Iran War Spillover: How Soaring Fuel Prices Are Blocking Children from School on Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake

Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. During the rainy season, the lake swallows everything, with fishing boats, school boats and stilted houses drifting into makeshift villages. Twelve-year-old Soksan Set sets off from home every morning, taking a boat to the village school several kilometers away. But now, what stands between him and the classroom is no longer distance, but the price of gasoline.

According to DW, since the outbreak of the Iran war in 2026, global fuel prices have risen sharply. This military conflict, thousands of miles away, is pressing down in the most direct and brutal way on the poorest groups in Cambodia—the floating communities on Tonle Sap Lake.

Citing World Bank data, DW noted that in March of this year, gasoline prices in Cambodia jumped 45% in a single month, while diesel prices rose more than 70%, the largest single-month increase since 2008. Data from a global gasoline price website shows that the current retail price of gasoline in Cambodia has reached 5,700 riel per liter (approximately 1.41 US dollars), up 26.7% from 4,500 riel a year earlier.

Cambodia has no domestic refining capacity and relies entirely on imports for all petroleum products. This means that no matter where on earth a conflict takes place, whenever oil prices and regional supply fluctuate, the gas stations and household budgets of this Southeast Asian country come under immediate pressure.

According to DW, the Cambodian government has introduced fuel discounts, tax cuts and import duty exemptions in an attempt to cushion the impact of rising international oil prices. However, for families whose incomes are already limited and unstable, the subsidies are far from enough to provide a safety net.

Fishing families on Tonle Sap Lake are bearing the brunt. Soksan's father, 41-year-old Set Soeum, told DW: "As soon as gasoline prices rise, we can't afford to send our children to school on time. We don't catch many fish either, and just going out to fish every day uses up about three liters of gasoline." The children's response carries a heartbreaking rationality. "Five of us classmates pool our money to buy gasoline, sometimes buying just one liter at a time," Soksan said. "When we can't afford it, we paddle the boat ourselves and paddle for an hour to get to school."

Twelve-year-old Siyien Ly walks to school for more than half an hour during the dry season, and when floods submerge the roads, she can only rely on aid-supported school boats. "Gasoline keeps going up, but we still insist on going to school, because education is important for our future," she said. Her mother, Kunthea Chin, now makes a living selling sugarcane juice to support her family of six, with daily income shrinking from about 20 US dollars to 10 US dollars, while monthly fuel expenses alone come to about 150 US dollars.

A more hidden cost falls on the floating schools themselves. Samphors Vorn, Action Education's Cambodia country director, told DW: "For children living in floating communities and remote areas, the prerequisite for receiving education is not just having a school, but being able to reach that school. When fuel prices rise, the cost of commuting rises with them. For families with extremely limited incomes, transportation can become an obstacle to attendance, and ultimately a deprivation of children's right to education."

The climate crisis makes this arithmetic even harder to solve. According to DW's review of previous reports, the region last year reported on how climate change was disrupting the education of children in floating communities—fluctuating water levels, extreme weather, and the dangers of boat travel were all making the journey to school increasingly difficult. Now, rising fuel prices and climate shocks are compounding into a double burden.

Fourteen-year-old Nary has already left the classroom. She cannot return to school due to persistent headaches caused by suspected meningitis sequelae. Her father, fisherman Tit Sarin, told DW: "When we can't afford the fuel, we just have to find other work to do." He earns about 7.5 US dollars a day from fishing, but a single long-distance fishing trip out on the lake costs about 6.6 US dollars in fuel. When they can't bear it, the whole family has to take on daily labor, picking chili peppers for only about 25 US cents per kilogram.

Cambodia's plight reveals an often-overlooked structure: when war pushes up oil prices, those who pay the price are often not the parties to the conflict, but the countries and people furthest from the battlefield and least able to pass on the costs. The children floating on Tonle Sap Lake had no choice in whether the war began, yet they are paying the bill for it.