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. …
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.
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.
The Ministry of Commerce has released figures showing Cambodia’s export of fishery goods including fresh and dried fish products have decreased drastically in the first quarter of the year, though several government officials viewed the figures with scepticism.
Cambodia exported 49.9 tonnes of fish products in the first quarter of the year a sizable drop from the 620.14 tonnes exported over the same period in 2012, the ministry’s data showed. …
Om Savath, executive director of Cambodia’s Fish Action Coalition Team, said that in general fishery production had declined this year, as the government had reduced the number of fishing lots throughout the country. …
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.” …
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. …
The Pursat Provincial court on Friday charged Krakor district’s judicial police bureau chief for taking bribes in order to allow illegal fishing in the Tonle Sap Lake, officials said yesterday.
[Hong Bunthoeun] stands accused of accepting bribes to allow illicit fishing in parts of the Tonle Sap Lake, in which commercial fishing is banned, said Krakor district deputy police chief Meal Soth.
The government withdrew all licences for large scale fishing lots in the Tonle Sap in February last year after concerns that the lake was being overfished arose. …
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.
An updated documentary, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?,” examines the impacts of hydroelectric dams on the Mekong River.
The Xayaburi dam, which would produce hydropower for market, has become a divisive issue among Mekong River countries. Critics say it could severely damage ecosystems on which lower countries like Cambodia and Vietnam rely. It is one of 11 dams under consideration on the lower Mekong. …
Some 60 million people live along the Mekong River, relying on it for food and agriculture. The use of the river is supposed to be supervised by the Mekong River Commission, which has representatives from regional governments. …
Residents of a village in the middle of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap “Great Lake” live surrounded by water, but don’t have enough access to clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing.
The Tonle Sap, a combined lake and river system that swells in the rainy season to form Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, has for generations supported fishing communities living in floating villages of moored houseboats.
But the silt deposited by the flow of the Mekong River, which nourishes the Tonle Sap’s abundance of fish that form a key source of food for millions of Cambodians, makes its brown, muddy waters unsuitable for daily use by households. …
During the wet season, residents can get clean water from nearby ponds and wells, but during the dry season villagers have to buy bottled water. …
Senior representatives for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and ASEAN met here Tuesday and issued a joint statement highlighting their agreement to forge stronger mutual investment, trade, transport and scientific cooperation links.
The joint statement was released at the conclusion of the 6th annual Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV) Summit, which was chaired by Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Vice President of Myanmar Mauk Kham, Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung and Secretary- General of ASEAN Le Luong Minh. …
The joint statement called for enhanced cooperation in exchanging information and technology and joint research in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, livestock, animal health and husbandry, aquaculture, industry and energy. …
Cambodia economic growth was 7.3 percent in 2012. …
Agriculture grew by 4.3 percent, crops by 4.9 percent, fisheries by 6.7 percent, industry by 9.2 percent, garment [sector] by 6.9 percent and the service industry by 8.1 percent, said Dr Hang Chuon Naron, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Finance of Cambodia. …
Moreover, gross domestic product per capita increased from 760 US dollars in 2008 to nearly 1,000 US dollars in 2012, with a projection of $1080 in 2013, he stresses [sic]. …
Cambodia’s rice export reached almost 180,000 tons in 2011 and 187,000 tons in 2012 of which more than 8 percent was exported to the EU. …
During the first 11 months of 2012, rubber exports increased by 23.9 percent … although value decreased by 19 percent down from a total of $181.1 million to $146.7 million.
In 2012, tourist arrivals increased by 24.4 percent to reach over 3.5 million from 2.88 million in 2011. …
Garment exports increased by 17.4 percent from $4.2 billion in 2011 to $5 billion in 2012. …
In 2012 … some 1980 construction projects worth $1.6 billion were approved. … The increase in the number of projects [displays] a steady recovery of the real estate sector, Mr Naron adds.
He also said [tax revenue] is estimated to increase by 27 percent to 2, 5 01 reil ($625 million) in 2012. …
Microfinance has experienced rapid growth over the last five years, reaching 1.3 million borrowers and 1.1 savers in 24 provinces. …
Cambodia’s trade volume reached $12.4 billion in 2012 while Cambodia’s export was worth 5.58 billion in 2012 [Dr. Hang Chuon Naron stated].
The South East Asia Weekly Staff, P.1
(Note: Infrequently Updated.)
More than 500 villagers from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces held a traditional sacrificial ceremony yesterday, calling on a local spirit to help in postponing the construction of a 400-megawatt hydropower dam in Stung Treng’s Sesan district.
