One Full Barrel at a Time

For 72 -year-old Mr. Sam Nang, surviving displacement meant keeping twenty-one grandchildren safe and it started with clean water.

When fighting reached Prey Chan village, Banteay Meanchey province, on 19 January 2026, 72-year-old Sam Nang did what he had done his entire life in a crisis: he gathered his family and fled. All six of his grown children, their spouses, and twenty-one grandchildren clustered together, with first under tarpaulins at the Wat Chan Sii safety centre, then at Wat Pou Soriya. Their houses were destroyed in the clashes. Shelling and military blockades turned Prey Chan into a red zone. Returning is not yet possible.

What frightened Nang most was not the loss of a house. What comforted him was simple: everyone was alive, and everyone was together.

"We evacuated with nothing. We used the little money we had to buy what we needed to survive," said Sam Nang.

Hundreds of families settled onto temple grounds, sleeping on mats or on wooden platforms, the children hammered together to keep out of the mud when rains came. Nang's tent became the family hub, a place where grandchildren ran and played, where his daughter Nang Sokea and her husband Ra Vin tried to keep a household alive for their two young children, and where small acts of care repeated themselves all day: rationing soap, sharing a bowl of soup, boiling water when there was fuel.

Water was the most pressing problem. The pond beside the pagoda served as a washing place and hazard simultaneously. Families bathed and laundered there because there was no alternative. Safe drinking water meant a five-kilometre motorbike ride to the Wat Chan Sii station, a journey that cost fuel, time, and the constant worry of leaving family behind. For families without a motorbike, buying a 2,000-riel barrel, roughly fifty cents, was the only option, and those riels added up fast. 

For Nang, the calculation was personal. He watched his grandchildren run and play in the heat and knew they needed to stay hydrated. But keeping the barrel full enough was a daily struggle. "They are running and playing a lot, and it is hot,"he said, watching the children draw water from a shared container. "They need to drink."

Sokea felt the weight differently. When Ra Vin left on multi-night fishing trips, one of the few ways men could earn income, she managed the household alone. That meant managing water alone too: rationing every sip, calculating how long a barrel would last, and knowing that without fuel or fifty cents, there was no way to get more. A day without water was not an inconvenience, it was a health risk for her children.

The latrines added another layer of hardship. Long queues formed at all hours, exposing the elderly, young children, and women to discomfort and safety risks particularly at night. Without reliable handwashing points or hygiene supplies, maintaining basic sanitation routines was nearly impossible. In cramped, hot tents, even a small illness could spread quickly. For caregivers like Nang and Sokea, the pressure of keeping twenty-one grandchildren healthy while grieving the life they had left behind was relentless.

A Turning Point: Oxfam's Emergency Support

From the very first days of the displacement, Oxfam worked alongside local partners, the Village Support Group (VSG), Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC), Live & Learn Cambodia, Development and Partnership in Action (DPA), Human Resource and Rural Economic Development (HURREDO), and local authorities, to assess what families needed most urgently. Getting concrete data on the ground was essential to shaping an effective and immediate response. What that data revealed, however, was not what anyone expected.

That supports shaped everything that followed. The turning point came in mid-March, when safe water points came on site, additional mobile latrines were deployed, and hygiene supplies were distributed together strengthening the camp's WASH facilities in ways that families felt immediately.

Clean water now flowed within walking distance. Filling barrels no longer meant a daily ride or carefully rationed sips. "As gas gets expensive, it was not ideal to drive back and forth," Nang explained. "Then we got plenty, within reach, now the barrels are always full." For Sokea, that meant no longer waiting anxiously for her husband's return before she could cook or give the children enough to drink. 

New latrines shortened queues and reduced open defecation around the camp, lowering disease risk for the children and restoring privacy and dignity particularly for mothers and girls who had previously avoided the toilets after dark. Hygiene kits that included soap and water containers enabled families to keep clean, prepare food safely, and teach children healthy habits.

The benefits reached beyond the physical. Where time and energy had been consumed by fetching water, parents now had breathing room. Some men began fishing or taking day jobs in nearby villages. Women managed cooking and childcare with less fear that a preventable illness would drain their fragile finances. The 2,000 riels saved per barrel multiplied, quietly, into time, dignity, and safety.

The family is now counting the days until they move to provisional shelters in Slakram village, where temporary houses on allocated plots will offer more secure roofs and raised floors before the heavy rains arrive. It will not be home, not the home they knew. But it is a step forward.

"It will not be like our old home," Nang said, "but my children will sleep under a solid roof."

Since the first border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand in July 2025, Oxfam and partners with financial support from the Government of Ireland, Australia, Belgium and Oxfam’s own emergency relief package have stepped in to provide emergency humanitarian support that has reached more than 23,000 families, approximately more than 80,221 people including 51% women across the four affected provinces including Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Siem Reap and Preah Vihear. 

The Road Ahead

The path to full recovery remains long. Prey Chan is still a red zone. The fields cannot be ploughed. Rebuilding livelihoods will require demining, seeds, livestock, and continued access to services. But in the meantime, the everyday acts carry their own quiet significance. Nang's grandchildren attend the camp school and come home clean. Mothers prepare meals without fear of waterborne illness. Elders rest knowing the children are hydrated and that the latrines nearby protect their dignity.

For a man who has spent seventy-two years rooted in one community, who watched his children grow up, build families, and make a life, and then watched it all be taken away in a single morning, that is not a small thing. It is, for now, everything.

The story of Nang’s family shows how essential WASH interventions are in a crisis: clean water, latrines, and hygiene supplies do not restore what was lost, but they prevent disease, protect dignity, ease the burdens of caregivers and create the breathing room families need to begin rebuilding. In a place where homes have been destroyed and the future remains uncertain, those basic services offer a lifeline, one full barrel at a time. 

In addition to emergency humanitarian assistance, which is vital to safeguard the livelihood, safety, and dignity of those directly affected, the crisis continues to erode Cambodia’s social and economic development achievements. Families are being pushed deeper into poverty, children’s education is disrupted, and opportunities for them to grow into potential citizens are being seized. These impacts represent a serious violation of human rights.

As displaced families receive urgent help, it becomes clear that lasting peace and stable livelihoods are just as important. To achieve this, a permanent ceasefire and the repair of damaged infrastructure are needed so that communities can resume normal economic and social life. Oxfam remains committed to working closely with authorities and partners to mobilize resources, both to meet immediate needs and to support the long-term recovery of livelihoods.

Note: The information and interview were collected on March 28, 2026.