By DAVID BOYLE AND PHAK SEANGLY for The Phnom Penh Post
REPRESENTATIVES of 74 indigenous minority villages in Ratanakkiri province have prepared a letter calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen to halt construction of a dam that they say will devastate the flow and biodiversity of the Sesan River, endangering the livelihoods of tens of thousands, a plea timed to coincide with the premier’s scheduled visit to the province this week.
The letter is to be delivered to provincial officials today, two days after the launch of a weeklong trade fair in the province intended to facilitate investment opportunities in the so-called “development triangle” of neighbouring border areas in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
Meach Mien, project coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network, said Sunday that Hun Sen was expected to arrive in Ratanakkiri this week to formally open National Road 78, though officials could not confirm the details of the visit.
CAMERON WELLS AND THA PISETH for The Phnom Penh Post
River conservation advocates said Wednesday that the closing of dams in Vietnam had caused the Sesan River in northeast Cambodia to become so dry that it was occasionally possible to walk from one side to the other, and that fluctuating water levels were threatening villagers dependent on the river’s fish.
The 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN) said in a statement that the water shortage in the Sesan – particularly in the O’Yadav and Andong Meas districts of Ratanakkiri province – had been caused by the Yali Falls hydroelectric dam, located 80 kilometres from the Cambodian border, as well as five other dams in Vietnam.
Sev Doeun, a spokesman for 3SPN, said in an interview that the recent temporary closures of the Yali Falls dam had not only threatened fishermen’s livelihoods, but had also made some of them ill.
“On February 2, they closed the dam and prevented the water from flowing,” he said. “When the water wasn’t flowing, the young people were getting rashes. Also, when it was low, the people found it hard to row and fish.”
Their problems didn’t end when the dam was reopened on Tuesday, he added.
“When the water was low, they had to leave the boats on the riverbed, but when it reopened the boats floated away,” he said. “The fishermen couldn’t find them. The people were [also] scared when it reopened because there could be flooding.”
Concerns in Vietnam
The 3SPN statement follows a forum held at Vietnam’s Can Tho University on February 3 at which experts said they were worried that dams built on the Mekong would disrupt fish migrations “that are critical to the life cycle of 70 percent of the Mekong’s commercial fish catch” in Vietnam.
Experts expressed concern about plans for the construction of 11 further hydropower dams on separate Mekong tributaries, which they said would affect water quality and cause riverbank erosion.
Ratanakkiri provincial officials said they were too busy to comment on Wednesday.
[Ed -Apols for full quote]
SAM RITH AND SEBASTIAN STRANGIO for The Phnom Penh Post
VILLAGERS in Stung Treng province say they are increasingly worried about the likely effects of a US$816 million hydropower dam slated for construction on the Sesan River, as a Vietnamese firm moves to start clearing land around the dam site.
Beang Teang, a representative from Sre Kor village in Sesan district, said local residents had heard the company was currently transporting cement and steel for the dam’s construction and had expressed fears about the impacts – including floods – likely to result from the project.
“We are very concerned about the dam project,” he said. Chorn Pang, from nearby Phlouk village, said he was also worried about the degradation of water quality and the effect of increased flooding on local agriculture.
The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II dam, a project of the Vietnam-based Power Engineering Consulting Joint Stock Company 1 (PECC1), is set to begin construction next year, said sources close to the project.
VONG SOKHENG reports for The Phnom Penh Post
SEVERAL thousand villagers living along the Sesan and Srepok rivers in Stung Treng province are facing a severe shortage of rice and clean water as a result of polluted runoff from hydropower dam developments and mine explorations, local representatives and environmental activists warned Tuesday.
“We think there are about 50,000 residents in the area, and many of them have already complained about the water becoming muddy, with red, white and blue colours,” said Tek Vannara, programme manager for the Culture and Environment Preservation Association.
A report released by the Sesan-Srepok-Sekong (3S) Rivers Protection Network on Sunday attributed the water’s pollution to hydropower dams located on the upper reaches of the Sesan, both on the Vietnamese and Cambodian sides, and added that mining activities could also be responsible for the recent spike in pollution.
“The closing and opening of the existing hydro-dams in Vietnam, the ongoing construction of other dams, together with gold-mining explorations and other mining activities of companies upstream, both in Vietnam and Cambodia, have caused the current pollutions of the Sesan and Srepok rivers,” the report stated.
From Tuoi Tre in the central highlands of Vietnam
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen wrote to National Assembly representative Nguyen Dinh Xuan this week to inform him that surprise inspections at nine hydropower plants in the region last July found all plants in breach of their promises to protect the environment.