Siek Megong, Srekor commune chief, said the villages … urged the deity to look after more than 1000 families who will be displaced by the Lower Sesan 2 dam.
“We are concerned about being displaced without getting proper compensation from the government”, Mr. Mekong said. …
The ceremony participants travelled along the Sesan river in boats holding banners that read “The River is the People’s Blood” and “ The River Belongs to All, Not to Private Companies.”
Studies maintain that that the dam could adversely affect fisheries and water resources. …
Cambodia’s focus on hydropower will reduce its independence on oil and ensure nationwide access to electricity at a stable price, Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech Saturday during the inauguration of a $47.1 million hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. …
However environmental groups have said the government’s focus on hydropower is misguided, as information on the likely environmental and social impacts of dam projects is sorely lacking, particularly the consequences for the countries fisheries. …
Mr. Hun Sen also said that Cambodia currently obtains more than 200 megawatts of electricity from its hydroelectric dams: 190 megawatts from the Kamchay dam in Kampot province, 18 megawatts from the Kirrirom II dam in Koh Kong and another 12 from the Kirrirom I dam in Kompong Speu province.
But in the coming years, Mr. Hun Sen said, additional hydroelectric dams will produce hundreds more megawatts for domestic consumption. …
After a 60- minute debate, the Senate on Friday voted in favour of a payment guarantee for the private companies constructing the controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province.
At the Senate session, 43 out of 48 senators voted to approve the deal which includes payment guarantees to Kith Meng’s Royal Group and China’s Hydrolancang International Energy Co. Ltd …
The impact on fisheries and local communities who depend on the resources of the Sesan River was still small compared to the benefits the government can gain from the hydropower project, Mr. Sarith said after the vote. “In two critical studies evaluating all factors of impacts, we have seen that the impact is minor compared to the benefit.” …
Two studies estimate that up to 10,000 families from Srekor, Phluk and Kabal Romeas communes will be displaced once the construction of the dam goes ahead. …
Chan Than, a representative for Srekor commune, said the lack of information in the past have raised concerns in his community about such government promises. …
“We never had the intention to oppose the dam … but the government should provide clear information about the risks and compensation deal” he said. …
Cambodia’s parliament on Friday approved a law providing financial guarantees for the developers of a planned hydropower dam on a Mekong River tributary, despite opposition from civil society groups seeking to delay the project.
Villagers campaigning against the Lower Sesan 2 dam in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province have expressed concern about compensation for villagers displaced by the project, which they say would destroy protected forest areas, kill rare fish, and negatively impact local ethnic minority culture.
But Friday’s vote in the National Assembly, after five hours of tough debate, cleared the way for the dam’s Chinese- and Vietnamese-backed developers to move ahead with plans to begin constructing the project next year. …
Environmental group International Rivers said the law helps put into effect an implementation agreement that significantly reduced the project’s compensation and environment costs, effectively releasing the developers from responsibility for many of the dam’s ecological and social impacts.
The text of the bill includes plans to provide compensation for less than 800 villagers displaced by the project, but green groups have said tens of thousands others living upstream and downstream from the project will also be affected. …
The massive and highly controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam project took a major step forward yesterday with the inking of government power purchase agreements and an investment deal between Royal Group and a Chinese company.
But details about the contracts, their implementation or the fate of the thousands of villagers who could be displaced by the dam remain shrouded in secrecy. …
A Chinese hydropower company, identified as Consultant CECCI, along with Royal Group and Vietnamese power giant Electricity Vietnam International (EVNI), will be in charge of the Lower Sesan 2 dam construction project in Stung Treng province, as well as the relocation of the 5,000 affected villagers, a provincial councilor said yesterday. …
Hydro Power Lower Sesan 2 Co.Ltd, a joint venture between local, Vietnamese and Chinese companies, was named as the project’s holder by the Council of Ministers, but none of the individual companies involved were named. …
Laos held a “groundbreaking” ceremony on Wednesday for a $3.5 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River that is opposed by environmentalists and some neighbouring countries because of the possible impact on livelihoods, fisheries and agriculture.
But it was unclear when actual construction of the contentious Xayaburi dam would start, with preliminary work on access roads and the riverbank already under way, and Laos’ prime minister saying plans were still being considered. …
Cambodia and Vietnam have opposed the project but Thailand has refrained from criticising Laos. It will buy about 95 percent of the power generated by the dam and three Thai firms have a stake in the project. …
Martin Petty, Editing by Alan Raybould and Michael Perry
