Living with Disaster Risk and Climate Change Impacts in Coastal Area

Kep and Kampot are coastal areas affected by climatic hazards, such as drought, salinity intrusion, seasonal storm which mostly affect poorest families especially children, women and older people. Additionally, parts of the two provinces such as Damnak Chang Aer, Kep, Kampong Trach and Banteay Meas districts are subject to irregular rain fall. Salinity intrusion is confirmed as a main concern affecting water sanitation, hygiene and health. People in the target areas where saltwater is intruding are faced with lack of water for drinking and agricultural activities.

The vulnerable communities in the target communes will be better prepared and able to cope with disaster risk and climate change.  The  project has two specific objectives:

• Improved capacity of sub-national Disaster Management Committee, Provincial Committee for Disaster Management (PCDM), District Committee for Disaster Management (DCDM) and Commune Committee for Disaster Management (CCDM), on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation and Commune Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) in Kampot and Kep;
• Enhanced Communities capacity in 4 districts of Kampot and Kep province to be better prepared and pro-active participated in responding to climatic impacts.

• Improved knowledge of sub-national disaster management committee on CBDRR;
• CBDRR-Climate Change Action Plans are integrated in the Commune Development Plan/Commune Investment Plan (CDP/CIP);
• Improved Capacity of disaster management committee at Sub-national on early warning system mechanism;
• Improved level of accessibility of community to safe drinking water in disaster prone areas;
• Improved hygiene practice of community in disaster prone areas;
• Strengthened knowledge of community on DRR and climate change adaptation concept.

Kampot Province: Kampong Trach and Banteay Meas districts
Kep Province: Damnak Chang Eur district, and Keb city

• PCDM, DCDM and CCDM officers in Kampot and Kep will receive direct benefit from the project through capacity building and developing the CBDRR planning.
• The most vulnerable people living in the 5 communes of 4 districts in Kampot and Kep provinces are the major beneficiaries of the project. Women headed household, the extreme poor, the most vulnerable groups and widows are the priority groups for the project. 

The project will support communities and government structures at sub-national level to cope with the impact of the climate change. By the end of the project, the vulnerable communities in the targeted project areas will be better prepared and able to cope with disaster risk and climate change. To achieve this goal there are two main outcomes (i) Improved capacity of sub-national disaster management committee, PCDM, DCDM and CCDM on CBDRR in Kampot and Kep provinces, (ii) Enhanced communities capacity in 4 districts of Kampot and Kep province such as Damnak Chang Aer, Kep, Kampong Trach and Banteay Meas, to be better prepared and pro-active participate in respond to climatic impacts.

The main activities of the project in the first year will be to provide training on CBDRR and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) concepts to all sub-national government structures in order to integrate CBDRR into the CDP/CIP and government agencies plan. A safe drinking water system and climatic adaptation ponds will be installed at commune level with business training to maintain the system and hygiene awareness. A Women Climatic Platform will be selected for follow up and advocacy. 

The target areas have been selected based on a study of secondary data and consultation meetings with relevant stakeholders at sub-national level using trends analysis and hazard mapping tools. In addition, the statistics on vulnerability of people and ID poor category 1 & 2 are taken into account in the selection process.