Another rainy season is coming to a close in Phnom Penh – a rainy season that has brought with it damaging levels of urban flooding, the kind of flooding that sadly has become a new normal.
Looking back on the rainy season in 2020, it's impossible not to wonder: How much money was lost as a result of destruction of property and adverse health impacts from exposure to polluted water? How much economic productivity did Cambodians miss out on as a result of hours spent in gridlocked traffic through water-logged streets?
The truth is, we don't really know.
Smoke on the Water, a report on the impact on the destruction of the Tompoun/ Cheung Ek wetlands, warns that up to 1.2 million Phnom Penh residents will be put at further risk of flooding because of Boeung Tompun's development.
The Tompoun/ Cheung Ek wetland in southern Phnom Penh is one of the natural drainage and wastewater-treatment systems in Phnom Penh, absorbing around 70% of all rain and waste. The wetland is currently being filled to create a satellite city comprising high rise apartments and glittering air-conditioned shopping malls. This development plan will drastically reduce the 1,500 hectares of existing wetland to just 107 hectares.
Insufficient data on urban flooding
The short and long-term impacts of urban flooding have currently failed to receive the attention they deserve and Cambodia has little data to show how urban flooding affects people's welfare. When data does get collected on this problem, there are often still critical knowledge gaps that leave important questions unanswered.
In 2017, for example, as part of a drainage improvement project, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) conducted a 300-household survey to understand environmental and social conditions as well as flood patterns around Phnom Penh, including Tuol Kork, Central Market, Royal Palace and National Museum, Trabek basin and areas north of Wat Phnom.
The survey, however, did not capture the economic cost of urban flooding in monetary terms. It did not cover the extent of damages caused by floods or the extent, depth and duration of flooding, as well as the vulnerabilities of economic activities and communities.
Additionally, the existing data on urban flooding is not organized in a way that would make it useful to researchers and policy-makers, which requires more effort to combine or cross-reference data which is held by different government agencies and civil society organizations.
Bringing urban flooding on the public agenda
All this begs the question: Why don't we have this data?
One answer points to a lack of prioritization. If resolving the issue of urban flooding were a high priority, it would be reflected in the frequency of data-gathering.
Inadequate data makes the public and policymakers overlook the loss the country encounters, that is why there has been no serious action taken to tackle the urban flooding. The public may understand that urban flooding exists, but not its implications. For example, the flooded roads suspended transportation, rendering people from reaching their homes and workplaces, disrupting the local supply chains. Companies need to pay extra for drivers to work overtime. These impacts are harmful to the already vulnerable small and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, in poorer communities, the bacteria could remain in the body for up to 8 months, which will see an increase in diseases such as dengue fever, skin diseases, eye infections, chest infections and typhoid. More information on economic and health impacts could bring the public's attention and discussion to the seriousness of urban flooding. This is the first step to get this issue on the public agenda.
The issue of urban flooding is only set to become more crucial. Given questions of economic growth, population growth and intense climate change, future losses related to this problem could be even more disruptive, to the point where the cities might declare a state of emergency. For example, the Italian government in 2019 declared a state of emergency in Venice due to destructive flooding, which affected famous historical landmarks. In September this year, Sudan also declared a state of emergency for 3 months in Khartoum, its capital city, after floods killed 99 and destroyed more than 100,000 homes across the country. Urban flooding has disrupted economic transactions, destroyed properties, and incurred costs amounting to millions of dollars in order to needed to restore the city.
Data should not be treated as an afterthought, rather it should be a core element of resilience planning as envisioned in the Phnom Penh Sustainable City Plan 2018-2035. Its vision is "by 2030, Phnom Penh will become a clean, green and competitive city, offering a safe and quality lifestyle to its residents".
Therefore, it is imperative that the government supports efforts to quantify how many people are exposed to floods by gathering data that are as granular as possible, to identify the direct loss – such as damages to property and indirect losses - transportation disruption, business losses, etc.
If possible, the data should be collected on a regular basis, allowing policymakers to make apples-to-apples comparisons of economic situations, wages, incomes, productivity and more.
Data like this could form a basis for urban flood prediction and the development of contingency plans to prevent adverse consequences from the problem.
Data isn't necessarily a magic bullet. But, the availability of good data lays the foundation for policymaking and financing, and gives us all a better shot at understanding the oncoming impacts of urban flooding on people, families and the larger economy. In order to build a sustainable city, we need more than just money, we also need information.
Photo credit: Olivier Gilard