A daughter lost to the floods

Lying on the wooden bed with serum injection, 31 year-old Sein Keo is seriously ill after her young daughter died in the severe ongoing flood affecting Cambodia. The day the floods came, she told me, the rain was very heavy; the wind was very strong, and the water came up very fast in Prak Prasob district, Kratie province.  One of her children went down the stairs while it was very dark outside.  Her seven-year-old daughter who slipped into the water while she was walking down the stairs and nearly drowned.

Keo’s daughter was saved by neighbors.  Her stomach was full of dirty water that she drank whilst she was under the water. The little girl was still alive but seriously ill.  Keo’s daughter was treated by village medical staff and a traditional healer for one or two days at home before being brought to the district hospital.

On the day that Keo and her husband decided to bring her daughter to the district hospital, another obstacle arose to prevent the emergency trip. The flood cut off all the infrastructure in the local community.  The road from Keo’s house to the ferry was destroyed. The rain and wind was very strong and heavy.  Keo had only a small boat to bring her ill daughter to the district hospital.  With hard rowing for more than four hours against the wind, finally her husband reached the ferry station.

Unfortunately, there was no ferry waiting for them to bring their daughter to the district hospital. They had to wait for another hour before it arrived.  Finally they arrived at the hospital, more than six hours after setting off.

At the hospital, district doctors told Keo that it was too late already to bring the seven-year-old girl to the hospital. The district doctors were not qualified enough to treat Keo’s daughter because of the severity of her illness. They decided to send Keo’s daughter to the city hospital in the capital Phnom Penh.  But Keo’s daughter did not survive another six hour journey. Her daughter died when she reached the city hospital. 

Keo began to cry when remembering her daughter.

I cannot eat and sleep. My feeling is always with her. I have no energy to continue living. I have no food and no money. My family is in a very difficult situation at the moment.

Although the flood has subsided in her village, the water is still surrounding the back of her house. Keo told me that her rice fields are still flooded and her supply of food is almost gone.  Keo and her husband are depending on farming and fishing to make their living.  Now the flood has destroyed all her rice and she does not have any rice seeds to continue cultivating when the water subsides.  She hopes that humanitarian aid will come to her village and save people in her community as well as her family.

According to latest government figures, the deathtoll of the ongoing floods has reached 250 people.  More than 30,000 families have been displaced from their homes since flooding began in August.  Approximately 390,000 hectares of rice crop have been damaged across the country, along with 2,700 kilometers of roadways in 17 provinces. 

ActionAid is responding to the emergency in nine affected provinces, providing food, water and hygiene kits to over 18,000 people.  In the longer term we will be supporting people to rebuild their lives and become less vulnerable to future floods.