Re: Hydroelectric dams in Vietnam endanger Cambodia's river people
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 18 Apr 2007 18:18:25 -0700
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.
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.
Source: NGO Forum on Cambodia
?The Powell River Peak 2007
On Apr 18, 8:15?pm, Chim <Chi...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Hydroelectric dams endanger Cambodia's river people
04/18/2007
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.
.
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