Hydrodam Plans Stir Ratanakkiri Unease

A woman with her children in a small boat pass a flooded house in Cambodia. (Photo: AP)

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Ratanakkiri, Cambodia Thursday, 27 May 2010

“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here. And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”

Patt Paing has five hectares of land by the Sre Pok river. She has a small wooden house, and she raises pigs. The 55-year-old leads a quiet life here in Village Two, in Ratanakkiri’s Koun Mom district. But over the past three years, life has been more difficult.

That’s because of the floods.

“I don’t have enough rice to eat because of the floods for the past three years,” she told VOA Khmer in an interview last week. “In previous years, I could harvest more than 1,000 buckets or over 10 tons of rice per season.”

The floods were caused by water releases from dams upriver, she said.

“The consecutive floods caused by the dams have left me almost nothing to eat,” she said.

At least five more dams have been planned on the Sre Pok and its sister river, the Sesan, both of which run into the Mekong River. Those dams will follow the 2002 construction of a 720-megawatt dam at Yali Falls on the Sesan in Vietnam.

Villagers, who gathered for an annual celebration of the 3S Rivers Protection Network here last week, say they don’t want more dams, the flooding from which damage livestock and farmland.

“The existing dam in Vietnam has already severely affected our livelihoods, so what will it be like if more dams are to be built on these rivers on the Cambodian side?” asked Meas Samith, a representative of indigenous villagers on the Sre Pok.

“For generations, I have never heard that when a dam is built, an escalator is also set up for fish to travel on,” he said. “When a dam is built, there is no more fish migration.”

Villagers here say the dams and the power they generate are not worth the cost.

“Can the electricity be eaten?” asked Piev Chhin, a 65-year-old fisherman from the Brov ethnic minority. “We live along the river, so if our house gets flooded, what is the use of having electricity?”

“The electricity is of no importance for us,” added Dy Bopi, a 55-year-old farmer in Koun Mom district. “We would rather us batteries or paraffin lamps instead.”

However, officials say that if Cambodia is to grow its economy, it will need more than batteries and lamps. Only about 20 percent of the country’s homes have access to power, and most of those are in the capital. And electricity prices here remain high, while Cambodia purchases electricity from Vietnam and Thailand.

Ratanakirri Governor Pao Hamphan told reporters here last week the proposed dams were not confirmed and that villagers should not worry about them too much at the moment.

“It’s just the information, as no company has come to talk to us about them yet,” he said.

A vice governor of Koun Mom district, however, said the government would proceed with the dams if assessments showed more benefits than costs.

“We don’t build dams to kill people,” he said, addressing a crowd of villagers. “We build them for their benefit.”

If Cambodia does not build dams, other countries will, he said. “How can we alleviate people’s poverty if we just wait and buy electricity from other countries?”

Villagers said last week the government should consider methods other than dams if it needs electricity.

“If they build dams, it’s not certain we would have electricity for use here,” said Nen Sokei, an ethnic Tompuon villager. “And if we do have electricity, we are not sure if we can afford to pay for the power supply.”

New scientific study: Dams on Sesan River polluting water and poisoning downstream communities

Address: PO Box 89007, Village 4, Banlung Town, Ratanakiri,
CAMBODIA
tel: (855) 75 974 112
Email: sesan@online.com.kh
www.3spn.cfsites.com

PRESS RELEASE

8th September, 2009

New scientific study: Dams on Sesan River polluting water and poisoning downstream communities.

Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia - A new report has linked upstream hydropower reservoirs to high levels of toxic algae and bacteria found in the Sesan River, which exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) limits for safe drinking water.

Adverse environmental and social impacts caused by hydroelectric damming of the Sesan River are reflected in a report released by STRIVER; a research strategy for improved water resource management jointly coordinated by the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (BIOFORSK) and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA). The report illustrates how detrimental dams on the Sesan River in Vietnam have been to the quality of water in the Sesan River and the health problems faced by communities living downstream in Ratanakiri province, Cambodia.

These research findings are especially relevant given proposals are in place to construct 5 dams on the Sesan River and its tributaries in Cambodia, including the large 400MW Sesan II dam in Stung Treng, which is anticipated to resettle over 5,000 people, inundate more than 33,000 ha of land, and have large scale impacts on fisheries and the livelihoods of both upstream and downstream communities.

