A 50-metre stretch of National Road 5 in Battambang’s Thma Koul district has been temporarily closed to trucks after flooding submerged the highway and caused serious damage.

Oeng Sovan, Thma Koul district traffic police chief, said the road flooded after several days of heavy rain, leading public works and transport officials to ban heavy trucks from using the thoroughfare.

“Now, the experts from the Provincial Public Works and Transport Department are mobilising vehicles to dig and redirect the flow of water to the rice fields,” Sovan said, adding that they were repairing the road with packed earth.

Kong Ly, Thma Koul district governor, said that in the area, there was only one small canal for water drainage and that the damaged stretch of National Road 5 is flooded every year. However, he added that crops and houses were not affected by the annual occurence.

“Now, the sky is clear and the water has started to recede after public works and transport officials intervened to make a way for the water to drain out to another area,” he confirmed.