Chevron aims for 2016

Monday, 02 July 2012
Don Weinland
The Phnom Penh Post

Oil production in Cambodia may not begin until 2016, or at least three years after the originally appointed date, Chevron officials reportedly said at a Ministry of Environment meeting on Friday.

Government officials yesterday confirmed the feasibility of the time frame.

If Chevron Overseas Petroleum Cambodia gained approval for a production permit by the end of this year, it could embark on a 34-month process that would lead to drawing oil from Cambodia’s offshore Block A in the Gulf of Thailand, according to people who attended Friday’s meeting.

Details of the process were unavailable yesterday, but would likely include internal investment decisions and agreements with the government, Mam Sambath, director of Development Partnership in Action (DPA), said yesterday, citing information disclosed in the meeting.

កាកសំណល់​កំពុង​គំរាម​ទីប្រជុំជន​កម្ពុជា [-ប៉ាឡែ តាគូនដុះពីអាត់យួនសាង៉ាន់មែនទែន! ចយឌឹកអឺយ! ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEtfHGjg1v0

រូបភាពខាងលើនេះ ជាប្រព័ន្ធ​លូទឹកស្អុយ​មួយស្ថិតនៅ​ចំកណ្ដាល​ទីក្រុងភ្នំពេញ​ដែលភាយក្លិនស្អុយ​ប៉ះពាល់​ដល់អ្នករស់នៅក្បែរ។ Video សេង ធារី

Thursday, 26 April 2012
Cassandra Yeap
The Phnom Penh Post


ភ្នំពេញៈ អ្នកជំនាញ​ផ្នែកអនាម័យ​ប្រចាំអង្គការ GRET បានព្រមាន កាលពី​ថ្ងៃម្សិលមិញថា ផលិតផល​កាកសំណល់ បានកើនឡើង​នៅតាម​តំបន់​ប្រជុំជន​របស់​កម្ពុជា នឹងអាច​បង្កឲ្យមាន​ហានិភ័យ​ដល់​បរិស្ថាន និង​គ្រោះថ្នាក់​ដល់សុខភាព​។

លោក Yoann Laurent ប្រធាន​គ្រប់គ្រង​គម្រោង​របស់​អង្គការ​ក្រៅរដ្ឋាភិបាល GRET ដែលដឹកនាំ​ដោយ​អ្នកជំនាញ មាន​ប្រសាសន៍ថា ការផ្លាស់ទី​ចូលមក​ទីប្រជុំជន បាន​ជំរុញ​ឲ្យតំបន់មួយ​ចំនួនត្រូវការ​កន្លែង​ចោលសំរាម និង​ប្រព្រឹត្តិកម្ម​កាកសំណល់​។

លោក​មាន​ប្រសាសន៍​ថា​៖ «​កម្ពុជា​កំពុង​ចាក់ដី​លុបបឹង​ជាច្រើន​កន្លែង​នៅជុំវិញ​ភ្នំពេញ ឬ​នៅក្នុង​ទីក្រុង​ភ្នំពេញ ដូច្នេះ​អ្នកអាច​ប្រមូល​កាកសំណល់​ទាំងអស់​ចាក់ចូល​ទៅក្នុងបឹង ដែល​មានចំនួន​កាន់តែតិច»​។

Opposition officials visiting planned dam construction in Stung Areng

SRP MP Son Chhay (Photo: Pring Samrang, CSH)

17 April 2012
By Sek Bandith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soy

A SRP MP expressed his concerns on the planned construction of a hydraulic dam in Koh Kong by a Chinese company.

A SRP MP and a group of researchers performed a visit to an area planned for the construction of a dam that will straddle Koh Kong and Thmor Bang districts, Koh Kong province, on 16 April 2012.

SRP MP Son Chhay said that he and his colleagues will conduct a several day-long study on the impact from hydraulic dam in this region.

The study region is located in Stung Areng which the government and a Chinese company plan to build a hydraulic dam in the near future.