The 2009 STRIVER technical brief entitled “A limnological study of the Sesan River in Cambodia in the dry season: focus on toxic cyanobacteria and coliform bacteria” is based on scientific research carried out by Anna Madeleine Tiodolf, Norwegian University of Life Sciences with field assistance provided by the 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN). The report presents the results of a water quality study conducted during the dry season over a two-week period in March 2008 in which water samples were taken in two different locations along the Sesan River in Ratanakiri province; Andong Meas, 30 kilometres downstream of the Vietnamese border, and Vuen Sai, 130 kilometres downstream of the Vietnamese border.

The study confirmed the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in the Sesan River mainstream, however no cyanobacteria were detected in the water samples taken in three different tributaries, indicating the polluted water to originate from a more stagnant mainstream source such as an upstream hydropower reservoir.

The water is not suitable for human consumption

Research by Tiodolf found concentrations of toxic algae (cyanotoxin) and presence of the indicator species E.coli, coliform bacteria, in the Sesan River exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) limits for safe drinking water.

Cyanotoxins are cancerous to the liver after longer periods of exposure, while excessive levels of E.coli concentration are commonly associated with many health problems and present an increased risk to communities through the spreading of waterborne disease.

Results are consistent with the gastric disorders and skin problems experienced by Sesan River communities since the construction of the Yali Falls dam. Approximately 28,000 people rely on the Sesan River for their drinking water, fishing, bathing, and feeding livestock and according to a report prepared by the Fisheries Office in 2000 entitled “A study of the downstream impacts of the Yali Falls dam in the Sesan River Basin in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia.” The 2000 report stated that 952 people had died along the Sesan River, with large numbers of domestic animals, as a result of diseases believed by local communities to be directly associated with the Yali Falls dam.

A 2007 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the Sesan River similarly identified toxic algae as the likely reason for villagers’ illnesses. The EIA report prepared by the Norwegian Institute for Water Research and Nordic hydropower consultants, SWECO Grøner, confirmed that there are strains of toxin-producing cyanobacteria present in the Yali Dam Reservoir, and that water quality in the Sesan River has “seriously deteriorated since the construction of the Yali Power Plant” with the cyanobacteria producing “exactly the same symptoms” as reported by Cambodians downstream.

Mr. Meach Mean, Coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network which works with communities along the Sesan River in Ratanakiri, indicates that this study confirms what villagers have been reporting for years. “The research by STRIVER clearly demonstrates the disastrous ecological and social effects large dams can have on rivers and the associated health problems for downstream communities. We hope this report will help initiate remedy for the communities who have been waiting for mitigation and compensation from the past and present impacts of Vietnam’s dams”.

Construction on Vietnam’s Yali Falls dam began in 1993 by the Electricity of Vietnam on the Sesan River and is located approximately 70-80 km from the border of Cambodia. Since its construction and operation in 2001, villagers living downstream have experienced large-scale social, economic, and environmental impacts. Despite complaints and requests from communities for mitigation no solution has been forthcoming

Mr. Say Duen, from Koh Peah Commune, in Vuan Sai district confirmed that health problems started approximately 5 to 10 years ago. “When we use the river water to cook, or to wash, we sometimes get a skin rash or diarrhea, and children who swim and drink the water get sick, especially during the dry season. I hope that this message will be received by the government and dam builders and they use their responsibility to find a solution for our people.”

END

For more information, photos, or documents mentioned in this press release:
Contact: Mr. Meach Mean, Coordinator, 3S Rivers Protection Network, sesan@online.com.kh, +855 (0)11 758 970.

The 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN) is a civil society organisation representing indigenous people living along the Sesan, Srepok (and Sekong) Rivers in Cambodia.

Planned dams in Cambodia ‘could cause poverty to soar’

21 Aug 2009
i-to-i.com

Plans to build hydropower dams in north-east Cambodia could bring about a rise in poverty and the displacement of around 5,000 people, it has been asserted.

Following an announcement from Vietnam that it is interested in investing US$600 million (£362.4 million) in the two dams – which would be situated along the Sesan River in Cambodia – conservationists and academics have spoken out about the possible social consequences, reports Reuters.

Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, told the news provider that construction of the second dam will cause flooding in 25 per cent of the surrounding land, which is currently used for agriculture – something that could also bring health problems for locals.

If completed, the dams will provide areas in both Cambodia and Vietnam with 500 MW of electricity.

In related news, it was revealed earlier this month that six more border crossings are to be opened between Vietnam and Cambodia.