Work begins on Cambodian hydropower project

March 30, 2010
By SOPHENG CHEANG
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A Chinese company has begun construction of one of several hydroelectric dam projects planned to reduce electricity shortages in Cambodia that environmentalists warn could do more harm than good, an official said Tuesday.

The China National Heavy Machinery Corp. will build the 246-megawatt plant in Koh Kong province, with an investment of $540 million. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday, and the project is due for completion by 2014, said Pich Siyun, chief of the province's Industry Department.

"We have a shortage of electricity now, and I hope that the dam would help reduce people's poverty as the price of electricity would be cheaper," he said.

On Thursday, a ceremony is expected to take place in the capital Phnom Penh for the inauguration of another Chinese-built hydroelectricity project in Koh Kong. Pich Siyun said China Huadian Corp. plans to build a $558 million hydropower plant that would generate up to 338 megawatts.

Koh Kong province is about 130 miles (210 kilometers) west of Phnom Penh.

Electricity generation in Cambodia remains largely underdeveloped, with most power plants using fossil fuels. The impoverished Southeast Asian nation also buys electricity from neighboring Vietnam and Thailand.

Power costs in Cambodia are among the highest in the world, and only about 12 percent of its 14 million people have access to electricity, according to the World Bank.

Electricity prices are also a major source of complaint from investors in Cambodia.

In a bid to meet future electricity demand, the government has identified 21 potential hydroelectric dam sites across the country.

But environmentalists have voiced concerns about the impact those projects will have.

In a 2008 report, the U.S.-based International Rivers Network said "poorly conceived hydropower development could irreparably damage" Cambodia's environment and also extract a social cost.

But Pich Siyun dismissed the concerns, saying the projects were studied thoroughly by all concerned ministries before they were approved by the government.

"Of course there is an impact from the dams once we build, but according to our studies, the income from electricity will really boost our economy," Pich Siyun said.

No specific plans have been announced to export power generated from the hydro schemes -- an approach embraced by Cambodia's cash-strapped neighbor, Laos -- but Prime Minister Hun Sen has previously said that if Cambodia's capacity was adequate it would consider selling electricity to Thailand.

Proposed Agricultural Deal Carries Risk for Cambodia's Rural Poor

Cambodian farmers prepare seedlings for their rice plantation at the paddy rice farm in Kandol village, Kampong Cham province, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Phnom Penh (Photo: AP/file photo)

Phnom Penh 18 February 2010
Robert Carmichael, VOA

An investment group out of Australia has unveiled a $600 million plan to create a massive farm project in Cambodia. However, human rights workers are concerned that this deal, and others like it, will do little to help Cambodia's rural poor. Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh has more.

BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that wants to buy 100,000 hectares of Cambodian land on which to grow crops such as rice, bananas, sugar cane, palm oil and teak.

BKK managing director Peter Costello was in Cambodia recently to discuss the idea. The client for the deal is a company called Indochina Gateway Capital Limited, which has ties to BKK.

The Phnom Penh Post newspaper recorded an interview with Costello, a former Australian finance minister, in which he explained why investing in food is so tempting. "I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead and of course that's a great opportunity for Cambodia," he said.

The investors say the project will create jobs in an impoverished country, and help improve farming methods for the undeveloped - yet vital - agriculture sector.

But human rights workers say previous farm-industry deals have worked against ordinary Cambodians because of corruption, poor governance and often-violent land evictions.

Poor farmers often are kicked off the land and because of Cambodia's inadequate land-ownership records, often receive no compensation. So they wind up with no farm, no home and no way to start over.

Three years ago the United Nations human rights office in Phnom Penh said at least 59 land concessions totaling almost 1 million hectares had been granted to private companies for agriculture projects. It said that impoverished rural residents generally have lost out in such deals.

Government figures show it has approved 33 more projects since the U.N. report was released.

That does not include land concession granted to other countries. Qatar, Kuwait and South Korea have been pursuing concession deals here.

Matthieu Pellerin works on land rights for Cambodia human rights organization Licadho. He says corruption means that not only are the poor unprotected, the investors themselves may be at risk.

"Well-established system of corruption; a lack of checks and balances to ensure that poor communities, indigenous communities are not victimized by any kind of major agro-industry deals where sizable pieces of land are sold to private companies; the collusion of all state actors from the village up to the national level. All of these factors just make it very, very, very difficult if not impossible to abide by the book. I think that if one wants to really abide by the book, Cambodia in 2010 is not the place to come," he said.

BKK Partners' Costello says the investors plan to give five percent of the cash generated by the land deal to social projects in Cambodia.

