Mon, 30 March 2015
Source:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sesan-dam-gets-new-design
Villagers living in the reservoir zone attend a community forum about the
Lower Sesan II dam on Saturday in Stung Treng province. KIMBERLEY MCCOSKER
Cambodia's
largest hydropower project has been redesigned, leading to concerns from
environmental groups, but a company official who confirmed the “design
optimisation” over the weekend insisted that the Lower Sesan II dam will
provide clean, safe energy and have few downstream impacts.
Ren
Zhonghua, deputy director of the Hydro Power Lower Sesan II Company, also said
critics of the dam needed to accept the reality of Cambodia’s electricity
shortage and understand that the country would not develop without such
projects.
The comments
came after a delegation from the National Assembly’s environment commission led
by Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Pol Ham visited the dam site over
the weekend and met with affected communities living in the reservoir zone.
The
controversial project, which will block the Sesan and Srepok rivers, is a joint
venture between China’s Hydrolancang International and Cambodia’s Royal Group.
It is expected to cost more than $800 million and go online in 2017. Experts have
warned following extensive research into the projected impacts that it could
lead to a food-security crisis in the Lower Mekong, affecting tens of thousands
in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.
“We have
authorised the design institute [an internal company body] to carry out design
optimisation, rather than redesign. Compared with the original design, the
total installed capacity remains unchanged after optimisation, with [a] safer
dam, easier sediment flushing and flood discharging and more environmentally
friendly,” Ren said.
Machinery operates at the construction site for Lower Sesan II dam in Stung
Treng province over the weekend. KIMBERLEY MCCOSKER
He added
that the environmental impact assessment had been approved by the government,
and measures to protect the environment were being put in place. As the Lower
Sesan II reservoir was relatively small, he said, “the dam has little impact
downstream”.
The
reservoir was calculated to cover about 36,000 hectares, according to the
original design – about half the size of Singapore.
Since the Post
first visited the dam site in February 2014, about a month after the joint
venture was formed and the early stages of construction began, a huge wall of
rock has been erected across the Sesan River and several square kilometres on
the northern bank have been clear-felled and burned.
Kol Samol,
Stung Treng governor, told the visiting lawmakers during a meeting at
Provincial Hall on Friday that environmental groups such as the indigenous-led
3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN) were part of a foreign plot to undermine
Cambodia’s move towards energy independence.
“They want
to make sure Cambodia will continue to live off the milk from [Vietnam and
Thailand], like a baby needs milk from its mother,” Samol said, referring to
power-purchase agreements signed in the 1990s that require Cambodia to buy
electricity from its neighbours.
However,
3SPN coordinator Meach Mean was quick to deny the accusation that opposition
was foreign-led, and called for the dam to be halted so that a new impact
assessment could be carried out following the “design optimisation”.
“The
government should postpone this project temporarily to conduct an [assessment]
again and provide people compensation properly,” he said.
But Ren of
the Lower Sesan II Company said an effective compensation plan had already been
put in place.
“In order to
make the villagers willing and happy to move out, we increased the resettlement
budget and standards, namely, all households to be resettled will have a house
of 80 square metres and farmlands of 5 hectares, and their fruit trees and
other properties will also be compensated accordingly,” he said.
The
environment commission intends to submit a report to parliament in the coming
days, and afterwards call Environment Minister Say Sam Al to answer questions
about the project.
“I can’t
promise all of you I can stop the project temporarily,” environment commission
chair Pol Ham told villagers in Srekor on Saturday, “but I can promise to bring
your concerns to the National Assembly leader [Heng Samrin] to raise the issues
with the prime minister.”
However,
that promise did little to mollify villagers like Phar Vy, who attended the
public meeting with Ham.
“The
government officials and company representatives want to move us from our
ancient village where our ancestors’ coffins lay. We cannot do that,” Vy said,
espousing a popular sentiment. “I will not move my ancestors’ remains. I’ll
stay here until I die.”
No comments:
Post a Comment