300 to 500 riel per hour to study English, and I just sat down and watched my seniors working at the computer and asked them whenever I didn’t understand anything.”

By the end of year 2000, the persistent young man achieved his second goal for a scholarship to pursue a Master Degree in Urban Environmental Management in Thailand following his Bachelor of Arts graduation. He could finally receive a master degree like he always wanted. But what he needed more at the time was experience working in the fields related with his major, says Somethearith.

“When I came back [from Thailand], I worked as a consultant for five years for various institutions such as, UN, ADB, JICA, etc. All of my work was related to urban development,” he says.

In February 2007, Somethearith’s life reached high note when he became Country Manager for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) in Cambodia.

Also in 2007, the now-Frangipani Villa Hotels CEO, who has always wanted financial freedom in addition to higher education, began to build up his business team of three members and started his first boutique hotel –Frangipani Villa 60s Hotel.

Because of clear goals and strong commitment them, supported by the strong team, the Frangipani group expanded to one more hotel in 2008. Somethearith left UN Habitat in 2010 to concentrate on his business. Under his refocus on Frangipani, the group established another hotel in 2010, two more in 2011 and three in 2012.

“Success is when I set a goal and achieve it in a period of time,” says Din Somethearith, giving an example. “When I was young, I wanted a bicycle. So if I could save money to afford it, it’s my success.” says Somethearith.

Looking back to 2002 when he returned from studying in Thailand, his friends were driving cars already while he had little money left. Despite this, he knew clearly that he was on the right track. “I had nothing, but I didn’t worry because I had high education, so my next steps would be faster than other people,” he says. Because of this belief, the hotel group has established eight successful hotels in only five years.

There are four main steps behind his success to goal achievement: choosing the right mentors –mostly his relatives, seniors and teacher, studying what he loves, gaining experience, and in particular, withstanding the challenges. Din Somethearith adds, “don’t give up when you face obstacles because they just come to test your life.”

Wed, 18 September 2013

Dara Saoyuthnea l the Phnom Penh Post

Apartments take on new life as hotels

High rise apartments and condos continue to be built in Phnom Penh, but some existing ones are being converted into hotels. Moeun Nhean

Phnom Penh investors and property owners are getting creative in the wake of subdued demand and oversupply in the residential market, with some deciding to renovate existing apartments and remodel them into hotels.

It looks like the apartment market has finally filled over the brim, as is evident from the many apartment owners seeking to remodel their apartment properties into hotels instead. Experts, however, have advised the opposite, warning the hotel industry is not in great shape either.

Din Somethearith, president of the Cambodian Hotel Association (CHA), told Post Property there is a fair number of apartments located in the Tonle Bassac and Boeung Keng Kang areas that are being renovated into hotels due to the current apartment oversupply and downcast demand.

However, Somethearith suggested the apartment cum hotel remodelling move would not prove beneficial.

Interview Co-founder and CEO of renowned The Frangipani Hotel Group, Somethearith Din

Thu, 12 May 2016

Post Staff l the Phnom Penh Post

Co-founder and CEO of renowned The Frangipani Hotel Group, Somethearith Din, speaks to Post Property about the quaint appeal of boutique hotels within the Kingdom.

What distinguishes a boutique hotel from a standard hotel?
A boutique hotel is associated with charm. They are smaller sized and usually hold less than 100 rooms. However, in Cambodia, boutique hotels mostly consist of less than 50 rooms.

How is the aesthetic and architecture different from boutique hotels? 
As a very well crafted and decorated hotel, a boutique hotel normally promotes local arts and culture because it is smaller in size and thus requires – and can afford – more dedication to its architecture and décor.

Can you estimate for us how many boutique hotels are in Phnom Penh, or are members of the Cambodia Hotel Association (CHA)?
While many small and minimum-sized hotels label themselves as boutique hotels, there are no more than 100 boutique hotels in Phnom Penh. The CHA has around 20 boutique hotels as members in Phnom Penh and the boutique hotel members are higher in number in Siem Reap.

Tourism licences to go online

Foreign travellers and expats overlook the sunset on the Tonle Sap river at the FCC last year. POST STAFF

The Ministry of Tourism launched a new online system yesterday to register tourism-related businesses and tour guides who need a licence, in order to ease the licence inspection process and boost government revenues, said a senior ministry official.

Neb Samouth, director general at the Ministry of Tourism, said the online system is part of governmental reforms to simplify the licence-registration process, which has to be done every year, and aid with the inspection of unlicensed businesses.

“The goal is to reduce the unnecessary barriers for the private sector as part of government reforms,” said Samouth.