But Pellerin says that may not benefit the poor, unless there is adequate oversight to make sure the money goes to community needs and not politician's pockets.

Opposition politician Son Chhay says if the BKK deal is done properly, it could mark a welcome change from past agreements with Chinese and Vietnamese agriculture companies. He says they do not invest in the country's people.

However, Son Chhay says it can be difficult to get information about land agreements. Until 2008 he headed parliament's foreign affairs committee, and he says members of parliament are blocked from examining contracts on such deals. "It's still the case that we are not able to get our hands on investment documents, and that's a cause for great concern," he said.

He says BKK must make the details of the deal public to ensure that rural poor do not lose out.

The issue of land seizures in Cambodia has drawn the attention of the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights. Surya Subedi on a recent visit asked the government to suspend land evictions until it put in place proper legal safeguards. But the government refused, saying to do so would hold up development.

Subedi says a new law on government land seizures is too vague. "For example, what do we mean by public interest? If land can be acquired in the public interest, how do you define it? Who defines it?," said Subedi.

Opposition politicians and activists for the poor say the risk is that the government will simply seize any land it wants, and those farming the land will have no legal protection.

Areas Near Lake Development Now Flooded

Flooding in Russey Keo in 2008 (Photo: Heng Chivoan, The Phnom Penh Post)

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 October 2009

Sitting on a wooden bed above knee-high water, Bo Socheata gazed at the stagnant floodwater invading her home.

“Since before Pchum Ben, the water has made it difficult for my children to go to school,” said the 30-year-old housewife and mother of three, who lives in the capital’s Tuol Sangke commune, Russey Keo district. “And the smell from the flood is terrible.”

Eight communes in two districts north of Phnom Penh have been inundated with floodwater for the past month, with some residents forced to abandon the ground floors of their homes and schools temporarily closed.

Many resident blame the flooding on a contested development plan that filled nearby Boeung Kak lake, claiming it had acted as drainage for rain water. Authorities said the flooding was the result of heavy rains, not the multi-million dollar project.

The lingering floodwater has damaged roads, floors and entire houses.

Pat Pao, 40, spent a recent day adding small, cement levies to his floors in an effort to prevent his house being flooded. Any tasks he had to do, he moved onto his bed, “and sleep with them,” he said with a sigh.

The flooding has affected 5,000 homes across multiple communes: in Russey Keo’s Tuol Sangke, Russey Keo, Kilometer 6, Chrang Chamres I and II, and Svay Pak; and in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmei and Toek Tla.

Residents blamed the filling of Boeung Kak lake, its 133 hectares under a 99-year lease for commercial and residential development by Shukaku, Inc. (At least one report in 2008 warned that filling the lake would lead to flooding.)

However, Lao Meng Khin, president of Shukaku, denied the flooding was caused by the filling.

“You look whether all the streets are flooded,” he said. “Not just Cambodia but any country in the world will flood.”

Municipal officials could not be reached for comment. But Kau Sles, a deputy governor of Russey Keo district, said rains caused the flooding, not the Boeung Kak project.

“The pumping from Boeung Kak I and II is just a small contributor,” he said. “The main reason is the rain flowing from Kampong Speu and Kandal” provinces.

Local authorities have been pumping the floodwater from the area, he said.

However, residents say the pumping only just started, despite the weeks of inundation, and they warn that without proper drainage systems, the problem is not likely to end.

Cambodian NGO Forum asks Sekong River dam developers to consider environmental effects

PHNOM PENH, June 4 (Xinhua) -- The NGO Forum in Cambodia has asked the developers of a series of large dams planned for the Sekong River Basin in southern Laos to pay close attention to their potential environmental impact as fears grow for the tens of thousands of Cambodians living alongside the river's lower stretches, local media reported Wednesday.

"We are really concerned about the potential negative effects on Cambodian people living downstream of the proposed dams," NGO Forum deputy executive director Ngy San was quoted as saying in the Mekong Times newspaper.

The dams could help power the region but it is critical that these environmental concerns are not overlooked, he added.

"We do not want to oppose the government or companies which are developing the dams," he said. "But we need to think about impacts on water quality and aquatic biodiversity ... We need the (Cambodian) government to hold talks with Laos on the matter."

According to a recent report from the Cambodian Mekong River Alliance, Laos has already constructed two hydropower dams on the river, with the Houay Ho dam capable of producing 150 megawatts, and the Xekamen dam to be complete in 2010 250 megawatts, the newspaper said.

The existing dams are believed to have seriously damaged the river's ecological wellbeing both in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia, affecting the livelihoods of an estimated 30,000 villagers living alongside it, the vast majority of whom are from ethnic minorities, it said.