Son Chhay: “People living in the Stung Areng region are concerned about the construction of a dam on the Stung Areng River, because it will impact the forest, the nature, the vegetation, wild animals, fish in the river could become extinct. Not only does this impact the livelihood of the people, but it could also lead to the extinction of rare animals as well.”

The "King Kong" of "Koh Kong" ordered to stop ravaging the Tatai River thru sand dredging ... we'll see how long it will last

Ly Yong Phat, dubbed the CPP "King Kong" aka King of Koh Kong (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Cambodia: Officials Order LYP Group to Stop Tatai River Sand Dredging

Jul 22nd, 2011
By David Boyle and Vong Sokheng
The Phnom Penh Post

The “King of Koh Kong”, ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat, has been ordered to stop his company’s massive sand dredging operation on the Tatai river amid concerns it is decimating the waterway and ruining the tourist trade.

LYP Group has a permit to dredge at seven different sites on the Tatai river, totaling more than 32 square kilometres. Business owners and villagers, however, have complained the operations have reduced local fish stocks, released foul-smelling gasses and driven away tourists from the emerging ecotourism hot spot since May.

A letter ordering the temporary halt, signed by Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology, Lim Kean Hor, and obtained by The Post yesterday, identified several errors LYP Group had made, including pumping sand in the wrong locations and using excessively large equipment at the Koh Kong province operation.

Massive Hydropower Project Begins Amid Warnings

A fishing boat floats on the Mekong river at Sambor in Cambodia's Kratie Provice, another site in the country that has been chosen for a proposed 18-kilometer hydro-dam. (Photo: AP)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Wednesday, 29 December 2010

"If we can reduce our dependence on petroleum, oil or gasoline, our energy security will be ensured."

Cambodia broke ground on a new Chinese-funded hydropower dam in Koh Kong province on Tuesday, despite warnings from conservation groups of a heavy impact to the surrounding environment.

The $495 million dam, which China Huandian Corporation will control in a build-operate-transfer scheme for 35 years, is expect to produce 338 megawatts by 2015. NGO Forum, a group of organizations, has called the project “outdated, expensive and risky.” Other critics say the negative impacts of the dams outweigh the benefits.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called concerns over the dam “extremist.”

“Is there any development that doesn’t have an impact on the environment and natural resources,” he said in a speech. “Please provide a reasonable response. If we can reduce our dependence on petroleum, oil or gasoline, our energy security will be ensured.”

At least five Chinese companies are investing in dam projects—in the provinces of Kampong Speu, Kampot, Koh Kong and Pursat and along the Mekong river.

Hun Sen said he expects power to flow from different projects by the end of 2011, and into 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Free Fart

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Hun Xen's fart-ological demonstration of environmental impacts

PM lashes out at environmental activists

Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at unnamed environmental activists on Tuesday at the groundbreaking of a 338-megawatt hydropower dam in Koh Kong province.

Speaking at the site of the Stung Russey Chrum Krom dam, which will span the eponymous stream in Koh Kong’s Mondul Seima district, Hun Sen said environmental impacts were a natural consequence of economic progress.

“Is there any development that happens without an impact on the environment and natural resources? Please give us a proper answer,” Hun Sen said. The premier said society inevitably exacts a toll on the environment, making a bizarre allusion to proposed taxes on carbon emissions in other countries.

“Only the wind that we breathe comes without a fee, but in other countries, they have to pay,” he said. “Even with farts, there is a tax, and though they do not say the tax comes from farts, it is implied when they talk about the value of biodiversity.”

The dam is set to be completed by 2014 and is being constructed by China’s Huadian Corporation at an estimated cost of US$495 million, one of the largest foreign investments in Cambodia to date.

The government has granted Huadian a 38-year lease under a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement.

Um Serey Vuth, environmental team leader at local NGO Sawac, said his organisation conducted a preliminary environmental impact assessment on the project last year.

Because the area around the site is sparsely populated, he said the dam would have little impact on local livelihoods, though he noted that it would require some clearing of forest in the surrounding area.

