Concerns Grow As Floodwaters Again on Rise

World Food Program weighs emergency operation. Heavy flooding will continue through much of the country and possibly increase in coming days, officials warned yesterday, raising concern among aid workers that tens of thousands of affected families will have to wait longer for emergency help. It is also increasingly likely that up to 10 percent of Cambodia's rice harvest will be lost. The severity of the situation has prompted the UN's World Food Program to consider launching an emergency operation, the organization said yesterday, adding that it might support NGOs in their relief efforts and also offer assistance to the government. However, the National Disaster Management Committee, which has been criticized for doing little to coordinate aid operations, said in response that the government will "not seek support from outside." Water levels in the Mekong River, Tonle Sap lake and Bassac River will continue to rise slightly in coming days, according to the Ministry of Water Resources, before dropping slowly in upstream provinces. As a result, flood waters in the 16 affected provinces will remain high or even rise. "The water has been rising up [in] almost all provinces," said Men Neary Sopheak, deputy secretary-general of the Cambodian Red Cross, adding that rainfall and rising waters were hampering relief efforts. "In some provinces, we cannot transport [aid],"she said. "Normally, when it rains, we can't use the boats." About affected by flooding, the disaster committee has said, while 167 people have drowned. The Red Cross said it has supplied 25,000 families, while a Save the Children official estimated that aid NGOs have helped another 10,000 families. The World Food Program has met with aid groups and engaged the government's disaster committee in recent days to see if it could help meet the massive demand for aid from rural communities.