Sunrise in Chroy Takeo | Yeo Kai Wen
We stayed three nights at the Chroy Takeo Commune Chief’s guesthouse, and bathed with river water. Every dawn, we waited for sunrise. This was the best morning. Birds were flying in the distance, and the golden yolk-like sun
reflected onto the paddy fields.
|
Holding on | Lee Xian Jie
I was walking along the dirt track that lined a river at sunset. Beside it were a whole row of houses. The villagers there seldom get visitors, so when this little boy saw me, he posed for photographs. Yet the photograph of him I like most was when he was distracted by the older children behind me.
|
Family affected by arsenic | Lee Xian Jie
Séng Phai, 38, was wondering what the black spots on her palms and feet were. Then three years ago, she was told that she was a victim of arsenic poisoning. She feels pain even today when she walks. Her family now collects rainwater in clay jugs, but are planning to build a rainwater collection tank.
|
Hope | Yeo Kai Wen
Despite all the challenges Cambodia still faces, she is recovering steadily from the terrifying effects of the Khmer Rouge. In the 1960s, Singapore had sent officials to emulate the successful policies of the Cambodian government. All that changed in the 1970s to 1980s, but today tourism is growing. The hopes of 11.4 million Cambodians are set to soar.
|
Laundry and melons | Yeo Kai Wen
The villagers in Chroy Takeo Commune also washes melons and vegetables
in the same river. This lady was doing her laundry at the same spot,
complete with detergent just moments before she took out a melon and
dipped it into the water.
|
Family in the rice trade | Yeo Kai Wen
Capital city Phnom Penh has a far higher rate of access to sanitation, and is more developed than any other part of Cambodia. This family trades rice at the market behind the Royal Palace. Their business is prospering and their children get to play with toys, unlike their poorer rural counterparts.
|
Refreshment | Yeo Kai Wen
According to the World Health Organisation, arsenic levels of 5ppb or more in water is unacceptable, yet concentrations of 250ppb are common in Kandal Province. This boy somersaulted into the river from a bridge where we were standing, egged on by his companions.
|
Behind the net | Yeo Kai Wen
Most Singaporean children cannot live without the Internet. For this boy, mosquito nets are all that he has seen. Lien Aid has built 24 rainwater collection tanks for poor families like this boy’s to encourage neighbours to consider an alternative to drinking arsenic-poisoned river or well water.
|
Vicious cycle | Yeo Kai Wen
The poverty cycle plagues villagers in rural Cambodia, but it is not the only problem they face. Underlying health problems caused by poor hygiene or unsafe drinking water is expensive and difficult to solve. Behind this breastfeeding mother are bags of rice to feed her family of ten for a year.
|
Cow wash | Yeo Kai Wen
Other than bathing, doing laundry, drinking and cooking, river water is used for many other things. Like washing water buffalos. These are the ultimate living plowing machines and can cost around US$1,000 a head.
|
Ice cold river water | Lee Xian Jie
The Tonglé Sap is Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake. At Chhnoktrou Commune, a floating community in Kampong Chhnang Province, ice is made directly from river water. This ice factory is owned by a wealthy lady who also owns the commune’s only reverse-osmosis plant. Both her factory and the water treatment plant are installed on floating boats.
|
Fisherman and his foe | Lee Xian Jie
Soeur Yan, 29, demonstrates how he catapults mud pellets at rats which scurry along the floating houses at night. He says, ‘I have not enough money to create a bright future for my children. Only fishing can keep them alive. I still have intentions to improve the hygiene, but I’ve got no money to buy a water filter. If I could, I would buy it.”
|
Portrait of a Khmer man | Lee Xian Jie
This man was walking by with a kroma on his head. The traditional Khmer scarf has been around since ancient times, and is still a common accessory for both men and women to stay cool in their paddy fields amid the burning sun.
|
Boy bathes from new well | Lee Xian Jie
Defecation in open areas was common for villagers in this village at Kampong Speu Province. But since 2007, Lien Aid has been working with the Provincial Department of Rural Development to teach villagers to build their own toilets. Lien Aid has rewarded this boy’s village with a well to mark their open-defecation-free status.
|
Smoking | Lee Xian Jie
The Khmer love corn-on-a-cob. Corn is fed as chicken-feed, but grows quickly and in large quantities, so it is a cheap snack. This mother and daughter pair were enjoying the attention they were getting from our cameras.
|
Big Bear | Lee Xian Jie
Young children go to school for almost free, but many stop after Primary One as even the highly subsidised school fees are too steep for poor farmers.
|
Hide-and-seek | Yeo Kai Wen
In the wet monsoon seasons, water is plentiful and the rainwater collection jugs are always full. But when the dry season hits, many familes resort to well water and dwindling supplies of river water, sometimes containing E.Coli and other disease-causing microbes. Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of death for children under five.
|
Balancing act | Lee Xian Jie
Long Kolap, 32, used to defecate 50 metres behind her home every morning at 4. “It used to be dangerous, but not anymore,” she says. She was still doing farm work although she was 8-months pregnant when we visited her.
|
Pregnant lady with herbs | Lee Xian Jie
According to local health officials, one out of six children born in Chhnoktrou Commune die stillborn primarily because of virulent viruses and poor hygiene practises. Mothers with dirty hands and breasts contaminate milk with germs. This 24-year-old lady is mothering her third child and is drinking tree bark soup twice a week as tonic.
|
Mother & Child | Lee Xian Jie
We hired a wedding band to play some Khmer music for our documentaries. The whole village gathered around the house, and this mother carried her baby boy along. While the musicians played, something seemed to be troubling her.
|
Khmer Livelihoods | Yeo Kai Wen
From the skies, Cambodia is a quilt of paddy fields, a land where most people grow rice for a living. Fishing is another dominant industry. Here a water buffalo rests after a day’s work in the paddy field, silhouetted against the setting sun as fishermen continue working on the river.
|
Pots and Plans | Yeo Kai Wen
This girl is the daughter of a commune council member and lives in one of the better furnished floating houses with her parents. Her older brother is working in Korea as a construction worker, and another is studying Korean for US$1,000 a month in Phnom Penh. She hopes to be a successful grocer in her community.
|
Thinking of home | Yeo Kai Wen
Although all village
children run about freely in paddy fields, climb trees, and sometimes
catch small snakes to scare each other with, Cambodian children mostly
grow up thinking for their families’ well-being and supplement their
family income by helping out in the farms or at the local market. |
|