Rebecca Hersher

Hi.

We're going to Cambodia, specifically to the central Cambodian village of Prek Tush.

It's right next to the Nikang River.

So I was there in December.

I visited with an NPR team that included producer Ryan Kelman and interpreter Tat Odom.

And we wanted to visit this particular place because of something kind of surprising that's happening there, something related to its location, which is right next to this massive river.

Yeah, yeah.

And this river is everything to the people in this community.

It's a fishing village.

On the afternoon that we arrived, some women were fixing fishing nets.

Others were cleaning the day's catch.

A lot of the men who had gone out fishing really early in the morning were resting.

Kids were messing around on the boats, which are parked all along the edge of the river.

Yeah, really idyllic.

You know, life is good there in many, many ways.

But living next to the Mekong also means that floods are a part of life.

And like a lot of places, the floods here are getting more severe because of climate change, which means they're getting more dangerous for the people who live near the water.

And the people in Praktush and in other parts of Cambodia are using really simple technology to protect themselves from these increasingly extreme floods.

Okay, so there are a couple reasons.

One is sea level rise.