In November, Cambodia and China inked a deal that will allow Huadian and another Chinese state-owned firm, China Guodian Corporation, to conduct feasibility studies for four proposed hydropower projects. The four include another dam in Koh Kong, two in Stung Treng province and the Sambor dam on the Mekong River in Kratie province.

A report commissioned by the Mekong River Commission earlier this year said more than one million fisheries-dependent Cambodians could be affected by dams on the Mekong, recommending a 10-year moratorium on construction pending further study.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SAM RITH

CAMBODIA: Sand dredging prompts fishermen’s protests

Fishermen report a drop in the number of fish in the area (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)
Dredgers remove 25,000 metric tonnes of Cambodian sand each day (Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN)

KOH KONG, 15 July 2010 (IRIN) - Fish are the primary source of income for residents of this sleepy, rustic border town in southwestern Cambodia, but when the area’s sand dredging vessels prowl the waters to plough up the riverbed, the fish all but disappear.

“When they were dredging a lot, we stopped bothering to even go out since it was not possible to catch anything,” Dol Sareem, a 60-year-old fisherman, told IRIN. “In those months, we caught half as much fish.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen banned sand exports in May 2009, yet sand mining continues in Koh Kong Province - the epicentre of the country’s corrupt dredging industry - enriching local elites and leaving fishermen to suffer, said international watchdog Global Witness.

There has been a lull in the sand operations since April, but local fishermen including Dol Sareem, who lives in Koh Kong’s main fishing community of dilapidated wooden homes with corrugated tin roofs, became so distressed by the impact of sand dredging that they joined several hundred people to protest in front of the provincial government office last December.

“It has improved since they have not been dredging these last few months but it’s still not like before,” he said.

Fishermen operating along the nearby River Kampot were less restrained in expressing their frustration. In February, they destroyed dredging equipment which they believed was responsible for the collapse of a riverbank.

Law not enforced

Dredging extracts sand below the sea floor, disturbing marine life and, more significantly, the spawning grounds that replenish it.

Dredgers remove 25,000 tons of sand each day from the Cambodian seas to export primarily to Singapore, where it is used for land reclamation, according to a Global Witness report in May.

The group valued a year’s worth of Cambodian sand at US$250 million on the Singapore market.

The report, entitled Shifting Sands, said the industry lacks transparency and government regulation, and could severely damage marine ecosytems essential to the livelihoods of many fishing communities.

“Companies operating in the sand sector as well as Cambodia’s regulatory agencies are ignoring environmental and social safeguards, and international industry best practices,” the report said.

The Cambodian government rejects the report’s findings. Cambodia’s embassy in London released a statement calling Global Witness an “international troublemaker” and describing its report as “malicious and misleading”.

The response by government officials closer to the ground, however, has been contradictory.

Pech Siyon, Koh Kong’s director of the Department of Industry, Energy and Mines, told local media he expected the main dredging company, LYP - named after Ly Yong Phat, the senator with the ruling party who is identified by Global Witness as the leading figure in the industry - would resume export operations in the near future.

Cambodia targeted

Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have placed restrictions on sand exports because of the environmental destruction it causes.

As a result, Global Witness says, Singapore has turned to Cambodia, where laws are lax.

According to Chourn Bunnara, who is based on the Cambodian coast with the NGO Fisheries Action Coalition Team, fishing communities have been largely powerless to raise concerns with the government about dredging vessels violating the ban.

Gulf Spill a Reminder of Cambodia Shortfalls

This big pelican is soaked with spill oil in Gulf of Mexico. (Photo: AP)

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 08 June 2010

“In response to any possible oil spill in the future, a coast guard authority and a petroleum safety administration should be set up to be in charge of safeguarding the environment, ” Mam Sambath, chairman of the Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, a coalition of non-governmental agencies, said. “All of the companies exploring for oil should also be encouraged to create an association which is tasked with coping with the possible oil spill.”

As the US grapples with the implications of the Gulf Coast oil spill, environmental and other groups in Cambodia say the country needs to do more to safeguard its own environment as it moves toward increased oil and gas exploration.

The BP oil spill, now in its sixth week, has poured thousands of barrels of oil into the sea. The environmental costs are likely to be huge, but the political costs are now beginning to mount for the US administration.

