FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Eleven years ago, I took a boat ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Hot and stifling inside, the rear of the boat was uncovered and afforded a strong breeze and extraordinary views of the Tonle Sap amid the biggest flood on record. The water line stretched beyond the horizon. Never had so much water been seen there. In the capital, where the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers merge, their banks were near bursting and the big fear was the city’s dilapidated water works and sewerage pipes would back-up as the city submerged.
That didn’t happen. But slightly more than a decade later, and floods across Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have again struck the levels reached in 2000 – and they deserve far more attention than they are getting with hundreds of people killed so far. Read more in The Diplomat.
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