Cambodia lightning deaths, between superstition and prevention

Sihanoukville. More than 70 people have died in Cambodia in 2011 due to lightning, according to the National Committee of Disasters. All of the victims are farmers in central provinces like Pursat, Kompung Cham and Battambang. The number of deaths by lighting more than doubled since the same period last year, January to May. The deadly lightning comes with the rainy season that started earlier this year in April.

Campaigns to prevent it consists in telling farmers through the media to stay indoors when it rains.

“Every year we know that someone dies due to lightning. For example, last year I knew of a man who was struck when he was on the phone,” says Brak Sakhan, 23, a student in the southern province of Kompot. “We think that it happens especially when the farmers are out on the fields and they do not have time to take shelter, but we have known of persons who have been struck when they were at home.”

There have been also cases of animals, like cows, pigs and oxen, which have been killed by the natural phenomenon. Several rural families believe that lighting is sent by angels.

“Some farmers believe that a person who is killed by lighting is because that person did something that makes him worthy of it,” explains Sakhan. “If a man has two women, it means that one must be removed by the angels.”

Children and young people, instead, have another idea through television, radio and at school.

“There is a book that students see at school on how to protect yourself from lightning, says Heng Seyha, 22. The book is studied when teenagers are at 10^th grade. “In that book is explained how to prevent it, for example, if it is raining, you must be indoors, you should not enter the house when you are wet, you should turn off electron devices and you should not stand near a tree. You must wear shoes, stay far from phone antennae and not speak by phone,” he adds.

“There’s the problem that the elders believe in the action of spirits. If a person dies by a lightning strike, it is because that person saw a spirit,” says Cheng Chamroeun, 25, who was a Buddhist monk for seven years.

“I think the problem continues in our country, because there is not enough information and people do not follow the measures of prevention we should know.”

 

“In big houses and big villages, buildings have lightning strikes, but most houses in small villages or farmer places no,” says Sakhan of his own village, Sre Kann, in Kompot province. 

 

Asian Correspondent