The new system, which will replace the traditional registration process by 2016, will help the government increase tax collection as each business will now be issued an ID and Quick Response Code, making tracking the companies easier.

“For the private sector, the system will save their time. For the public sector, the system will create a database for us by creating ID and QR Code for each business and tour guide and therefore we could better manage the inspection of unlicensed businesses and tour guides,” Samouth said.

He added that, with the new system, the government plans to get the close to 30 per cent of unlicensed businesses to register by 2016.

In the traditional system, businesses would have to submit a list of documents at the ministry’s provincial tourism departments, after which, the documents would be sent to the ministry in Phnom Penh and sent back with the approved licence, making it a long and cumbersome process.

Now, however, businesses and tour guides can visit www.cambodiatourismindustry.org andwww.touristguide.com respectively to send in their online applications. Licences will be issued three days after submission and the system will notify businesses a month before their licence is up for yearly renewal.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said he welcomed the online system and that it would help reduce the amount of time needed to register for a license.

“The online system is more flexible and it saves us time and money. For people in the provinces, it will be so much easier for them,” he said.

The online system will help reduce unfair competition among registered and unregistered businesses, encouraging the latter to register themselves, said Thoun Sinan, managing director of travel company B2B Cambodia.

“It is unfair when businesses with a licence pay proper tax and then fail to compete in term of pricing with the unlicensed ones as they are not obligated with tax,” Sinan said.

“The database from the system will show who are with licences and who are not. So customers will be able to decide,” he added.

Last year, Cambodia received a total of 4.5 million tourists, generating around $3 billion in revenue and creating more than 620,000 jobs. As of 2014, the Kingdom had close to 940 hotels, 1,571 guest houses, 1,399 restaurants, 864 tour operators, 335 tourism resorts and more than 5,000 tour guides.

Tue, 21 April 2015

Chan Muyhong l the Phnom Penh Post

More hotels, more problems

Boutique hotels like this are a dime a dozen in the country, making the hotel industry ever more competitive. PHOTO SUPPLIED

As the construction sector continues seeing a dramatic surge with investment, capping at a record $8.53 billion last year, the boom has caused ripple effects within the hospitality sector, most prominently for boutique hotels across the Kingdom.

Din Somethearith, president of the Cambodia Hotel Association (CHA) told Post Propertyearlier this week, “Hotel marketing plans are currently competitive, especially boutique hotels that are now facing radical challenges. There are just too many boutique hotels currently, and some of them in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are gradually closing down.”

Despite claims that small hotels and several boutique hotels are being overshadowed by larger, more renowned hotels, Somethearith could not confirm the exact figure, only saying: “Due to a large number of enormous hotels, small ones cannot compete. It’s like we do handmade crafts while they are like factories, so in economic sector the small ones can’t beat the big guns.”

While at first glance the hotel market is seemingly dandy thanks to the increase in the number of tourists – with 5.7 million entering Cambodia last year compared to 5.4 million in 2015 – and the simultaneous increase of the number of hotels, a deeper look reveals some fractures.

As pointed out by Em Bunny, general manager of the 3-star Cardamom Hotel in Phnom Penh said: “When the elites invest in apartments or condos and they want to generate quick profits, they change the direction by renting out those projects in short or medium term at a lower price than the cost of staying at a hotel. This, in turn, affects the hospitality sector.”

“Many international brand hotels and higher-starred hotels are entering the market, such as Rosewood and Marriot,” said Bunny.

Although the clientele for international hotels greatly differs from those opting to stay in 3-star and lower-grade hotels, “existing local 4-or 5-star hotels may face challenges, consequently leading to the lowering of their prices, which will then spread the smaller hotels,” he noted.

Small hotels are increasingly unable to compete with bigger names. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Sok Sambath, who has invested in two boutique hotels in Phnom Penh, said the number of bookings and occupants at his hotels had fallen about 15 percent over the last four years.

“We can see that within the last few years, many boutique hotels have been popping up more than ever before,” Sambath said.

“Prior to this, there were only about up to three boutique hotels in Beoung Keng Kang, around our hotel, but now, there are around 10 boutique hotels already, and the tall buildings in this area will soon also become hotels.”

Thourn Sinan, head of Pacific Asia Travel Association Cambodia (PATA), said, “In my opinion, the challenges that small and boutique hotels face are caused mostly by investors rather than problems in the market or foreign competitors.”

According to Sinan, local investors jump headfirst into a seemingly profitable business like developing boutique hotels, but tended to do so without prior market analysis or basic know-how.

“When they start the process without any skills and they refuse to hire any experts to manage or operate their real estate business, they would have to put up a ‘rent’ or ‘sell’ sign. These challenges are self-imposed.”