Analysts in Cambodia say that if the country does not want to undergo a similar experience, the government must put in place certain protective mechanisms.

Cambodia lacks a coast guard authority, a safety administration and protective agreements with companies who are exploring Cambodia’s oil and gas reserves, even though it expects oil to start flowing by 2012.

“In response to any possible oil spill in the future, a coast guard authority and a petroleum safety administration should be set up to be in charge of safeguarding the environment, ” Mam Sambath, chairman of the Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency, a coalition of non-governmental agencies, said. “All of the companies exploring for oil should also be encouraged to create an association which is tasked with coping with the possible oil spill.”

The newly established authorities should not be put under the existing Cambodian National Petroleum Authority so that separated technical management can be ensured for an effective mechanism, Mam Sambath said.

At least 13 companies have so far been granted exploration licenses with some already beginning exploration. Full drilling could begin soon in what experts estimate is a reserve of 400 million to 700 million barrels of oil worth billions of dollars. However, the money comes with risks, as the Gulf spill has shown, and observers say Cambodia lacks the institutions and agreements to deal with them.

Ou Virak, president of Cambodian Human Rights Center, who also manages a website monitoring development trends, said the government also needs to make a protective agreement with oil companies to have all the necessary pre-cautious put in place.

“Any company granted the extracting right has to be tasked with setting up detailed plans to protect the environment and the people, who might be affected by a possible oil incident,” he said. “If any company does not provide the protective plans or if the plans are not reasonable or inadequate, the government should reject them.”

The government could also apply for an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to learn from other member countries ways to better manage oil risks, as well as revenues. EITI works with more than 30 countries to increase transparency and accountability in oil revenue.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said EITI candidate status for Cambodia is not necessary because the country is already transparent in managing its oil revenue. The establishment of additional authorities to deal with any possible oil spill is not needed either, he said, as the country already has the National Petroleum Authority.

“If we created some more authorities, we would be criticized for spending more money,” he said.

National Petroleum Authority officials declined to comment on protective mechanisms for possible oil spills.

However, Cheam Yiep, a ruling party National Assembly member, said the Gulf spill had encouraged lawmakers to push for separate agreements with oil companies to ensure Cambodia is better prepared for such an incident.

“We will use the US experience as an example and basis for discussion and for an agreement with companies to extract oil in our country,” he told VOA Khmer.

Yim Sovann, an opposition lawmaker, said parliament needs to enact more laws to guarantee safety in the oil industry and that it needs to push the government to apply for EITI status to ensure transparency and accountability in management of revenue from the extractive industries.

Expert Warns Against Dam Projects

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
27 April 2009

International environmental experts warned this week that hydropower dams to be built on the Mekong River will have serious and long-term impacts on the environment and livelihoods of millions of people living along the river, especially those at its lower reaches in Laos and Cambodia.

They urged these countries to carefully consider impacts that have already been experienced in some of the developed world.

“The problem is not really about development and rights to development but it is about what kind of development, a short-term goal versus long-term cost,” Richard Cronin, director of the Southeast Asia Program of Henry L. Stimson Centre, told an auditorium organized by East-West Centre in Washington.

The use of hydropower and large dams as a source of energy “is extremely controversial, and particularly one of the most controversial things about it is old thinking,” he said. “We are now in this country trying to undo a lot of the damage that we did to rivers, especially in fisheries, from these big dams that we put up in 1930s.”

There are currently 11 hydropower dams planned for Laos and Cambodia. Two are in Cambodia. China, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are main developers, with China playing a major role by taking four projects.

According to environmental experts, dam construction could affect water levels and cause erosion. This will subsequently have serious impacts on fish populations and people who rely on fisheries. It will also block the flow of fertile soil, which is important for agriculture.

“It actually creates a physical block to fish migration, and there are many species of fish that migrate from the Tonle Sap and some other parts of the flooded zone up into the Mekong mainstream,” said Blake Ratner, the regional director of the World Fish Center, an international organization based in Phnom Penh.

