If you're heading to Siem Reap anytime soon, you'll notice the place is bone dry. April and May, the last months of the dry season, are always dry. But this year, with the strong El Niño impacting, things are far worse than usual. It's the same in Thailand, Laos and southern Vietnam. Here in Siem Reap though, parts of the surrounding countryside have run out of water and are depending on paid deliveries. The next rice crop is looking fragile. Locals are telling me these are the worst water shortages they've ever seen. There's speculation that the dry season may run longer than usual too. People are beginning to wonder how bad things might get? Travellers meanwhile are mostly blissfully unaware of the crisis. They'll notice the heat and the dust. But plunge pools are full and rain showers are flowing freely. As far as I can work out, and I've visited about ten hotels, travellers are being spared any advice that we’re in the middle of a water crisis. And we sure aren’t being asked to go easy on water usage. Some restraint with the rain shower, the twin vanities or the plunge pool, might go a long way in a city with a tourist economy of lavish hotels. Siem Reap's water crisis has been brewing for at least a decade. Scientists have been warning that uncontrolled development is depleting fragile ground water supplies. Climate change may be expediting the reckoning. Travellers to Vietnam's Mekong Delta are experiencing a similar disaster as salt water reaches further upriver, threatening rice and other agriculture. Perhaps they are similarly unaware of the crisis in their midst? The photo was taken on Sunday at Banteay Srei temple, Siem Reap.
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