670,000 at risk in Cambodia

Global climate change again leaves a swathe of destruction, this time in Cambodia, where 670,000 people are at risk of starvation after a disastrous harvest followed drought and flood cycles which could have serious repercussions for years to come, warns the UN World Food Programme.

Rebecca Hansen, the World Food Programme Director for Cambodia, declared that the shortages are a wake-up call regarding global climate change which has destroyed the rice harvest in Cambodia for the last three years. In Cambodia, nearly 10% of the country has been affected by drought or floods. “To ignore the threat of climate change is to gamble with people’s lives”, she claimed.

Water management programmes are swinging into action, with dykes, ponds, dams and reservoirs being rehabilitated while 1,700 tonnes of food has arrived through the WFP for the immediate needs.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru