By Kate Bartlett
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Twenty Cambodians have lost their lives as Southeast Asia's Mekong River overflowed following monsoon rains, local media reported Monday.
More than 4,000 families have been evacuated to higher ground, The Cambodia Daily newspaper reported the governor of Kompong Cham – one of the worst hit provinces that is located on the Mekong River's central lowlands - as saying.
Of the eight people who had drowned in his province, five were children, he added.
"Phnom Penh could face flooding if the water levels continue to increase combined with more rain," the capital city's spokesman Long Dimanche told the newspaper.
"We have prepared all means to rescue and evacuate people if need be," he continued.
Flooding in Cambodia usually occurs between August and October, when monsoon rains cause the Mekong River – which runs through Southeast Asia from the Tibetan Plateau to the South China Sea - to overflow.
Many fishing communities who live in flimsy stilt houses along the river lose their homes or have to evacuate to higher ground, while thousands of hectares of rice paddy are destroyed every year.
Flooding last year saw 168 people drown, but in 2011, the worst floods in a decade killed 250 people and displaced thousands.
www.aa.com.tr/en
