THE BATTLE FOR THE 3S RIVERS AS LOWER SESAN 2 DAM CONSTRUCTION NEARS, ACTIVISTS WARN OF REGIONAL IMPACTS AND STEP UP PRESSURE ON INVESTORS BY PAUL VRIEZE AND CHHORN CHANSY • THE CAMBODIA DAILY ATANAKKIRI PROVINCE - During the past year, Cambodia and Vietnam have been pressuring their neighbor Laos to delay its controversial plan for the first Mekong River dam due to expect- Red regional environmental impact of the project. But at the same time, Phnom Penh and Hanoi Chhorn Chansy/The Cambodia Daily have jointly pushed ahead with their Lower Sesan 2 project, a massive dam located on one Boats lie in the Sesan River in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadaw district nearby the planned site for the 90-megawatt Lower Sesan 1 dam. This project of the Mekong River’s most important tribu- is one of 10 dams proposed on the 3S rivers in Cambodia. taries, the Sesan-Srepok-Sekong river system, also known as the 3S Basin. posed hydropower dams and the rest from coal Researchers and environmental groups are and gas plants. More than 40 percent of all pow- now warning that this 400-megawatt dam, locat- er would be exported, making hydropower an “For indigenous groups [in the northeast], but also ed in Stung Treng province, would also cause important source of future export revenue. serious damage to the wider Mekong region. Chinese companies are developing several for Khmer along the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, the The impact of the 3S dam, they say, will be felt dams in the Cardamom Mountains and with [fisheries] impacts would be severe as they lose the on fisheries, sedimentation and food security in Cambodia’s two Mekong River dams unlikely Cambodia’s northeastern provinces, the Tonle to go ahead anytime soon, due to widespread main source of protein in their diet.” Sap lake, the Mekong River and even in the concerns over their environmental impact, gov- Mekong Delta far to the south. ernment attention has turned to projects in the —PHILIP HIRSCH, DIRECTOR OF THE AUSTRALIAN MEKONG CENTER, Those environmental activists have now be- 3S Basin. THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY gun to focus pressure on the dam’s co-financer, Ian Baird In April, Cambodia took a major decision local business conglomerate Royal Group, in toward achieving its energy plans when it ap- order to persuade Royal’s CEO Kith Meng to Located below the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers, the Lower Sesan 2 dam would proved the Lower Sesan 2 project of Electricité pull out of the $806 million hydropower project, flood 30,000 hectares of farmland, villages and forest, creating one of the largest dam reser- du Vietnam. The Vietnamese state-owned elec- They say project studies have researched in the Tonle Sap and Mekong migrate to the 3S which is due to start within months. voirs in the Mekong region. tricity giant has since announced that dam con- none of these negative regional effects, and rivers. Scientists assume that many more fish Time is short, and the odds are high in them “It’s such as diffuse [river] system and This energy shortfall presents a major hurdle struction would start this year or early 2012. they fall short of international standards for species make this annual migration and new achieving their goal of saving the most impor- nobody has ever build a dam of this magnitude, to economic development of the country. Cam- The project, located below the confluence of hydropower development. studies are under way to determine the likely tant river system in northeastern Cambodia. so it’s hard to know what exactly it will mean, bodia now generates 400 megawatts of power the Sesan and Srepok rivers, would be the first In a 2009 study of the Lower Sesan 2 project, scope of the dam’s impact. “[I]t would be the most destructive dam built but I can say that there will be a significant domestically and imports another 180 mega- Cambodian dam built in the 3S Basin and will Mr Baird, the 3S Basin fisheries expert, said Philip Hirsch, director of the Australian in the Mekong River system for fish,” said Ian impact throughout the Tonle Sap and Mekong watts, but its energy demand will rise to 2,400 cut two of the basin’s three rivers off from the that at least 32 species of fish migrate from the Mekong Center at the University of Sydney, Baird of the University of Wisconsin-Madison system.” megawatts by 2020, according to the Asian Mekong River. Tonle Sap lake to the Sesan and Srepok rivers, said Electricité du Vietnam’s existing cascade of and a 3S Basin fisheries expert. Currently most electrical power in Cambodia Development Bank. Fisheries experts warn the dam would se- while even Mekong fisheries in Laos, Thailand dams upstream in the 3S Basin had already An estimated 1 million Cambodians earn an is generated from diesel generators and elec- The government