About 1.3 million children in Cambodia could be hit by unusually severe weather linked to El Niño, a climate pattern expected to run from late 2026 through 2027, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

In a statement reported by Xinhua on Tuesday, 13 October, UNICEF estimated that around 190 million children across Southeast Asia could face similar effects.

What It Means for Cambodian Families

El Niño tends to bring prolonged, intense heat and drought. For Cambodian families, this can mean:

• Shortages of water for everyday use
• Disrupted farming, including rice paddies and crops
• Schools forced to close
• Children falling ill with diseases
• Too few health centres to meet community needs

Government Response

The UNICEF warning came shortly after Prime Minister Hun Manet said last week that Cambodia will graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status on 19 December 2029. He also said Cambodians would reach upper-middle-income status by 2030 and high-income status by 2050, driven by the government's Pentagonal Strategy.

Speaking on Tuesday at National Disaster Management Day, Hun Manet urged relevant authorities to treat natural disasters as a top priority and to strengthen human resources and equipment for dealing with climate-related hazards. He acknowledged that climate change, rapid urban growth, and environmental degradation threaten sustainable economic and social development.

What Is El Niño?

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), El Niño occurs every two to seven years. The name is Spanish for "the little boy," a reference to the child Jesus. It begins when ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific rise above normal. The change weakens the trade winds, which normally push warm surface water westward toward Asia and Australia, while cooler water rises near South America.

The pattern also shifts rainy seasons. It typically develops between March and June, peaks between November and January, and can last nine to 12 months or longer.

Still, Cambodia has an advantage: the Mekong River flows through the country and rarely dries up. If the government designs its irrigation systems well, farmland across the country could be better protected from the drought.