Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and Cambodia - providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat has also been instructed to negotiate the purchase of nuclear power from... continue
The government on Friday awarded CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat a $92.21 million contract to install power lines in Cambodia’s eastern provinces, the Council of Ministers said in a statement.
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on the deal to extend the national grid by connecting Phnom Penh with Kompong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces. …
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. …
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. …
The Kep-Kompot Salt Producers Community says salt production fell nearly 50 per cent below forecasts because of early rainfall, which is assumed to end salt harvesting for the year. Prime Minister Hun Sen, however, has stepped in to ensure that price remains stable. …
Hun Sen yesterday noted the dilemma concerning salt production and hydroelectrical dams – when the dry season lasts a long time, salt production will be good, but dams will lack water to produce power. …
In 2008, Cambodia imported tens of thousands of tonnes of salt from China to supply the local market, but in the succeeding years, production has exceeded the market’s demand, according to the Post. …
The road to Srekor I village in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district is a bumpy one. The small discomfort caused by being jolted about on a motorcycle or being thrown around in a car, however, is offset by the striking scenery that surrounds a traveller on this road.
Small fires burn in areas of once-rich forest that have been decimated. Smoke drifts into the air and the charred skeletons of trees – felled or upright – lend a post-apocalyptic feel to the landscape.
Land clearing in multiple forms is creeping up on villagers in Srekor I village, who will soon be displaced when the Lower Sesan 2 dam’s reservoir swallows up the land their houses sit on.
The villagers are yet to be told when they will be relocated, but already the Post has seen tree cutters – working for an “Oknha Khna” – clearing forest a short distance away, seemingly in preparation for the $781 million dam. …
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. …
Commune chief Seak Mekong changes into uniform in his family’s small wooden home in Sesan district’s Srekor I village before leading reporters to a speedboat on the Sesan River and motioning them to climb aboard. …
Mekong, a 42-year-old Sam Rainsy Party official, says that in the past week, he has been threatened by forestry administration officials and warned not to speak to the media about the luxury-grade timber he claims is being cleared a short boat trip away. …
Hundreds of families in Mekong’s commune – and about 1,000 in total in a wider area – live in houses that will be submerged by the reservoir of the Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam, which was approved in February.
In exchange for making way for the $781 million, 400-megawatt dam – to be constructed by Royal Group and Chinese company Hydrolancang International Energy beginning next year – the government has promised families homes, farmland and infrastructure on sites as far as 15 kilometres away. …
When Post reporters meet with Sesan district officials at their head office, Yoeung Srey Pheary, deputy district governor, says the “900 to 1,050 families” affected by the Lower Sesan 2’s reservoir will be moved at the end of this year or by early next year, according to information she has received from provincial officials. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen will travel to China on Saturday to meet with the rising superpower’s new leadership, in a trip the government expects to yield nearly $2 billion in loans and aid.
Most significantly, the Government is hoping to secure Chinese funding for a 1.67 billion oil refinery project in Kampot province, which would ensure China’s prime position in Cambodia’s yet-to-take-off oil industry. …
The statement [from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation] lists eight deals including a memorandum of understanding between the National Bank of Cambodia and China Banking Regulatory Commission, an “agreement on economic and technical cooperation” worth 48.38 million, more than $73 million in concessional loans for an irrigation project in Kompong Thom province and a bridge in Kandal province.
According to the statement, the government also expects to sign a memorandum of understanding on a 5-million-ton-a-year oil refinery project, involving China Development Bank and China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation, both Chinese state-owned companies, to the tune of $1.67 billion.
China’s development bank is known as one of China’s “policy banks”- meaning that it gives loans in support of Chinese foreign policy. Such banks have funded Chinese-built hydropower dams in Cambodia.
In December, China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp.- which is majority owned by state-owned industrial giant SINOMACH- and Cambodian Petrochemical Company- which is chaired by cigarette magnate Kong Triv- agreed that work would begin on the oil refinery this year. …
Two Chinese companies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation and China Petrotech Holdings ltd., have been grated exploration blocks off Cambodia’s coat to search for oil and gas. …
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.” …
As many as 40 workers are cutting down trees, marking other trees they plan to fell in protected forest areas and piling up luxury timber in a flood-safety zone in Stung Treng’s Srekor commune, a local official said yesterday.
Commune chief Seak Mekong said the workers – from Kratie – had arrived on Sunday and were liberally cutting trees some distance from where the reservoir for the $781 million, 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam will be built. “On Sunday, the company sent 40 workers to cut the Thnuong trees in the Sesan II hydropower area under the premise of making way for a road and clearing pollution from the reservoir area,” he said. …
Workers in Stung Treng province have begun clearing forested land with chainsaws in order to make way for the reservoir of a massive hydropower dam that has drawn ire from local villagers who say they have not been informed about the dam’s construction plans.
The National Assembly approved the financing for the 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in February amid objections from opposition lawmakers who argued that the social and environmental impacts of the dam outweighed its benefits.
The dam is set to displace more than 5,000 villagers, and studies have shown that up to 100,000 residents upstream and downstream of the dam will be severely affected by its impact on fisheries. …
“I am wondering why they are cutting down luxury grade wood,” [Chief of Srekor commune, Mr. Siek Mekong] said.
