Climate shift 'victimises' Cambodia

Local officials say the sheer volume of water dumped by typhoon Ketsana in September pushed floodwaters several kilometers into the plains around the Mekong river

Chea Sarin and her family now survive by selling fruit to tourists from a makeshift shack

Monday, October 26, 2009
By Steve Chao in Katot, Cambodia
Al Jazeera

The village of Katot is a rather unremarkable place. It only ever gets mentioned in passing by tour guides as they take their busses, packed with vacationers, along the dirt road from Cambodia's border with Vietnam.

It is the road, or rather the fact it has been submerged in two meters of water for more than a month, that has now gained Katot some extra attention.

Cambodia's press has labeled it the latest "victim" of climate change. And while the small collection of families, a little more than a dozen, who call Katot home say they have never heard of the term, they can certainly talk about the dramatic shifts in weather that have destroyed much of what they own.

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