Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Because Hunsenomics provides few incentives for sustainable agricultural develop-
ment, Cambodia's land and water resources remain drastically underutilized. Just a third
of Cambodia's total land area is currently under cultivation—a much lower proportion
than in neighboring countries. 31 Only 18 percent of this land was irrigated as of 2005,
compared to 33 percent in Thailand and 44 percent in Vietnam, and due to lack of main-
tenance only a fifth of irrigation systems were fully functional. 32 As a result, rice yields
per hectare lag far behind the likes of Vietnam and Thailand. While most Cambodian
farmers cultivate paddy rice once per year during the rainy season, farmers in Vietnam's
Mekong Delta region can produce more than three crops annually. As in ancient times,
agricultural output is acutely vulnerable to variations in weather, and many rice farmers
can do little more than what they have always done—pray for rain.
The precarious nature of the crop cycle leaves many rural people living in fear that a
sudden shock, such as flooding, drought, or expropriation, could reduce them to desti-
tution. A great fear—the greatest, perhaps—is illness. Virtually nobody outside the city
has health insurance and the government provides only the most limited subsidies for
healthcare. In the case of an accident or sudden sickness, villagers are forced to take
their chances in the country's parlous hospitals and medical clinics—ramshackle facilit-
ies where it's not uncommon for medical staff to demand “fees” in exchange for treat-
ment. To meet these costs villagers are often forced to borrow money from predatory
moneylenders or sell what for many is their only asset—their land. 33
Ros Peun and his wife, Soun San, have a large wooden house in Trapaing Prolit. En-
joying pride of place on the wall, close to portraits of the late King Father Sihanouk and
Queen Mother Monineath, are old photos of their daughter Peun Say. One of them shows
a pretty young woman on her wedding day, wearing a light blue dress. In another the same
woman stands next to her younger brother holding a leather handbag, the pair of siblings
superimposed on a colorful stock-image of London's Tower Bridge. Peun Say died three
years ago, at the age of 20, after complications with her pregnancy—a death her parents
blame on the parlous state of the Cambodian health system.
Ros Peun, an animated bundle of weather-beaten features and wiry black hair, says his
daughter was at the end of her second trimester when she experienced a sudden excruciat-
ing headache. At the district health center, a badly resourced concrete building in Sampov
Loun, doctors said they lacked the equipment to conduct the proper tests and sent her to
nearby Thailand. On the way Say began to shake and then lost consciousness. Her symp-
toms were consistent with the onset of eclampsia, a condition in which pregnant women
experience violent seizures. With proper care, the condition can be resolved in its early
stages. But in Peun Say's case it was too late for the doctors to do anything. She died the
next morning.
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