As part on the law on the financing for the dam, a total of 10 million has been set aside to compensate the families. A further 19.34 million will be spent on home construction, 1.98 million on income rehabilitation and 3.23 million on irrigation systems. …
A water shortage in the tourist town of Sihanoukville has led authorities to advise scores of businesses to dig their own wells as only 50 percent of local demand is currently being met after high temperatures dried up the water supplier’s only reservoir. …
On March 20, the provincial water authority distributed letters to more than 5,000 customers in the province asking them to either use their own water sources or reduce the consumption of water because Prek Tup Lake- the 15-hectare reservoir that stores up to a half-million cubic meters of water during the rainy season- had dried up.
With no water coming from Prek Tup Lake, Anco Water Supply Co.Ltd., which has an exclusive contract to provide water to Sihanoukville, opened pipelines connecting Sihanoukville with Kbal Chhay, a waterfall 16km outside of the city, according to Prak Chanroeun, the director of the provincial department of industry mines and energy.
But because of insufficient pipelines and frequent power outages in the area due to the nationwide shortage of electricity, Anco has only been able to pump about 5,000 cubic meters of water into the city each day, about half of the 10,000 cubic meters demanded by customers, according to Mr. Chanroeun. …
Ngy Suy, the manger of Anco Water Supply also said… that the high price of diesel fuel used to power the generator was making it difficult for Anco to provide water at 1,000 reil, or about $0.25, per cubic meter, to the provincial water supply. …
Anco, which is owned by local tycoon Kok An, met with provincial officials yesterday and agreed to build two additional 200-cm wide water pipe networks between Kbal Chhay and Shianoukville in order to ensure that residents are able to access water all year round.
But for residents and business owners in Sihanoukville without their own well, a more pressing concern is where they will find water now. …
As in Sihanoukville, residents in Phnom Penh have been experiencing regular power outages, mostly due to the lack of water running through the country’s dams. …
The Government’s increasing pressure on investors and business owners, particularly in the tourism sector, to provide what in most countries would be considered public services and utilities is an issue that must be addressed, said Ho Vandy, co-chair of the Government-Private Sector Working Group on Tourism. …
Climate change will have a significant effect on major industrial and food crops in the Lower Mekong basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, says a new study.
The study, conducted by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project for the U.S. Agency for International Development, marks the first step of the project’s aim to help communities in the four countries to develop local climate change adaptation assessments and action plans.
Considered one of the most fertile areas of Southeast Asia, the Mekong basin is known for its production of rice and maize. About 70 percent of the basin’s population of 60 million people earns a living as farmers and fishers. …
Aside from the looming danger of climate change, plans to build a series of mega-dams across the river to generate electricity also pose a threat to the Mekong countries, experts say. …
“By blocking the transport of sediment, the dams will contribute to even greater erosion in the fertile Mekong Delta, which is already threatened by increasing saltwater intrusion as a result of rising sea levels,” Aviva Imhof, [International Rivers] group’s campaigns director told Voice of America.
Advocacy groups, environmentalists and policy-makers have wrapped up five days of events surrounding Mekong River issues in Washington.
“Mekong Days,” a series of talks, films and other forums that ended Tuesday, highlighted issues in the region, where some 60 million people live.
The Mekong River, a major source of food for many in the region, is currently under increased pressure from hydropower dam projects and the potential impact of climate change. Environmental advocates say the dams could hurt fish stocks in the river, even as temperature and rainfall changes threaten agriculture and livestock. …
A recent study funded by USAID, “Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change,” found increasing threats to livestock, fisheries and other agriculture. …
At least 11 dams are currently planned for the lower Mekong, a major concern for fish populations that migrate up and down the river. China has built four dams upstream already, and Laos is in the process of building a dam in Xayaburi province, despite objections from Cambodian and Vietnam.
China’s expanding investment portfolio in Cambodia has brought into sharper focus the darker side of the Asian giant’s “development projects” in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
And it is in the southwestern corner of Cambodia—known for its rich biodiversity, forest covered hills and bubbling rivers—where this Chinese economic footprint is leaving a defining mark. A plan to build a 400 km-long railway line through this rugged green terrain is the most recent Chinese addition to growing list that has alarmed Cambodian environmentalists. …
Environment Minister Mok Mareth reportedly told the Cambodia Daily newspaper in an interview at the time that the paperwork had not included an environment impact assessment (EIA).
The same publication had also got Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek to affirm in an interview that he was in the dark about the details of this massive investment.
It confirms a pattern that is disturbingly familiar to environmentalists who have been monitoring much longer “development” projects: the way Chinese companies are building large hydropower projects in the same southwestern corner targeted for the new railway line. …
China’s hydropower projects, now estimated to be over $1.6 billion in investments, are aiming to generate 915 megawatts of power in a country that suffers from an energy deficit. Only a quarter of the country’s 14.5 million population has access to power from the national grid. …
The recent power shortages have left residents of Phnom Penh out in the heat and dark, but amidst their mounting frustration, state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) has announced it will be purchasing more power from Thailand to address the shortfall.
Keo Rattanak, director-general of the EDC, said in a company notice that the EDC had already purchased an additional 15 megawatts (MW) that would go toward addressing the power cuts along National Road 4.
He added that in the next two to three days, the company would purchase an additional 10 MW and a further 10 MW before the Khmer New Year holidays in April. …
Ty Thany, executive director at the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, said the measure could lead to higher energy prices since “Thailand and Vietnam, they sell us power, but want to sell it at a high price.”
San Vibol, an energy researcher at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, feels the government should instead develop an energy policy encouraging efficiency and renewability. …