A report released by the Ministry of Tourism stated that in 2015, out of the 4.8 million tourists visiting Cambodia, only 70.2 percent stayed in hotels registered under the CHA and Ministry of Commerce.

Thu, 16 February 2017

Moeun Nhean l the Phnom Penh Post

The new normal: facing climate change

A view of the flooded forests near Kampong Phluk in Siem Reap province. Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Last year’s drought caused a nationwide crisis, with harvests ruined, forest fires raging and many rural families struggling to feed themselves. As experts take stock of the impact, news of another potential El Niño raises a question: Is Cambodia prepared for the next drought?

For Cambodia, the El Niño that began in 2015 hit hard, causing a two-year drought that jeopardised the health, food security and finances of millions of people.

According to the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), some 2.5 million people across 18 provinces were severely impacted by May of last year, and the province among the hardest hit was Banteay Meanchey, in the northwest of the country.

But while a wet rainy season that arrived in June alleviated the situation nationally, conditions in parts of the province suggest that this year’s rainy season may not have been enough to get them through the year. Already, in O’Chhrou district’s O’Beichoan commune, six villages have experienced water shortages, beginning last week.

“There are about 2,000 families now buying water, and the water prices are starting to increase,” said O’Beichoan commune chief Soung Meurng.

“Currently they have no water to use for cooking, washing clothes, or bathing,” he said, adding that farmers in the commune will forgo planting crops for the third year straight. “We don’t care about the crops yet. We think only to support the people and the livestock.”

Meurng says provincial authorities have promised his commune a 5,000-liter truck to deliver water, but so far he hasn’t “seen it yet”. “Our commune is the worst hit one among the district,” he said.

What Meurng is grappling with at the moment could be a sign of what’s to come for much of the country. Although spurred by El Niño, last year’s drought may have been a sign of dry conditions to come – possibly sooner than expected.

Residents collect water at a dwindling watering hole in O’Beichoan commmune in Banteay Meanchey province in April 2016. Hong Menea

Last week, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the ongoing La Niña over and predicted a 50 percent chance of another El Niño developing by the end of 2017.

Caused by warming waters in the Pacific, the event causes periodic changes to the world climate, including – typically – drought in Southeast Asia. In 2015 and 2016, one of the strongest such events recorded precipitated the worst drought in Cambodia since 1979.

El Niño usually occurs at two to seven-year intervals and is usually followed by a La Niña, a reciprocal change brought on by a cooling of the waters in the Pacific. This year’s was remarkably short, although it did bring added rainfall to the region.

For the United Nations World Food Program, which was a chief coordinator of the humanitarian response to the drought, the medium to long-term effects of last year’s El Niño are still being assessed, but the first of a three-part national survey of 2,400 households published late last year gives a sense of the scope of the disaster.

For Jonathan Rivers, a mapping and vulnerability officer at the WFP, another El Niño coming so soon “would be potentially quite problematic.”

Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology spokesman Chan Yutha, meanwhile, dismissed the possibility of such an event, predicting that the rainy season would actually start in the first week of May this year.

“In short, we will not be affected by El Niño,” he said.

A boy sits on a water delivery vehicle in Banteay Meanchey province. Hong Menea

Facing change
Back in Banteay Meanchey, tangible steps are being taken to prepare. Deputy provincial governor Oum Reatrey says that the authorities expect to see drought-like conditions in certain communes, including O’Chhrou, and are responding.

“Now we are working with the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology; we are damming the Serey Sophorn River to create a reservoir, and we are also dredging canals for the people to use and educating people to use the water in a careful manner,” he said. Reatrey says that they will be ready for the next El Niño.

“We are not very worried at the moment, because we already took some action,” he said.

But that may be a rose-tinted view of the future. For Nop Polin, a program officer for humanitarian NGO Dan Church Aid Cambodia who represented Cambodian civil society at the UN Climate Summit in Paris (COP21), the extreme drought events brought by the last El Niño, followed by flooding brought on by La Niña, may be a preview of what lies ahead as climate change progresses.

“This is the new normal, because this is something that is not irregular anymore,” he said. For him, institutional reform should be a top priority. “The preparation is on an ad-hoc basis. It is not systematic,” he said, noting that while “some provinces have emergency preparedness and response plans, it’s very hard to say if it’s well prepared [nationally].”

Polin said that national coordination has improved but that capacity and preparation remain lacking. For Polin, work is needed to better forecast climatic events, both for disaster preparation and for farmers to better plan their harvest.

NCDM spokesman Keo Vy assured Post Weekend that the next emergency response would be smoother and more comprehensive both in terms of maintaining water resources and planning.

