WFP relief reaches 60,000 Cambodians affected by flooding

The World Food Program (WFP) has reached 60,000 Cambodians affected by flooding with food assistance, a UN spokesperson said here Friday. "It aims to reach 150,000 people -- first with emergency supplies, and then eventually with food-for-work and other schemes in a recovery phase," Martin Nesirky, a UN spokesperson, said at a daily press briefing. WFP is working with the government of Cambodia and relief partners to determine how many people are in need and for how long they will need food assistance, added Nesirky. A flooding in August has left 18 Cambodian cities and provinces submerged. It has been the worst flooding that hit the region in a decade, with at least 250 people killed and 1.5 million people affected. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that the country has offered flood relief to approximately 250,000 affected families, amounting to an estimated 1 million people. The distribution is still underway to reach out to all families affected by the flood, totaling about 1.5 million people, he said during the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the 5th Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge, or 2nd Chroy Changvar Bridge, across Tonle Sap River in the capital Phnom Penh. The flood is estimated to have cost Cambodia 521 million U.S. dollars, mainly in damages of rice paddies and roads, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management.