Hydroelectric dams endanger Cambodia's river people

UPROOTED: The entire village, once nestled on the bank of the Sesan, moved about 100 metres inland to higher ground in 2000. The old site of the Kanat Douch village flooded in 2006 following sporadic releases of water from upstream dams.

04/18/2007
Source: NGO Forum on Cambodia
Posted by Peak Online

Powell River Peak reporter Luke Brocki travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam after winning a fellowship administered by the Jack Webster Foundation and funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

The second installment in his series of development-related stories looks at the lives of indigenous minority groups along the Sesan River in Cambodia's Ratanakiri Province. Brocki gathered data from personal accounts, academic studies and history books to explain the impacts of Vietnamese dam construction on downstream village communities.

Sesan struggles
"Yesterday morning, we could see the sand," says the village elder. "For the last two weeks, the river was so dry we could ride motorcycles to the other side."

We're standing on the sunny shores of the Sesan River in the jungle of Cambodia's Ratanakiri Province, on a large tributary of the Mekong River recognized in Vietnam for its hydro power potential. Two other rivers, the Sekong and Srepok, join the Sesan in Cambodia before flowing into the Mekong; together they contribute about 20 per cent of the Mekong's water. For comparison, all of Thailand contributes about 10 per cent.

"And during the rainy season, riverbanks cannot contain the water," says elder Kosal Teouy of the Kanat Douch village. "We moved the village up here in 2000, afraid of being swept away by the sporadic releases of water from the upstream dam."

Teouy's village is one of 12 in the area that abandoned the riverbank for the safety of the surrounding hills. The fears of the villagers proved justified; the site of the old village flooded in 2006.

"The water at the moment is clear, but it looked murky and mixed with oil over the last year and during dam construction," Teouy tells me through a translator.
A large group of wet children chase each other around the shore, while another couple of youngsters push a long and narrow wooden boat around the calm water with a long oar, like gondoliers.

"The children get a rash when they swim in the river; their skin gets red and itchy," he tells me when the group passes us.

The water is also no longer drinkable. The village gets its drinking supply from a well, recently dug by a German non-governmental organization (NGO). "It's very difficult to find food to eat," Teouy says. The main diet consists of rice and salt, with traces of fish, meat and wild vegetables when available.

The villagers are used to seasonal fluctuations of the water table and even to flooding during the wet season, but since the dam construction, the river levels have been changing frequently and erratically. Diurnal fluctuations of the water table have made fishing and farming difficult, if not impossible.

The basin's entire ecosystem is in danger, with many varieties of riverine plants having dwindled because of unnatural flooding, and bird and turtle nests having been swept away.

"We've made several requests to the government to stop dam construction, but the government doesn't respect the demands of the people. The situation is becoming worse and worse."

The politics of power
Cambodia's young democracy hasn't yet been the catalyst for change. Reigning prime minister Hun Sen was appointed to government by Vietnam while Cambodia was under Vietnamese military occupation in the late 1970s. Initially with the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen changed sides and was selected for a leadership role in the rebel government Vietnam was installing in Cambodia after overthrowing the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in 1978. He ruled as a despot until 1991, when the Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections. His party, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), went on to win the 1993, 1998 and 2003 elections. Today, the CPP has a majority in the National Assembly of Cambodia, but governs in coalition with the royalist Funcinpec party, which won 20 per cent of the national assembly's 123 seats in 2003.

Various political opponents accuse Hun Sen of being a puppet of Hanoi due to his past ties with the North Vietnamese, but he defends the charges with claims that he represents only the Cambodian people. More recent political opponents outside the country accuse him of being a corrupt dictator who controls the country by force.

Kanat Douch is beginning to despair. This group of a few dozen villagers is by no means alone. More than 55,000 people have suffered severe impacts to their health and livelihoods because of upstream dam construction along the Sesan. For these indigenous groups, the nightmare began with the completion of Vietnam's US$1 billion Yali Falls Dam, about 80 kilometres upstream from Cambodia's border. Construction on the 720-megawatt dam began in 1993 and was completed in 2000, funded by loans from Russian and Ukrainian governments. Since then, the World Bank last paid for an electrical transmission line that transports power from the dam south to Ho Chi Minh City.

By 1993, Vietnam had a fledgling environmental law that called for mandatory environmental impact assessments (EIAs) of major investment projects, including large-scale hydroelectric dams, but the law lacked regulations and guidelines to govern transboundary issues. Thus, downstream impacts of the Yali Falls Dam, now known to extend through Ratanakiri and as far as Cambodia's Stung Treng Province, some 300 kilometres downstream, were not investigated in the EIA. Construction pressed on and six other dam sites have since been identified for the upper Sesan River Basin; most of them are complete and operational today.