“Now we know what and where our sources of water for intervention and conservation are,” he said.

Last year, the NCDM, alongside civil society groups, the UN and the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), conducted a month-long national water delivery emergency operation that started in mid-April. It saw the delivery of five million litres of water per day to the most affected communities.

The NCDM committed $125,000 to the operation.The CRC managed to raise $13 million in one day for drought relief and Prime Minister Hun Sen mobilized the private sector to donate.

A boy in O’beichoan commune carries water. Hong Menea

But for Polin, this mobilization of resources “from tycoons and parliamentarians” is not enough, adding that the NCDM budget ought to be increased. According to Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan, the NCDM must request funding directly from the prime minister and the council in case of disaster.

Napoleon Navarro, a senior policy adviser for the UNDP, noted by email that the El Niño revealed the need for an improvement to the Kingdom’s early warning systems and response capacity.

“It is not sufficient to know that an El Niño event is coming – it is also important to translate information into short-term public actions … or more long-term ones,” Navarro wrote. For the short term, he mentioned pre-positioning water trucks and ensuring that water ponds are full as examples, while “eco-restoration” of watersheds could be a long-term measure.

“Part of the problem is that institutionally, disaster response (which is more visible) normally takes precedence over disaster preparedness and risk reduction (which is less visible),” he wrote. Nonetheless, Navarro notes that the government has made positive progress by pushing for preparation to take place at a local level.

“One thing that the government is doing right is encouraging communities to undertake vulnerability risk assessments and to utilise the annual commune and sangkat funds to prepare for the consequences of climate change,” he said.

According to the water resource ministry’s Yutha, the government is “encouraging [communities] to build more reservoirs, canals and ponds, such that [in events] when farming cannot be sustained, there is water for daily use.” He said that the ministry has helped to build or is in the process of building nine reservoirs to prevent water from flowing directly into the lake during the rainy season.

Lor Reaksmey, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture, echoed Yutha’s statements, noting that his ministry had issued directives to reduce rice paddy cultivation. “We are very ready for 2017,” he said, though he conceded that areas like Banteay Meanchey may face difficulties.

The recent El Niño also brought about a new threat to the environment: the last fire season set a record. Alarmingly, the heat, dry conditions and low water levels allowed for an estimated one-third of the seasonally flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake to burn. These forests are breeding grounds for fish, and the impact of the fires on the fisheries has yet to be assessed.

Simon Mahood, a senior technical adviser for the Wildlife Conservation Society – which works with the Ministry of Environment in training rangers – says that investment is needed to prevent a repeat of such a disaster.

“We’re in the process of doing some satellite analysis to understand the extent of the destruction, and the patterns of the spread of the fires, so that we can be better prepared next time, because it is clear that there will be a next time,” he said.

“Ideally, you would have a well-trained ranger force with pumps and hoses, coupled with a system of fire lookout posts so that fires could be identified, reported and extinguished quickly,” he said.

The parched riverbed of the Serey Sophorn last April. Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Hitting home
The impacts of the drought extended beyond water, agriculture and the environment to the household level, where livelihoods were hit hard.

“Nationally, 13 percent of households reported taking on additional loans as a result of El Niño,” with loans averaging $1,282 per household, according to the WFP survey.

For the UNDP’s Navarro, this is another concern should 2017 see another El Niño. “In a country where a significant percentage of the population have incomes just about [at] the poverty line, another event so soon could see an increase in rural poverty levels,” he said. 

Dr. Mey Kalyan, a senior adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council who has appeared on Cambodian television to raise awareness about climate change, said that ultimately, Cambodia’s combined vulnerability to climate change and limited response capacity means that a degree of impact is unavoidable.

“Impact will be a big, big negative on the economy and on society as well – on the poor farmers,” he said.

According to Kalyan, the threat requires the government to take a more pro-active approach to preparing for the future, even if it doesn’t yet know the full degree of climate change’s impact.

“We have to assume, differently from the government of Donald Trump, that climate change is coming,” he said. “Up until now it’s been half-hearted We’ve not been serious about this.” Part of the problem, he said, is that solutions are coming from the donors and not from the government.

But the UNDP’s Navarro noted progress over the past decade, noting that 14 ministries have climate change action plans and that preparedness, as measured by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, shows an improvement from being the 163rd most prepared country in 1995 to being the 130th in 2015.

For Kalyan, the limitations on what can be done compared with the pressures climate change will bring are daunting. “I am sure the situation will get worse and worse, not better.”

Fri, 17 February 2017

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Kong Meta l the Phnom Penh Post