Cambodian villagers condemn Vietnam’s plans to build more dams on its side of the border, because the already existing dams are causing great destruction in populated areas. The environmental impact assessment was done by the Swedish consulting firm SWECO Groner with funding from Swedish and Norwegian aid agencies, SIDA and NORAD.
By Theis Broegger
ScandAsia.com (Sweden)
Enough is enough. That was the message delivered by ten agitated community representatives from the north-eastern Cambodian province of Stung Treng during a meeting on January 12 with some of the officials responsible for Vietnam’s plans to construct additional dams on the Vietnamese side of the border. These included officials from the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), who – in a rare move – were willing to face the questions of the upset Cambodians.
The Cambodian activists claim this was the first time in more than a decade of Scandinavian aid-backed hydro-planning along rivers shared by Vietnam and Cambodia that the Scandinavian consultants and the EVN have agreed to meet with affected residents and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
''We have no hope that Vietnam will give any compensation to the Cambodian people affected by their dams,'' one of the Cambodian community representatives, Chao Chantha, 46, told News Mekong after the meeting.
"Since 2004, we have been experiencing unnatural floods two to three times a year. We are aware that the floods are caused by hydroelectric dams built upstream in Vietnam,'' Chao Chantha explained, referring to the construction activity that started in 2003 for a series of dams in the Srepok river basin.
In Chao Chantha’s village in Banmei, 83 families are already negatively affected by dams across the Srepok that flows into Cambodia. For two years, releases of water from the dams have unleashed floods that caused the rice plants to rot. Their livelihoods affected, most residents are being forced to go to other provinces and find work in the garment or construction industries. A few families have decided to stick it out, but their crops are ruined by repeated flooding.
In the Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng provinces, an estimated total of 11,000 villagers living along the Srepok river basin have been facing negative impacts from hydropower development of the river basin. While the affected villagers are still awaiting compensation, many fear that the new dam projects – which will include four dams – will bring the same environmental impact.
Environmental Research Funded by Sweden and Norway
The original purpose of the January 12 meeting was to take up the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report done by the Swedish consulting firm SWECO Groner with funding from Swedish and Norwegian aid agencies, SIDA and NORAD.
A draft version of the EIA report, Cambodian NGOs say, predicts major changes for people living along the river on the Cambodian side of the border, ranging from unpredictable water fluctuations, riverbank erosion, water pollution and impact on fish migration. The EIA report is part of Vietnam's master plan study that looks into potential dam sites in the country.
But at the January 12 meeting, representatives of the Srepok communities called for a suspension of dam construction, compensation from dam builders, and a stop to the EIA processes and to financing of dam projects that had no support from the local population.
Tore Hagen, who is the vice president of SWECO Groner, acknowledged that his company could only come up with a "rapid EIA report'' on the Cambodian part of the Srepok. His team spent only a few weeks in Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng in November 2005, spending most of their time on the Vietnamese side of the river basin.
"To complete the EIA report, it takes at least one more year, because the work force needs to research during different seasons in Cambodia," explained Hagen.
The EVN and its Scandinavian partners have earlier promised to halt the dam construction if evidence would prove that it would have a dangerous impact on the environment as well as populated areas. However, a representative from the EVN claims that the flooding and irregular living conditions experienced by the villages in the provinces of Rattanakkiri and Stung have not been caused by the dam constructions, but by severe weather conditions.
By Theis Broegger
ScandAsia.com (Sweden)
Enough is enough. That was the message delivered by ten agitated community representatives from the north-eastern Cambodian province of Stung Treng during a meeting on January 12 with some of the officials responsible for Vietnam’s plans to construct additional dams on the Vietnamese side of the border. These included officials from the state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), who – in a rare move – were willing to face the questions of the upset Cambodians.
The Cambodian activists claim this was the first time in more than a decade of Scandinavian aid-backed hydro-planning along rivers shared by Vietnam and Cambodia that the Scandinavian consultants and the EVN have agreed to meet with affected residents and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
''We have no hope that Vietnam will give any compensation to the Cambodian people affected by their dams,'' one of the Cambodian community representatives, Chao Chantha, 46, told News Mekong after the meeting.