Development gone wrong
Since about 2000, flurries of studies and reports have been emerging as academics, local advocates and members of the media noticed downstream impacts.

According to a 2002 briefing paper by the International Rivers Network, the worst erratic releases of water occurred while the dam was under construction from 1996 to 2000, resulting in flash flooding downstream, causing deaths of at least 36 people and hundreds of thousands of livestock, and destruction of rice fields, vegetable gardens and fishing gear totaling about US$800,000.

In late 2005, the NGO Forum on Cambodia released a report documenting serious violations of international law under the 1995 Mekong River Agreement. The agreement calls for immediate cessation of transboundary harms as soon as victims speak out and for the resolution of disputes within a timely manner. That dialogue is only now beginning.

A 2007 paper co-authored by Canadian Ian Baird and Australian Andrew Wyatt, about to be published in the International Journal of Water Resources Development, examines transboundary impacts in detail in the Sesan River Basin. Baird and Wyatt identify as challenges the failure to implement standard international planning processes and the failure to follow due process in dam planning, construction and operation, despite the availability of international expertise and funding. "Weak technical and financial capacity on the part of the downstream country, Cambodia, has allowed the politically dominant upstream country, Vietnam, to impose its national interests on downstream communities in Vietnam and Cambodia," they stated.

Forging connections
A key figure on the front lines of the human rights battle, Kim Sangha, came to Ratanakiri six years ago. He planned to stay for one year, but became involved with a local NGO-3SPN, the three S-rivers protection network.

The 38-year-old Phnom Penh native couldn't leave once he saw the problems these indigenous groups were facing, and the hopelessness that was settling in after years of denial and inertia from powerful people able to effect change. Now coordinator of 3SPN, Kim spends his days visiting local villages and educating villagers about their rights to voice concerns and bring their problems to the attention of Cambodia's young democratic government.

"Our role is to report the concerns of the people and build up a local movement," he says in an interview in Kanat Douch village. "We organize many events and workshops, let villagers and officials debate the issues."

Kim fights for the demands of the villagers: bringing back the natural flow of the river, compensation for their losses and a guarantee of their safety in the future through a strong communication system.

"Right now, the villagers' participation in the projects is very limited," he says. "In Vietnam, they have policies for resettlement programs with compensation. In Cambodia, nothing."

His latest focus is on creating strong regional linkages between the villages in Ratanakiri to help villagers communicate and make them understand their rights. "Every year, we organize about 25 commune workshops to bring people together and dispense new information about dam construction and action plans for the villages. We need to push government on this issue."

Cambodia's minister of environment, Mok Mareth, was not immediately available and did not return my messages by deadline. Kim's luck was a little better.

"We talk with government often, but still don't know if the political will is there to help us," he says. "There were talks around equitable benefit sharing, which is a very good message given by government, but the government desires to develop economically. Sometimes this looks like a game they play to build more dams in the region and sell power around the country."

But Sangha refuses to lose hope. When asked about his source of motivation, he says he's driven by the promises of choice in a democratic society.

"There's a new election every five years," says Sangha. "Something has to change. We don't yet have a real democracy, but if we want one, it will have to happen through mobilization of the people. The children of government officials go to the United States, United Kingdom and Australia to learn about democracy. Maybe they'll use the new ideas. I hope it won't come to a revolution, but we have to fight for the people."

TIMELINE OF DAM IMPACTS

November 1993: Construction begins on the US$1 billion Yali Falls Dam.

1996: Major flooding hits northeastern Cambodia, including Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces. Dam construction begins to alter the flow of the Sesan River.

1998: The Yali Falls Dam reservoir is completed.

1999 to 2001: Water releases, spills and surges from the Yali Falls Dam cause a series of deaths and other downstream damage in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Early 2000: Reports of surges and deaths appear in the media. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat begins an investigation.

April 2000: MRC involvement leads to steps for advanced warnings of water releases. Independent consultants draft a report reminding Vietnam about its international obligations, calling for remedial efforts and compensation for affected communities. Vietnam never accepted, finalized, or officially published the draft.

April 2002: The Yali Falls Dam officially opens.

November 2002: A Vietnamese official acknowledges water releases and apologizes for downstream impacts.

June 2005: Villagers from Ratanakiri send a petition to the Cambodian government, again listing their demands for action surrounding the dam. They have yet to receive compensation.

Currently: Frontline local NGOs (non-governmental organizations), in partnership with philanthropic giants such as the McKnight Foundation, Oxfam Australia and Oxfam America, continue to educate and mobilize indigenous minorities to fight government and end the injustice.