Household Characteristics
Natural hazards and exposure index
The three natural hazards that impact on people’s livelihoods in Cambodia including flood, windstorms
and drought are investigated in this paper. It is important to note that the indicators of these
events are measured as dummy, indicating whether the respondents have experienced drought,
flood and windstorm over the last 12 years (1999-2010).
As indicated in Table 2, an overwhelming majority of respondents have reported experiencing
drought ranging in the last 12 years. In the rural communities of Morhasaing, Peang Lvea and Tasal,
100 % of the respondents reported experiencing drought. In contrast, the percentages of respondents
who have experienced floods or windstorms in those 12 years are significantly lower than
those who have experience drought.
Although respondents reported a slight decline in the number of droughts over the 12-year period,
they had experienced a number of particularly devastating droughts in 1999, 2000, 2003 and
2004. Villagers from the Pongrek village (Peang Lvea commune, Odung district) stated that the
2010 drought was also a very severe drought which badly affected rice yields.