"In November 2025, a massive storm rolled across the lower Mekong River delta, dumping multiple inches of rain onto the wide, flat river plain that covers much of Cambodia.

The river rose and rose. The force of the water churned up mud from the river bottom. The muddy water flowed downstream and rushed into the many farming and fishing towns that line the Mekong's banks.

Forty-six-year-old Chhum Chhin experienced the flood firsthand. "The water was everywhere," she explained, standing in the shade of her home, which is elevated above potential floodwaters on 12-foot-tall concrete pillars in the central Cambodian village of Roka Thom.

Chhum has lived along the Mekong her whole life. Last year, she says, the water was higher than she had ever seen it. It washed away crops and left a thick layer of mud on everything in its path: vehicles, buildings and fields."

Rebecca Hersher, Ryan Kellman, and Tat Odoum report for NPR February 10, 2026. [2]