“They migrate up into tributaries in the upland within Cambodia, but also through the mainstream to Laos and even to northern Laos,” he told VOA Khmer by phone. “So to put a dam that blocks this fish migration means that it puts at risk a great majority of the piece that is important to the commercial catch.”

Out of many hydropower dams planned, Laos’s Don Sahong dam, located near the Cambodian border, has caused a lot of controversy and debate. It is feared that the impacts it has are vast, compared to the 300-some megawatts of power it is expected to generate.

“The Don Sahong dam will seriously affect fish populations, and we are discussing this with Laos since we are in the Mekong River family,” Sin Niny, vice chairman of Cambodia National Mekong Committee, told VOA in a phone interview. “Laos said that once they have finished their study, they will share the findings with us in a stakeholder forum for inputs.”

Even as it worries about developments upriver, Cambodia is looking at the possibility of developing a hydropower dam called Sambo in the northern province of Kratie, under an investment from China. The study for that dam is due to finish in 2010.

“The oil crises that happened in the past make us realize that we cannot leave aside resources that we can use to produce a cheap electrical supply,” Sin Niny said. “It is sustainable. We don’t need to buy others’ oil.”

The Sambo dam could provide 2,600 megawatts of electricity, and through other hydro-development schemes, the country is expected to be energy self-sufficient by 2012 and able to export power four years after that.

However, Cronin suggested that a regional power supply was a better choice. A hydropower dam should be built in the upper Mekong, where it would do no harm to fish migration, the Don Sahong and Sambo dams abandoned, he said.

“You could consider building a dam where the cost benefit is the best and then sharing that power in the region,” he said. “Of course you can build the dam in northern Laos, where it would not have anywhere near the impacts on fishery that these two other Mekong dams would have.”

The Mekong River flows for 4,880 kilometres from its headwaters in Tibet, then through Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, one of the largest sources of freshwater fish in the world.

Controversy surrounding the Kirirom 3 Dam?

Nam Ngum dam in Ratanakiri (Photo: DR, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

06 Nov 2008
By Ung Chansophea
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

Environmentalists have expressed their concerns over the environmental impact from the Kirirom 3 hydro-electric project awarded to a Chinese company.

During a press conference organized on Thursday 06 November, a report prepared by The Rivers Coalition in Cambodia (RCC) NGO and by the America Friends Service Committee (AFSC) raised issues about problems linked to this hydro-electric project. The 4-month-long NGO study involved environmental and human impacts from this project. The Kirirom 3 Dam, a dam with a capacity of 18 MW, will be built on the Prek Kampong Som River in the province of Koh Kong. The electricity generated by the dam would be used by Phnom Penh and the construction cost is estimated to be $40.3 million. It will be entirely financed by the Chinese government. The project which was announced in 2004, recently received the nod from the government to start. The Chinese company China Electric Power Technology Import and Export Corp. (CETIC) will be in charge of its construction.

Ngy Sorn, the deputy director of the NGO Forum, indicated that “almost 5,000 people will be affected by the construction of this dam. The environmental impact will be substantial: lower water quality in the river, flooding of agricultural lands and homes, disappearance of ponds and canals. The negative impact on wildlife, in particular aquatic life, will be serious.” Ngy Sorn proposed a more positive vision for the kingdom energy policy: “Kirirom 3 is a small project, if we build it with good principles, the environmental impact will be limited. Cambodia must set in place quality standards for hydro-electric dams. To do it now would set a good example for the development of other similar projects.” The NGO report provided several proposals touching upon damage compensations, land compensations, as well as water management.

Meas Moeun, a representative of affected villagers from the Daun Peang commune who was present at the press conference, wishes to see “the competent ministries and the construction company allowing villagers to participate in the project, and that the villagers’ wishes be taken into account.”

Ngy Sorn recognized that “the government is more interested in the economic development than the preservation of the environment.” According to Ngy Sorn, only 20% of homes in Cambodia have electricity and the government plans to boost this number to 70% in 2030. This is the reason why the government launches several hydro-electric projects, and 4 other dam projects are currently under study.

