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The Mekong Basin Community Rights Project builds on
NGO Forum’s previous work on Se San River and dam issues. In recent years, the
NGO Forum has been assisting national and international level advocacy in
support of communities affected by Vietnam’s and Laos’ dam building on the Se
San, Sre Pok and Sekong Rivers, tributaries of the Mekong. The impact of dams
built along the three rivers continues to be the main focus of the project. The
project is working in partnership with the Sesan Protection Network in
Ratanakiri, CEPA in Stung Treng and Phnom Penh, FACT, Oxfam America, Forum Syd,
Mekong Watch and international advocacy groups. In mid 2005, an additional two
local NGOs, Mlup Baitong and CDCam, expressed interest in joining the three
rivers working group, which is named the 3S Working Group.
In Cambodia, the Mekong flows from Lao PDR through
Stung Treng province from north to south, meeting the Sekong River in the
provincial town and also two other rivers, the Sesan and the Srepok. The
confluence of the Mekong with these tributaries contributes about 19% of the
Mekong River annual discharge, produces vast natural resources for local
communities and serves as the ecological link for diverse fish species (about 1,
200 species) and seasonal fish migration and spawning grounds through out the
Mekong mainstream and its tributaries. The water of the Mekong, the Sekong, the
Sesan and Srepok have shaped the pattern of human settlements in the region and
created a vast natural resource base that has historically provided livelihoods
for the people. Dams are being built in many locations within the Mekong Basin,
most notably in China, Laos and Vietnam. All such construction will affect
downstream water regimes, agriculture and fisheries. Presently, Cambodia has
not had any medium-size or large hydropower dams; however, large numbers of
Cambodians adversely suffered impacts from neighboring dam developments,
including loss of aquatic resources, natural flow and ecology balance changes,
and threat of flood and drought.
In 1997, NGO Forum completed a report on processes of
consultation with local communities for hydropower planning. In 1998 and 1999,
the NGO Forum became increasingly concerned about affected communities in the
vicinity of the proposed Prek Thnaot dam planned for Kompong Speu province.
These concerns receded as the project failed to find funding support.
In 2004 and 2005, the NGO Forum coordinated a Sre Pok
River livelihoods study, which is a baseline study from which future changes to
the river system and the impacts experienced by local people living in the Se
San River basin may be understood. The purpose is to have a baseline against
which to hold developers to account. The NGO Forum and its partner NGOs have
expanded their target work focusing on Sre Pok and Sekong because there are many
dams proposed and being built on these rivers and their tributaries in Vietnam
and Laos.
Numerous water development projects are
being constructed or proposed in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Together, the three
rivers, the Sesan, Sekong and Srepok are estimated to contribute more than 10%
of the Mekong's water. There are 64 existing or proposed water development
projects in the three river systems (the “3S” river systems), of which 22 are in
Cambodia, 17 are in Lao PDR, and 25 are in Vietnam. It is important to note
here, that there is a significant variety in the type of projects proposed in
each country. For example, most Cambodian proposed hydropower projects are
designed for a capacity of less than 10 MW, aimed at the domestic energy supply
in remote regions, while most Laos dam projects proposed (over 100 MW) are
entirely large-scale projects for exporting electricity to neighbouring
countries, typically Thailand or Vietnam, through a regional transmission grid (ADB
2004). Another pattern to note here is that many of the major projects in
Vietnam are designed as multipurpose reservoirs, providing irrigation water for
agriculture in addition to electricity generation (See 3S Dam Inventory of Oxfam
America, 2005).
The Sesan River is located in the I-San
(North-eastern) region of Cambodia. The Sesan River is one of the Mekong
River’s most important watersheds. The river’s source is in the Central
Highlands of Vietnam. In Cambodia, it flows through the provinces of Ratanakiri
and Stung Treng before flowing into the Mekong River at Stung Treng town.
Situated along the Sesan River are 60 villages in Ratanakiri and 30 in Stung
Treng, including more than 8500 families from many different indigenous
highlander groups, totalling approximately 55,000 people, affected by upstream
dam construction in Vietnam. These include the fully operational Yali Falls dam
with the capacity of 720 MW. By
1996, the Yali Falls dam was already causing serious downstream hydrological and
water quality related problems, including considerable ecological and
livelihoods damage, resulting in
deaths due to flash floods and water-borne diseases, destruction to livestock
and crops, and losses to fisheries and other subsistence livelihoods
in downstream parts of Vietnam, as well
as Ratanakiri and Stung Treng Provinces in Cambodia. These impacts continued
until the dam was finally completed in 2001 (See Fisheries Office and NTFP,
2000; and Baird et al., 2002 details of impacts), and impacts resulting
from the operation of the Yali Falls dam remain serious, and can be expected to
continue into the future. To
date, there has been no official full investigation into the impacts to
downstream communities in Cambodia and the impacts have yet to be mitigated or
compensated for. To make matters
worse, Vietnam has also been constructing
three hydropower dams named Sesan 3 (260
MW), Sesan 3A (108 MW) and Sesan 4 (360 MW), and one multipurpose dam is Plei
Krong (100 MW) on the Sesan river in Vietnam. Moreover, there are three large
hydropower dams proposed.
The Sre Pok River is an important
spawning ground for fish and local communities who rely on this river, and its
resources for their income generating activities such as fishing, riverbank
agriculture, rice farming etc.
One hydropower dam, Drayh'linh dam (12 MW), and three irrigation dams named Ea
Kao, Ea Kar and Ea Sup are under operation in the Sre Pok River in Vietnam.
Also, there are three multipurpose dams namely Buon Kuop-CBK, Buon Tou Srah, and
Upper Ea Sup, and three irrigation dams named Buon Yong, Krong Buk Ha and Krong
Pach Thuong under construction in this river. Moreover, there are three
hydropower dams proposed.
Regarding
the Sekong River in Laos, currently there are one hydropower dam named Houay Ho
(150 MW) under operation, and one hydropower dam, Xekamen (300 MW) being built.
Furthermore, a number of additional hydropower schemes are proposed.
A number of
dams are also planned for construction within Cambodia, including on the Sre Pok
and Sesan Rivers. Presently, there are a few dams within or nearby protected
areas, namely Kirirom III hydropower plant in Koh Kong province and Kamchay
Hydroelectric Project in Bokor National Park, Kampot Province, which was the
subject to a feasibility study and will be built in the near future.
Local communities need support
in order to engage with the responsible institutions. “Best
Practices” in
Mekong River basin management need to be
encouraged, taking in consideration human rights, and cultural, environmental,
and socio-economical conditions. The World Commission on Dams (WCD) listed
seven strategic priorities for equitable and sustainable development of water
and energy resources. To achieve these seven strategic priorities, there are
several policy principles, which form the basis of the WCD Criteria and
Guidelines. The first strategic priority focuses on gaining public acceptance
and is supported by stakeholder analysis; negotiated decision-making process;
and free, prior and informed consent. In order to support communities, to build
links with government institutions, and to interact with regional or
international bodies for the benefit of project-affected-people against
devastating floods, the dreadful consequences of drought, and natural resource
and environmental degradation, there is a need for NGO groups to actively assist
in: identifying relevant stakeholders for dam projects, using the rights and
risk approach; monitoring compliance with agreements and assist aggrieved
parties to seek recourse; to strengthen the technical and legal capacity of
affected peoples' organizations for needs and options assessment processes
through support networks; and to identify unresolved social and environmental
impacts and convince the relevant authorities to take effective steps to address
them.
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