has set an ambitious goal to verely impact the Mekong region by prevent- and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta would be affected diminished fisheries in Ratanakkiri province, income from Tonle Sap lake fisheries, and the tricity prices are among the highest in the generate 6,000 megawatts by 2020, Electricité ing mass migration of fish species to the two as a result of the dam. but he warned that its new projects in Stung dam’s impact on those livelihoods would be “sig- world, while less than a quarter of rural areas du Cambodge has said, with 70 percent of this rivers and blocking important sedimentation A 2010 study by the Mekong River Com- Treng would endanger food security through- t nificant,” Mr Baird said in a recent interview. have reliable power supply. energy coming from about two dozen pro- flow. mission found at least 12 important fish species out Cambodia. t 10 SEPTEMBER 10-11, 2011 The CAMBODIA DAILY 11 maker Son Chhay, Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote that unnamed “expert institutions” had found that “[The dam] will affect only fish that live in the Sesan and Srepok rivers.” Mr Hun Sen accused “a number of NGOs, politicians and media” of opposing Cambodia’s development and exaggerating the dam’s effects, adding that proper impact studies, miti- gation measures and compensation plans were implemented. The prime minister said the dam’s impacts as mentioned in the impact assessment were a price worth paying because the project would boost national development and “provide power to millions of people across the country.” He also denied earlier reports that the dam would export any power to Vietnam. The SRP was unimpressed with Mr Hun Sen’s letter and has said it failed to provide an overview of national, socio-economic costs and benefits of the project, as the contract agree- ment with the Vietnamese state power compa- ny remained undisclosed and the countrywide impact on fisheries were not addressed. Chhorn Chansy Mr Hirsch, from the Australian Mekong Jarai villagers take off on a boat on the Sesan River in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadaw district. Center, said a complete assessment of national energy needs, and the economic basis of the project was still lacking, adding that the deci- sion to dam the Lower Sesan was driven mostly THE 3S BASIN’S ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS by big business deals that bring large invest- ments and dividends to those involved. “A full cost accounting [of the Lower Sesan 2] The 3S Basin’s rivers flow from Vietnam and Laos into Ratanakkiri and has yet to be done,” he said, adding, “Dams are Stung Treng province, where they merge and flow into the Mekong River. being built as business, not to solve energy International Rivers Indigenous hill tribes have long populated the remote region, but needs.” hydropower development, rapid deforestation and increased farming and “[T]he reality is that the project’s costs will Private investors have proposed 30 hydropower projects throughout Cambodia. Several dams are being built in the Cardamom Mountains, mining concessions during the past decade have put tremendous pressure outweigh its benefits [...] it would be smarter to and the Lower Sesan 2 project is due to start within months. The recently proposed Lower Sesan 1 dam in Ratanakkiri and the Sekong dam invest more sustainable alternative energy in Stung Treng are not included on this map. on environment and communities. So much so that a recent ADB report warned that local officials in all three countries felt that the Basin’s water options,” said Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia program director for environmental campaign- t t resources are “facing an imminent crisis.” “The Lower Sesan 2 would be the bigger ers International Rivers. death blow to the migratory fishery, as two of Ms Trandem said the Lower Sesan 2 dam’s three rivers are totally isolated from the main- Since the 1990s Vietnam has built or operated a total of 14 upstream dams, severe and regional impacts should give Cam- stream,” he wrote in a recent e-mail. and in Ratanakkiri, villagers have long complained that the projects have bodia and Vietnam pause for thought, in partic- “For indigenous groups [in the northeast], reduced fisheries and water quality and caused floods and droughts. With ular after their own attempts to block Laos’ Me- but also for Khmer along the Mekong and the Lower Sesan 2 project now approved and 10 other proposed dams in kong River dam proposal. Tonle Sap rivers, the [fisheries] impacts would the 3S Basin in Cambodia gradually moving ahead, there are growing “The Lower Sesan 2 [...] is in many ways no different from the Mekong mainstream dams,” be severe as they lose the main source of pro- fears among villagers and NGOs that these projects could ultimately she said.