“We do not oppose the economic development, we only ask that proper compensations be provided,” Meas Moeun concluded.

Agencies Worry Over Cambodian Rivers

By Taing Sarada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
16 October 2008

International and local non-governmental agencies are concerned that the building of hydroelectric dams in China, Laos and Vietnam could adversely affect Cambodia’s waterways.

“I think in the future, Cambodia might have a big problem, because when they build the dam or construct some other things in China, Laos or Vietnam,” Mickey Sampson, a country director for the Resource Development International Cambodia told VOA in Khmer in Washington.

Water that flows from the Himalayas flows into Cambodia, bringing to the Tonle Sap river mud and soil,” Sampson said. But damming the Mekong river can reduce the flow of fertile mud and change the diversity of wildlife in river systems, he said.

Meanwhile, the runoff of fertilizers and pesticides by Cambodian farmers into rivers is also hurting the waterways, he said.

Sampson said his organization has had in place for three years water monitoring systems, “so when they build the dam, then we can see clearly that the quality of water and diversity are changing in Cambodia.”

Minister of Water Resources Lim Kien Hor told VOA Khmer Cambodia was committed to environmental issues and was watching dam construction on the Mekong carefully.

“Cambodia is paying a lot of attention to the water issue,” he said. “Laos plans to build a dam, and we are interested to have a talk with them about this.”

The Khmer Association for Rural Development Cambodia, based in Kratie province, worries that the construction of hydroelectric dams could cause serious flooding and destroy thousands of hectares of farmland.

Thai plan threatens Mekong

Thursday, August 07, 2008
ABC Radio Australia

The Thai government has revived controversial plans to divert water from tributaries of the Mekong river to help agricultural production in the drought affected north east of the kingdom.

But conservationists are concerned the ambitious projects threaten the health of the river system and thousands of down stream villagers whose daily lives revolve around one of Southeast Asia's major waterways.

Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speakers: Dr Philip Hirsch, Australian Mekong Resource Centre; Jeremy Bird, CEO Mekong River Commision; Pianporn Deetes, Living Rivers Siam

(SFX- fishing in the mekong)

WERDEN: The Mekong is one of the world's largest and longest rivers. From the Tibetan Plateau, it runs through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Millions of people depend on the river and its tributaries for food, water and transport. Water flows along the Mekong have already been affected by China's construction of hydro dams.

For the past 20 years, Thailand has come up with no less than eight water diversion projects ..... at least two affect the neighbouring countries of Burma and Laos. Critics including Dr Philip Hirsch from the Australian Mekong Resource Centre say the government's rush to revive the projects is a political ploy.

HIRSCH: What's important to understand at the political level here is to understand is that the north and northeast of Thailand is and always has been the poorest region of Thailand, the driest region of Thailand and there's a certain pork barrelling aspect here of securing votes in northeastern Thailand by promising to green the northeast, just as the army used to say when it was looking at a similar type of scheme some twenty years ago.

WERDEN : Pie Deetes from the Thailand based environmental NGO Living River Siam says the government has yet to consult with communities who'll be directly affected if the water diversions go ahead. She's concerned those who stand to benefit are not local farmers by large agribusinesses who are more interested in growing crops for biofuel.

PIE: These water diversions are not for small scale farmers but is to support the large scale farm that's not owned by the community but by the companies and large scale farmers they're trying to promote energy crop its not for rice or food.

WERDEN :Despite the years of talking no diversions from neighbouring countries or of the Mekong have yet taken place, the Thai government has though spent big on the construction of at least two large dams and thats got conservationists worried. But Jeremy Bird, ceo of the Vientiane based Mekong River Commission, says the resurgence of interest is as a result of the current global food crisis and need for food security. The MRC is the body tasked with managing development along the river, and Mr Bird says no project can proceed without an environmental assessment and neighbouring government approval.

