This month Epic Arts brought together 17 local authorities from across Kampot to our Centre for a half day advocacy meeting with a simple but urgent question at its heart: when floods come, can people with disabilities actually get to safety?
The answer, mapped out commune by commune, was sobering.
Mapping the Gaps
Working in three groups, commune council representatives from Trapeang Pring, Kandoul and Stoeung Keo used community mapping to identify safe shelters, commune offices and health centres in their areas, and to assess whether people with disabilities could actually access them.
The findings were consistent across all three communes. Health centres and commune offices generally had restrooms and ramps. Safe shelters, the places people turn to when floods strike, largely did not.
In Stoeung Keo, all six safe shelters lack both restrooms and ramps. In Trapeang Pring, two of three safe shelters have restrooms but no ramp. In Kandoul, all three safe shelters have restrooms but no ramp.
For a person who uses a wheelchair, or who has a physical disability that makes steps a challenge, a shelter without a ramp is not a shelter at all.
From Mapping to Action
What made this meeting different was what came next. Rather than stopping at identifying problems, each group developed a practical commune level action plan.
Stoeung Keo Commune committed to raising accessibility in their end of year development planning meeting, including ramps and disability inclusive restrooms in their 2027 budget plan and working toward construction at shelters in Kampong Chen, Anlong Mak Prang and Mlech Kol villages, as well as portable toilets for three mountain shelters where construction is more complex.
Trapeang Pring and Kandoul Communes committed to similar steps: raising the issue formally, budgeting for ramps at pagoda shelters and integrating accessibility into their annual action plans. These are real commitments, made by the people responsible for disaster management in their communities.
Why This Matters
During floods and climate related disasters, people with disabilities face barriers that others don't. Inaccessible evacuation routes. Shelters they cannot enter. Emergency systems that weren't designed with them in mind.
This meeting was about changing that, not through external pressure, but by equipping local authorities with the tools, knowledge and plans to act themselves. When commune councils include accessibility in their budgets and development plans, inclusion stops being an aspiration and starts being infrastructure.
Epic Arts will continue working alongside local authorities and community stakeholders to support the implementation of these action plans, ensuring that as Kampot builds its climate resilience, people with disabilities are not left behind.
This work is supported by the Australian Government through Ponlok Chomnes II: Data and Dialogue for Development in Cambodia program.