"Since 2004, we have been experiencing unnatural floods two to three times a year. We are aware that the floods are caused by hydroelectric dams built upstream in Vietnam,'' Chao Chantha explained, referring to the construction activity that started in 2003 for a series of dams in the Srepok river basin.
In Chao Chantha’s village in Banmei, 83 families are already negatively affected by dams across the Srepok that flows into Cambodia. For two years, releases of water from the dams have unleashed floods that caused the rice plants to rot. Their livelihoods affected, most residents are being forced to go to other provinces and find work in the garment or construction industries. A few families have decided to stick it out, but their crops are ruined by repeated flooding.
In the Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng provinces, an estimated total of 11,000 villagers living along the Srepok river basin have been facing negative impacts from hydropower development of the river basin. While the affected villagers are still awaiting compensation, many fear that the new dam projects – which will include four dams – will bring the same environmental impact.
Environmental Research Funded by Sweden and Norway
The original purpose of the January 12 meeting was to take up the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report done by the Swedish consulting firm SWECO Groner with funding from Swedish and Norwegian aid agencies, SIDA and NORAD.
A draft version of the EIA report, Cambodian NGOs say, predicts major changes for people living along the river on the Cambodian side of the border, ranging from unpredictable water fluctuations, riverbank erosion, water pollution and impact on fish migration. The EIA report is part of Vietnam's master plan study that looks into potential dam sites in the country.
But at the January 12 meeting, representatives of the Srepok communities called for a suspension of dam construction, compensation from dam builders, and a stop to the EIA processes and to financing of dam projects that had no support from the local population.
Tore Hagen, who is the vice president of SWECO Groner, acknowledged that his company could only come up with a "rapid EIA report'' on the Cambodian part of the Srepok. His team spent only a few weeks in Rattanakkiri and Stung Treng in November 2005, spending most of their time on the Vietnamese side of the river basin.
"To complete the EIA report, it takes at least one more year, because the work force needs to research during different seasons in Cambodia," explained Hagen.
The EVN and its Scandinavian partners have earlier promised to halt the dam construction if evidence would prove that it would have a dangerous impact on the environment as well as populated areas. However, a representative from the EVN claims that the flooding and irregular living conditions experienced by the villages in the provinces of Rattanakkiri and Stung have not been caused by the dam constructions, but by severe weather conditions.
6 comments:
This is the real Vietcong intention and they never give a fuck about any of Cambodian concern as their fucken neighbor have to say!!Vietcong want to promote peace and stability?
I say let stop all the foolishness and all the bullshit! Why don't all these Representatives go back into history and observe before the dams were built and did Cambodia ever has all year round flash flood like today??? If the damn flood happen all the times then it must be the fucken dams!!!This is not the first time that the whole ecosystem was study! There are too much money involve here and the fucken dam will be constructed once again to serve the Vietcong!!The fucken study is just to buy time and to make some of the controversy die down and hope Cambodian people will forget once more and the fucken whole cycle of debate about whether to build or not to build will erupt once more!!!
It is Cambodian people who will stand to lose everything!!! It is time for Cambodia to pursue the building of ATOMIC BOMB and blow up all the fucken dams that bring more suffering for Cambodian people!
Please don't pour gasoline on fire!
Hun Sen is a greatest obstacle for Cambodia to grow. Hun Sen is a least educated and the most brutal Evil/Beast Khmer Rouge ever lives.
Barachey ah/me Chor Youn Yiek Cong.
VIVA KAMBOJA
KI Troll.
Yietcong,Youn-Hanoi,would use all their means to destroy Cambodia.
They orderd its Slave Doggies,Hun Sen & its CPP,to implement their task forces.
Yeah, but the task forces are for keeping your Ethiopian Racists
people from invading us.
Do you mean Yuan Hanoi government are the thieves who invade Cambodia? Thanks for confessing that Yuan created the genocide in Cambodia. There're million more Yuan who used Khmer names.
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