BIRD: Certainly some of those concerns from downstream countries about the impact of diversion of water on dry salinity in the delta area and particularly on the availability of irrigation water in the delta area and on the flow situation in the dry season which is very important for the fisheries, so those issues will be discussed during this consultation process but also in the medium turn we're going to see a situation where as a result of construction of dams upstream in China, there will be some significant increases in dry season flows in the Mekong which actually then might facilitate Thailand taking water from the river because then there'll be more water available during the dry season.

Chinese-funded hydro-dams bring hope and fear to Cambodia

Cambodian children eat rice by candle-light during an electricity outage in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Hydropower is held up as the beacon of hope for millions of electricity-starved Cambodians, with ten planned hydro-dams set to power up their homes for the first time.

But flicking the switch comes at a price as critics say the controversial deals made with mostly Chinese companies to build the dams will create further hardship for Cambodia's poor and ruin the environment.

For window-maker Dorn Seanghor, however, the prospect of working without being plunged into darkness is appealing. In the midst of Cambodia's building boom his business should be thriving, but he is constantly frustrated.

"There's usually a blackout for six to eight hours almost every day -- one time in the morning and again in the evening," he said at his shop in the capital, Phnom Penh.

"It disturbs my business. I use a generator when the power is cut, but the price of gasoline is very high now."

Still, Dorn Seanghor is one of the luckier ones. Four-fifths of Cambodians do not have access to any electricity.

Ten dams are set to begin churning between 2010 and 2019, and once they are all operational the government says they will generate 2,045 megawatts of power, serving all Cambodia's provinces.

Government officials say six of the dams will be funded by Chinese companies, but the US-based International Rivers Network warned in a January report that these Chinese investments could threaten some of Cambodia's most precious eco-systems.

"Poorly conceived hydropower development could irreparably damage (natural) resources," the report warned.

Groups have been particularly concerned about the looming affects of Kamchay Dam, under construction by Sinohydro Corporation in Bokor National Park and expected to flood 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of protected forest.

And now environmental groups say two more projects agreed in mid-June at a cost of more than one billion dollars -- Stung Tatay by China National Heavy Machinery Corporation and Russey Chrum Krom by Michelle Corporation -- have not been properly scrutinised.

Both will be located in the country's southwestern Cardamom Protected Forest, and about 1,600 hectares (3,953 acres) of woodland would have to be flooded or cleared to make way for the dams, the government has said.

This could destroy key animal habitats and upset the delicate eco-system.

"Cardamom is the last hot spot of conservation in Indochina," said Sam Chanthy, an environmental officer with advocacy group Forum on Cambodia.

Qian Hai, third secretary of the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh, denied his country's companies would damage the environment.

"We just help Cambodia. All these projects are approved by the parliament and the government," he said.

Ith Praing, Cambodia's energy secretary, insisted the government conducted careful environmental studies for all the dams.

"Outsiders always raise environmental issues, but we need electricity. We must develop our country. We must use our resources rather than buying oil," he said.

Cambodia has begun to climb back from decades of civil unrest to emerge as one of the region's fastest-growing economies.

Economic growth has averaged 11 percent over the past three years, although 30 percent of the 14 million people still earn less than a dollar per day.

The government fears rocketing energy prices will scare away foreign direct investment.

"Every sector needs electric power. When we have electricity at a reasonable price, development will come along," said Ith Praing, adding the government forecasts that by 2030, 70 percent of Cambodian families will have electricity.

Opposition member of parliament Son Chhay, however, said the debate is not simply a case of economic development versus the environment.

Poor people could be forced from their land to make way for the mega-projects, crops could be destroyed, while the environment the rural poor depend upon may be wiped out, he told AFP.

"The government just closes its eyes and lets Chinese companies do things that will cause a lot of problems in the future," Son Chhay said.

"It will not resolve poverty in Cambodia. Cambodia will lose a lot without taking into consideration the environmental consequences."

Koh Kong Hydropower Worries Critics

By Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 June 2008

The Council of Ministers approved last week two Chinese hydroelectric problems that they hope will bring cheaper energy to the province of Koh Kong, on the Thai border.

Critics of the measure worry about the impact on the environment brought about the two dams.

The projects, totaling nearly $1 billion in investment, could produce as much as 600 megawatts of electricity.