In most countries, a road is just something you walk or drive on – not something most people spend a lot of time thinking about. But in Cambodia that is not always the case.
Take Ou Rumchek Krom village in Battambang province. Until recently, the people who lived here were too afraid to use most of the road that runs through the village. They would only follow a narrow section of it.
|
|
Battambang province |
View larger map |
“It was just a small path and I was afraid to walk on it,” recalls Leng Phally.
“We knew the land was mined, but we had no choice,” adds her husband, Mao Rith.
The couple were right. Seventeen mines and 41 items of unexploded ordnance were found when MAG cleared the road in 2007, with support from the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and World Vision Cambodia.
The deputy village chief, Vanh Nhoeurn, says the villagers are happy that they have a safe, paved road for them to transport their crops to market.
“The villagers are very grateful to MAG,” he says. “People can sell their crops more easily now.”
 |
The legacy of conflict |
|
Nearly three decades of conflict from the late 1960s to ‘80s left Cambodia severely contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance. This mainly affects the poorest and most isolated agricultural communities. Despite the known and horrific dangers, people here have no option but to continue to live with the threat. They take risks every day simply to meet their basic needs, and doing tasks such as commuting to work or school, farming, accessing water or attending markets. |
Mao Rith says that people feel very differently about the road these days. “Today, I feel confident that it is safe to walk on,” he says.
MAG also cleared the land immediately alongside the road, and several houses have now sprung up. The landowners were previously too afraid to build anything.
However, deputy village chief Vanh Nhoeurn says that community members still do not dare to use uncleared land.
“[This village] was a former battlefield, so we can’t guarantee that the land is safe. It is surely contaminated, because there have been accidents when people were working or trying to clear the land on their own,” he says.
“I talked to former members of the Khmer Rouge and they told me they had brought a truck of assorted mines to lay in this area.”
He hopes that MAG can return to the village to clear more land.
Your donation to MAG helps us to move into current and former conflict zones to clear the remnants of conflict, enabling recovery and assisting the development of affected populations.
Photo (top): A boy sells petrol in front of the road cleared by MAG. [Nicolas Axelrod]
22 March 2010
