Building a Brighter Future for Rice Farmers in Cambodia

Farmers in the small community of Tuol Sdey, in the Svay Rieng province of southeastern Cambodia, have reason to be happy. For the first time in decades they can rejoice in having two harvests in one season. This is largely due to the construction of a new water dam which stores rain in a nearby reservoir, providing farmers with the necessary water supply to irrigate their farmland and produce greater rice yields. The new dam is one of 45 projects in Cambodia—implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility—aiming at improving the lives of people adversely affected by droughts and other climate change-related phenomena. Before the dam was constructed, villagers suffered from major water shortages, forcing large numbers of hungry people to wander off to neighboring villages in search of work as daily laborers, at times traveling as far as Vietnam where they often ended up begging. Even children had to abandon school to venture off with their parents as they pursued a means to support themselves. Standing at more than two meters high and 32 meters wide, the dam is actually a large concrete wall which functions as a spillway to preserve water in the nearby Bathou Lake, the heart of a sprawling lowland area which holds the key to economic survival of 2,500 people in the community. There used to be a metal gate under the village's main bridge, but corrosion destroyed it, leaving an open gap for rain water to flow downstream. Little of it could be tapped for farming. UNDP's work in Cambodia concentrates on three major areas: promoting democratic governance, poverty reduction, and environmental management. The objective is to encourage sustainable development and assist the government in designing and implementing policies which will help speed up progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals.