The elusive Mekong giant catfish, which the U.S.-based World Wildlife Fund (WWF) called “one of the world’s largest and rarest freshwater fish,” can reach up to three meters (10 feet) and weigh up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds).
The Xayaburi dam would prove an “impassable barrier” for the migratory catfish, which... continue
More than 700 villagers from five provinces yesterday protested in front of the provincial government headquarters in Kompong Chhnang after losing their community forests to large agro-industry firms.
Organized by the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly- a network of communities that includes forestry and land activists as well as fisherman- people from Kompong Chhnang, Pursat, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Palin provinces, listened to speeches from community leaders about the threat villagers across the country face from land evictions.
Yin Pech, a member of the Phnom Kok Network in Kompong Chhang which advocates for villagers affected by economic land concessions and evictions, said her community has been fighting to cancel a land concession over 1,800 hectares of forestland in Boribor district owned by well-connected Pheapimex Company. …
“We are asking to protect the remaining 400 hectares since our people rely on the forest to collect products and sub-products to make a living,” she [Yin Pech] said, adding that non-timber forest products make up a large part of the communities livelihood. …
Rising global temperatures could greatly exacerbate flooding in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, as well as parts of Africa and South America, a new study by the University of Tokyo has found. …
Employing 11 different climate models, researchers found that with a mere rise of 3.5 degrees by the end of the century, 42 per cent of the earth’s land surface would face an increased risk of flooding, affecting 100 million people.
That could spell grim news for Cambodia, where some 85 per cent of land lies within the lower Mekong basin, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management. …
About 200 people celebrating World Environment Day on Wednesday gathered in front of the National Assembly to submit a petition asking the government to stop the destruction of Cambodia’s forests. …
A report released by the WWF last month said that Cambodia has lost almost a quarter of its forests in the past 40 years due to rapid development and China’s demand for timber.
State media also reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen said that 1.5 million hectares of forest cover has been used for economic land concessions, while there remains 9.5 million hectares of forest cover left in the country. However, since 1.2 million hectares of these concessions have been [put] toward rubber plantation, Mr. Hun Sen said that these land grants, in fact, constitute forest cover. …
Vorn Pao, who attended the demonstration, said that the key to stopping deforestation was to follow laws on conducting a proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) before large-scale agriculture projects are allowed to go ahead. …
The parent company behind a firm constructing the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng has repeatedly violated Chinese law by building “massive” power projects without prior approval, China’s national auditor has found.
State-owned China Huaneng Group, of which Lower Sesan 2 partner Hydrolancang International Energy is a subsidiary, undertook projects including a 1,900 megawatt dam on the Mekong River without permission, a report released last month by China’s National Audit office says. …
“As of the end of 2011, Huaneng had begun construction of 16 major projects – including the Huangdeng hydropower station – without prior approval,” the report states, adding that the projects were worth billions of US dollars. …
About 200 people from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia affected by hydropower dam projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to share their experiences of how their lives have been adversely affected since the dams were constructed. …
Speaking at the event organized by NGO Forum, representatives from the three countries spoke out about their experiences with hydropower development throughout the Mekong Region.
The information was of particular interest to those Cambodians in attendance, as villagers living in Stung Treng province are currently preparing to be evicted to make way for the reservoir of a massive 400MW [Lower Sesan 2] dam to be built by Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group in partnership with China’s Hydrolangcang International Energy Company.
Somsak Tiyata, a coordinator of the Mekong-Lanna network, an environmental group, based in Thailand’s northern Chaing Rai province, said that the Chinese dams upstream of the Mekong have severely reduced the amount of vegetation and fish that Thais rely on for food. …
[Somsak Tiyata] added that letters and petitions sent by the group over the years to the Chinese Embassy in Thailand have gone unanswered.
Traing Tham, from the Brou ethic minority living in Ratanakkiri province, said the Yali Falls dam, the second largest dam in Vietnam and located upstream of Sesan river, has contributed to sever and unexpected floods in the area. …
For Meach Mean, a veteran campaigner against hydropower dams in Cambodia’s northeast, this year has brought a double dose of bad news. First, he says, two Chinese hydropower companies have begun feasibility studies into a pair of dams planned for tributaries of the Mekong River in the remote northeastern province of Ratanakkiri.
Second, workers last month began clearing an area downstream of those proposed dams for another dam: the 400-megawatt Lower Se San 2, which scientists warn will be the most destructive of dozens planned in the region on tributaries of the Mekong.
Meach Mean, the co-ordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network, a non-profit, has no doubt all three dams will be built, and fears the damage they will do to forests, fisheries and the lives of tens of thousands of minority people who will be forced to leave dozens of villages. …
Although the Se San and Sre Pok rivers are almost unknown outside the region, they are key tributaries of the Mekong. Together with another river — the Se Kong — they constitute the 3S Basin, which links Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. These rivers and the Mekong comprise the region’s four “fish highways” and help make the Mekong Basin the world’s richest freshwater fishery. …
Ame Trandem, the Southeast Asia programme director for campaigning group International Rivers, says the Lower Se San 2 Dam should be scrapped. Not only will it harm fish stocks and food security, she says, it will also reduce by up to 8% the flow of nutrients and sediment upon which tens of thousands of subsistence farmers in Cambodia and Vietnam rely to fertilise their fields. …
Several days of rain have finally brought relief to hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City who had been without water for two weeks because the reservoir that provides their supply dried up during hot season. …
LYP Group, a company owned by Ly Yong Yong Phat, channels water to 4,000 families in Khemara Phoumint City from the Cham Yeam reservoir in Mondol Seima district and [provincial director of the Department of Industry Mines and Energy] Mr. [Pitch] Si Yun said that about 20 percent of those families had been affected since early May by water shortages.
Mr. Si Yun said that both his department and LYP group had studied ways to solve the area’s water-shortage problem and had already identified a new reservoir site at Ta Phorn waterfall located nearby that could store between 5,000 and 7,000 cubic meters of water. …
Mr. Si Yun said construction was scheduled to begin later this year and would take around two years to complete. …
Hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khmara Phoumint City are suffering from a shortage of water, which is provided by a reservoir that dried up during the hot season, local officials said yesterday.
Smach Meanchey and Dang Tong communes typically receive water from the Cham Yeam reservoir in Mondol Seima district, said Pich Si Yun, provincial director of the department of industry mines and energy.
The water is channelled from the reservoir, located about 7 km from the city, to the two communes by LTP Group, a company owned by CCP Senator Ly Yong Phat, he said. …
Dang Tong commune chief Lim Dy said the problem was more serious than the provincial authorities reported. All the families in his commune-more than 2,000-have been affected by the shortage for the past two weeks, he said. …
Srekor village has stood on the banks of the Se San River in northeastern Cambodia for generations. In a few years it will be gone, submerged along with more than 300 square kilometres of surrounding farmland and forest. …
For 37-year-old rice farmer Pa Tou, the future looks bleak. The relocation site set aside for them is wholly unsuitable, he complains. There is no irrigation, it is miles from the river and the ground is either rocky or covered with trees. And at this stage it has no schools, no health clinics, no pagodas and no roads. …
International Rivers, a campaigning NGO, predicts the Lower Se San 2 Dam “will have a costly, catastrophic impact on the Mekong River’s fisheries and biodiversity”. …
But media reports consistently show the government favors projects like hydropower dams and coal-fired power stations. More are likely to go ahead. On May 9, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said two more planned dams on the 3S network had been deemed economically feasible, moving them a step closer to approval. One would be a 370MW dam on the Se San River; the other a 100MW dam on the Sre Pok River. The first would flood 40 villages alone.
Meanwhile the Cambodian government has plans to build a hydropower dam on its stretch of the Se Kong River, which rises in Laos. Baran says that would block the region’s third fish highway, leaving the Mekong mainstream as the sole route for migratory species, further harming fish stocks. The rush to hydropower risks inflicting profound and irreversible damage to many more people than the residents of Srekor village.
Two massive hydropower dams planned for the Mekong’s tributaries in Ratanakkiri province have been deemed economically viable by two feasibility studies conducted by a pair of giant Chinese conglomerates, a provincial industry, mines and energy official said yesterday. …
Despite the feasibility studies having been completed, local authorities yesterday said they have not received any clear information regarding the dams. Veun Sai district governor Chum Ngil said he had not been consulted about the dam’s feasibility despite a huge area being carved out of his district for a reservoir. …
Meach Mean, coordinator for the 3S Rivers Protection Network, an NGO advocating for villagers affected by the region’s planned dams, said the social and environmental impacts for the Srepok 3 and Sesan 3 dams would be huge. For example, about 40 villages will be affected by the Sean 3, he said. …
As work begins on Cambodia’s biggest dam, those advocating against its construction have warned that the region’s rush for hydropower will have a disastrous effect on millions of people who rely on the Mekong River to survive.
Last month, workers began preparing an area in northeastern Cambodia for a huge hydropower project, the 400-megawatt Lower Se San 2 Dam. …
Scientists estimated the Lower Se San 2 Dam could reduce the total fish yield of the Mekong Basin by 9.3 percent.
“So it’s 9.3 percent of 2.1 million tons – which is a gigantic amount,” said Baran. “In other words, this expected loss represents around 200,000 tons per year, which is much more than the whole marine sector of Australia. And, nine times more than the annual inland fish catch in Germany or the U.S.” …
Meanwhile, work on the Lower Se San 2 Dam has started and thousands of people who live in the areas that will be submerged by the dam’s vast 300-square-kilometer reservoir have been told they will have to move. …
One of them is 37-year-old Pa Tou. He said none of the 400 ethnic minority families in Srekor village on the banks of the Se San River wants to leave. …
Pa Tou, who has three daughters, said that will not be possible at the relocation site, which is miles from the river. He said the land there is poor for farming – most of it is rocky or covered with trees – and there are no health clinics and no schools. He fears they will all be left much worse off.
BANGKOK: Demand for farmland may strip the Greater Mekong region of a third of its remaining forest cover over the next two decades without swift government action, a leading conservation group warned Thursday.
Forests are being cleared for commodities such as rubber and rice while illegal logging is decimating many protected zones, WWF said in a report, adding a contentious dam on Mekong river will deepen already severe ecosystem damage.
“The Greater Mekong is at a crossroads,” said Peter Cutter of the WFF, adding Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar lost between 22-24 percent of their forests from 1973 — the first point of available data — to 2009, while 43 percent of woodland was stripped from Thailand and Vietnam. …
The US$3.8 billion hydroelectric project, which is due to be completed in around five years, has sharply divided the four Mekong nations — Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen chastised local authorities in Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for their inability to prevent a water shortage in early April that crippled businesses in the tourist hub of Sihanoukville and left locals without running water for almost a week. …
The incident underscored how Cambodia is battling during the hot season to supply a growing economy with sufficient energy levels and basic amenities. …
“We must guarantee the full water supply because [Preah Sihanouk province] is one of our biggest economic development poles,” he [Prime Minister Hun Sen] said. “It has many different sectors including industries, service and it has an [international] harbor.
Mr. Hun Sen added that before Prek Tup Lake dried up, he had told provincial governor Sboang Sarath to put Kbal Chhay online to prepare for such an event. He also said he had informed [Anco Water Supply Co.Ltd.] “a long time ago” about extending their pipelines to Kbal Chhay. …
“The lack of water came from the hot season and the water could only supply about 10,000 people, but now we have 60,000 people and there are a larger amounts of hotels rooms-up to 4,000 rooms compared to only 1,000 in the past few years,” Mr. Sarath said.
Countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region can save US$14 billion over the next 20 years if they integrate their power transmission systems, according to a senior official from the Asian Development Bank.
A regional power grid connection would enable countries with hydro-power plants to export energy to other countries, saving up to US$700 million a year by reducing fossil fuel imports, the Bank says in its report on Asia’s Energy Challenge, released earlier this month. …
At present, countries in the region use different resources to generate electricity. Some, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, rely on natural gas and imported fossil fuel, while others such as China and Laos harness hydro-power. …
Rising water temperatures are affecting fisheries and marine life, said several representatives of Cambodia’s aquaculture industry, and the effect is decreasing seed production and lowering aquaculture farmers’ productivity.
Say Sorn, president of aquaculture seed production in Siem Reap province, told the Post yesterday that water temperature is an important factor for marine life sustainability. However, temperatures have been rising much higher than in previous years, and this is affecting fish farming in his province. …
Anco Water Supply, a private company that is supplying Sihanoukville with access to fresh water has alleviated a water shortage that began when a state-owned reservoir dried up more than a week ago.
Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Sbuon Sarath said that running water had been restored to 95 percent of homes and businesses in Sihanoukville, but people living at higher altitudes still do not have access to water because the necessary pipe networks have to be built from a waterfall now supplying most of the city with water. …
Ngy Sun, the manager of Anco Water Supply, complained last week that the company could not afford the diesel necessary to operate generators at Kbal Chhay and meet the demand of Sihanoukville residents. However, yesterday he said that new pipe networks and a new generator have allowed the company to increase its pumping. …
Mr. Sun declined to comment on who was paying for the increased fuel usage he had previously said would be necessary for Anco Water Supply to keep up with demand. …
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with Serge Mostura, French Ambassador to Cambodia, to discuss a tram system project to benefit the residents of Phnom Penh, an official said Monday.
Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said, the two sides discussed the tram project to provide comfortable public transportation for residents and a lighting project for the roadways of Phnom Penh. …
Kuoy said, France was also interested in the energy sector of Cambodia, including hydro-electric power. …
As Sihanoukville’s water shortage drags on, the price of water being delivered by private suppliers has skyrocketed with residents and business owners growing ever more desperate to get clean water into their homes, hotels and restaurants.
Over the past week, since a reservoir supplying the city with water completely dried up, the price of 2,000 liter tanks of clean water from Sihanoukville’s O’Pi water spring has more than doubled, rising from about $20 to more than $50, according to business owners and local officials. Some 60 percent of the city has access to little or no running water, according to officials. …
Officials from the Stung Treng provincial forestry administration have warned a local SRP commune chief against speaking to the media about the clearing of trees from a 36,000-hectare site to become the reservoir of a giant hydropower dam in the area, the commune chief said yesterday.
On Sunday, Srekor commune chief Siek Mekong said that about 20 workers employed by the joint venture of local conglomerate Royal Group and China’s Hydrolancang International Energy Co. Ltd. had been felling trees in the area since March 21 without informing local communities.
Mr. Mekong said yesterday that four officials from the local forestry administration, including Sith Samnag, the deputy provincial forestry administration chief, visited him to tell him not to speak to the media.
He also said that officials made him sign a piece of paper admitting that he had spoken to the media about the felling of trees in that area. …
Chap Piseth, deputy chief of the Triage Forestry Administration- which is in charge of both Srekor and Kbal communes- said he was present during the meeting with Mr.Mekong and that forestry administration authorities totally denied his claims.
“Although the workers have been sent, the trees have not yet been cut down,” Mr Piseth said. “Clearance of the forest to build the reservoir will not start until Khmer New Year.” …