The plants have been destroying forests, blocking the natural flow of rivers and polluting the water while those operating the plants have yet to take into account the ecological consequences the facilities will render in areas both upstream and downstream of the plants, Nguyen said.
His ministry has also sent a similar note to the Prime Minister and another asking province governments in the Central Highlands to take urgent measures to protect the environment, one of which would be thinking twice before allowing the construction of new hydropower plants to continue.
Less than 20 days after tropical storm Ketsana hit the central region, local people are still suffering from heavy flooding.
Due to the impact of a tropical low pressure front approaching from the East Sea over the weekend, heavy downpours occurred in the central provinces with flood water rising up to second alert level in some rivers in Quang Ngai, Phu Yen and Thua Thien-Hue. Thousands of households in these provinces have been inundated.
Meanwhile, local authorities from Quang Tri to Khanh Hoa said that more than 2,800 vessels with 19,000 fishermen received timely warnings about the tropical depression and have been guided to safe shelter. Thua Thien Hue province plans to evacuate around 21,000 households from danger areas, especially those hardest hit by storm No 9.
*** Heavy rains have blocked off many streets in Quang Ngai city, making it difficult to bring patients to the provincial polyclinic. Currently, flood waters in the province’s rivers have exceeded second alert level and are predicted to continue to rise. The provincial people’s committee has mobilised all available to get ready for emergencies.
*** There is also widespread flooding in Tuy An district, Phu Yen province, especially along the banks of the An Dinh and An Thai rivers. Currently, the provincial border guard is guiding 276 vessels with 1745 fishermen on board to safe shelter.
*** In Kon Tum province, water levels in the rivers of Po Ko, Se San and Dak Bla continue to rise and there will be possible landslides and traffic jams on the Ho Chi Minh Highway section running through the districts of Dak Glei and Dak To.
[Ed-Apols for full quote]
Chun Sophal for The Phnom Penh Post…
“We welcome all investors who wish to invest or develop hydroelectric dams in Cambodia because we need power for our consumption and for supporting businesses,” he said. “We are ready to issue the licence if we find that the project is economically beneficial, but the company must go through a pre-evaluation process to determine possible benefits and environmental impacts before the construction can be started.”
The 325-megawatt-capacity Sesan Krom III dam would take five years to build following approval, Bun Narith said.
The project is one of 13, located mostly in the west and northeast of Cambodia, that the government is assessing for economic feasibility.
Ministry Director General Victor Zona told the Post in September that the dams could produce a combined 2,000MW of electricity. He said the 420MW Sesan Krom II dam, to be built by Vietnam Electricity on Stung Treng province’s Sesan River, was expected to be approved for construction next year. He said he hoped all 13 would be complete by 2020.
I must also quote the rather illuminating last paragraph of this story…
KTC Cable Co President Kim Myong Il reportedly met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on October 6 to discuss the company’s plans. The company has already built a cable and wire factory in Phnom Penh and a golf course in Siem Reap province.
It’s a hole in one.
From Vietnam Business Finance News
VNBusinessNews.com – The first turbine of Se San 4 hydropower plant with total capacity of 120 MW officially contributed electricity to the national grid on Sep 30.
Se San 4 hydropower plant complex was located in Ia O Commune, Ia Grai Dist, Gia Lai province with three turbines, total designed capacity of 360 MW, providing the total electricity output of 1.5 billion KWh per year. The total investment value for this project was about 5.8 trillion dong.
The construction was officially started in November 2004.
After the first turbine of Sesan 4 hydropower plant contributed electricity to the national grid successfully, it’s expected that the second turbine would be in operation in November and the third one in January 2010.
[Ed-Apols for full quote]
Visit Vietnam Business Finance News Online
From Viet Nam News
Ha Noi — The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in Indochina, has granted over US$2 million to 14 civil society organisations to conserve biodiversity in the region over the last year.
To date, 19 grants have been approved from 166 applicants, with eight grants given to projects in Cambodia, five in Viet Nam, one in Laos, one in Thailand and four to cross-border projects.
“The fund has laid down a strong funding foundation over the last year in Indochina,” said Jack Tordoff, the fund’s grant director. “We are particularly excited to see the large number of national applicants, showing developing interest in biodiversity conservation and increased capacity by local groups in the region.”
A new scientific 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. 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.
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. These results are consistent with the gastric disorders and skin problems experienced by Sesan River communities since the construction of the Yali Falls dam.
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.
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