Floating School@Prek Pra

Prek Pra is a village about half hour south of Phnom Penh, on the Bassac River (distributary of the Mekong/TonleSap). We drove there to visit with Judy Johns of the Christian & Missionary Alliance because the Alliance looks after 2 floating schools catering to the riverine Vietnamese community there.

There were two floating classrooms. The classrooms were actually built upon large boats. In the photo you can see the hull of the boats beneath the classroom. On either side, were short booms held up by oil drums. These apparently were to provide some stability to the classrooms.

It wasn't very clear how deep the hulls were, but we estimated perhaps about 1.5 -2 ms.

It wasn't a model we could use, as we think we might need a shallower clearance on the flood plains. Judy wasn't sure, but she estimated the yearly cost of maintenance might be in the region of about US$600.

Judy, Veron, Esther, Jhon, Me, Jimmy. Piang Ngok taking the photo.