Singapore may have saved Phnom Penh from the great flood

Singapore may have saved Phnom Penh from the Great Flood.

The recent heavy monsoon rains have caused severe flooding in many south Asian countries notably Thailand. , Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Vietnam. This year's flooding is so severe that more than half of Thailand is coverd with water and severely threatens the capital city of Bangkok.  Television news broadcast shows huge swaths of land affected in these countries.  The flood water in some areas have reached the roofs of most of the houses.. One must bear in mind this houses are already on stilts.

The citizens of the city of Bangkok were in a state of frenzy with rumours swirling that the low lying city will be completely submerged by flood waters. To make matter worst there is nowhere to run as most of the country side is flooded.

As my plane flew  into  Phnom Penh airport , I can see through  the windows the large acreage of flooded areas. I was not sure if the plane is going to land and if the airport is flooded. Fortunately all went well and I was received by my host Dr Khov Sov. He assured me that the whole of Phnom Penh and its surrounding areas were not affected by the flood. The flooded areas were far from the city..

This is my first trip to Cambodia. I am on a personal mission to share my experience with Cambodian dentists. I am trying to introduce to them the art of four handed dentistry. I  have been practicing this style of work for 30 years delivering quality dental care quickly and efficiently. This is the most productive style of dentistry but alas few dental schools teach this method or even know about it.  

A friend had arranged for me to stay atthe River 108 Hotel. This hotel is located just across the road from the Mekong river. The Japanese government had developed the river bank into an esplanade and in so doing beautified the area. There are lots of small hotels in the area and is very popular with tourists. Since I had the afternoon off after visiting the dean of the dental school I wanted to take a river cruise just as the one I took on the river Seine.

To my pleasant surprise the hotel had sent one of their staff who was fluent in English to accompany me. The best part was the two of us had the whole boat to ourselves. The itinerary  involved travelling to the confluence of four rivers of which the Mekong and Tonle Sap  were the largest. I can see the water level is very high and probably about 1 meters short  of overflowing  the banks. My guide told me he had never seen such a high water level.

high wate level at the esplanade

Soon we cruising down the river. At the confluence of the river  was a sand mining ship. I was very surprise to see such a large vessel in this location. Then I remembered that Cambodia supplies sand to Singapore but I was still taken aback that this vessel is located in the capital. My guide said that this vessel has been working in this area for about two years now but he was very surprised that the sand was destined for Singapore, a land 1000 kilometres away.

Sand mining ship at the confluence of Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers

Now comes my observation. Could it be that Phnom Penh was not flooded because its river has been dredged?  Although most rivers are very wide but they are very shallow during the dry season. as overtime they  have been  silted up. By dredging them regularly they are deepened and results in swifter water flow. So when there is a large amount of water coming from upstream due to heavy rains they can drain the waters away pretty fast. This results in  the neighbouring areas not flooded.

                                             Flooding in the villages

Dredging rivers is an expensive task and worst of all the sand dredge up have to be deposited somewhere. Furthermore environmentalist has always condemned such practices citing erosion and resultant damage to the environment. Thus no governments have any budget to dredge unless iy is to deepen the river for ships to sail through. I have always suspected great floods are caused by human beings not managing their rivers. Little do we think of agriculture can caused lots of erosion that washes all the soil into the river system. This is in turn aggravated  by human activity of deforestation, construction etc. which dump a fair amount of rubbish into rivers.  When the great floods of Queensland occurred last year I concluded the Australian government had not maintained their rivers and even when the rains had died down water was still around for some time, This was true also of the great Pakistan floods.

Phnom Penh has possibly shown us that managed and regular dredging of rivers can reduce the amount of land that is flooded and thus save us a lot of damage and human misery.

Well I will let the scientists prove me wrong. Like I said maybe Singapore saved Phnom Penh from the great flood.