NGOs cooperate to influence the policies and practices of government and international aid agencies in the resolution of Mekong Basin development issues, particularly along the SeSan River, so that project-affected-people have their rights protected.

The Hydropower and Community Rights Project builds on NGO Forum’s past work on envi-ronmental, social and economic impacts related to hydropower development and the rights of riparian communities in Cambodia. The project was originally titled the Mekong Basin Community Rights Project and was renamed in 2008, in order to allow for easier identifica-tion of the project’s work to cover broader then the Mekong region. The NGO Forum first work on the issue of hydropower focused on improving the processes of consultation with local communities affected by hydropower planning and resulted in a report being published in 1997. In 1998 and 1999, NGO Forum focused it work to draw attention to the needs of communities in the vicinity of the proposed Prek Thnaot dam planned for Kompong Speu province. This work receded as the hydropower project failed to find necessary funding. The project then focused its attention on helping advocate for riparian communities on the Sesan River in northeastern Cambodia, who have been adversely impacted by Vietnam’s 720 MW Yali Falls dam, which began to impact communities in mid-1996 and became fully operational in 2001. Through coordinated advocacy work with the 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN) and the Cultural and Environmental Preservation Association (CEPA), the Sesan Working Group was formed in 2003. As hydropower development began to threaten com-munities on the neighboring Srepok and Sekong rivers, the coalition expanded and became known as the 3S Working Group in 2005. Through the addition of new national and interna-tional civil society organizations and an expansion of geographical scope to cover hydropower projects throughout Cambodia, the coalition changed its name to the Rivers Coalition in Cambodia (RCC) in early 2007. The RCC works together to ensure sustainable hydropower development and to protect and restore river ecosystems and river-based livelihoods in Cam-bodia.

NGO Forum is one of the core member organizations in the RCC and has taken on the role as the key coordinator for the RCC. Other core member organizations in Cambodia include: 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN), Cambodian Volunteers for Society (CVS), Conservation and Development on Cambodia (CDCam), Cultural and Environment Protection Association (CEPA), Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGO Forum), Oxfam America (OA), and Oxfam Australia (OAus). In addition, the RCC works with many supporting local, national and international organizations, academic institutions, technical ex-perts, and individuals.

Together NGO Forum and the members of the RCC have been working to call attention to the negative impacts of hydropower development and its impact to climate change, and the importance of public participation, transparency and accountability in its development proc-esses. To date, they have undertaken investigation and monitoring of the impacts of dams to affected communities living near the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong Rivers, Mekong River, Tatay River and Kamchay River; developed awareness and understanding of the impacts of hydro-power projects among affected communities and other sympathetic sectors (students, NGOs, companies, etc.); developed capacity of local leaders in analyzing issues and negotiat-ing/communicating with decision makers on their concerns; promoted mechanisms for local, provincial, national and regional consultation and dialogue between the different stake-holders, especially the communities. These efforts have led to the creation of public pressure and demand for transparency in how local and national authorities make decisions on behalf of energy production and development and have created forums for bilateral and multilateral negotiation to occur between Cambodia and the other countries in the Lower Mekong Basin. Initial successes of this work include enabling the first bilateral stakeholder consultation workshop on the EIA report on hydropower projects in Vietnam on the Srepok River to take place in Cambodia which led Vietnam to commit to improving downstream flows by building re-regulating dams on both the Srepok and Sesan rivers, publishing approximately 20 reports on various hydropower issues, providing feedback on various EIA reports for hydro projects, and by gaining widespread national and international media coverage on the concerns of af-fected communities from the Sesan River.

As the delegated coordinator of the RCC, NGO Forum’s Hydropower and Community Rights Project works to facilitate national and international members to implement the activities of the RCC as detailed in the RCC’s Three Year Strategic Plan (2008-2011). With the vision that existing and future hydropower dam projects will respect the rights of the affected people and ensure the sustainability of the environment and livelihoods, the RCC believes that public participation in the planning and decision making process is essential in order to guarantee that the interests, needs, and benefits of affected people are included, as well as addressed. In order to achieve this vision, RCC members have committed to achieving 18 general objectives based on each member’s human and financial resources. These objectives include: campaigning to improve (or stop) hydropower projects; network building; education and public awareness; capacity building for all stakeholders; and improving Cambodia’s energy planning and processes.

In addition to supporting the campaign work and activities of the RCC, NGO Forum’s Hy-dropower and Community Rights Project has been actively involved in organizing awareness raising and advocacy focused workshops and events; producing research and materials on hydropower projects and its impacts; carrying out baseline studies of hydropower sites; and holding capacity building trainings to strengthen member’s advocacy work. The project is also helping to contribute to information awareness raising and advocacy on climate change in response to Cambodia’s energy planning and hydropower development by integrating climate change into its project planning and implementation.

As an independent NGO network in itself, NGO Forum reiterates its support and commitment to uphold the rights of poor women and men to development, especially their right to timely, complete and accurate information on various development initiatives that affect them.

It also seeks to continue its support to NGO network building as a way of promoting the meaningful and effective participation of one sector of civil society in national policies and governance.

Cambodia is one of four countries that comprise the Lower Mekong Basin and has many natural resources, including forests and water resources that it shares with its neighbours, the most significant being, the Mekong River and its tributaries. Other important areas in the Mekong basin that are rich in biodiversity and natural resources include the Tonle Sap Lake, the coastal area, and the Cardamom and Elephant Mountains.

The majority of Cambodia’s poor men and women and various ethnic minority groups, with an estimated 35% of its population living below the poverty line, are concentrated in these above-mentioned rural areas, due to the fertile land, water and fish, and the natural systems that maintain and enrich them. Many of these communities are based in a closed subsistence economy that is largely dependent on natural resources as a source of livelihood and food se-curity. Approximately 72% of these poorest households are involved in agriculture for their survival. Many are also dependent on common natural resources as a source of food and en-ergy with fishing and forestry products being a more significant source of food and income. In addition, women and men tend to take responsibility for gender-specific tasks in each of these economic activities, that makes them dependent on a different set of resources, e.g. men do the ploughing while women do the weeding; men catch fish while women sell the catch.

Due to the strong dependency on natural resources in Cambodia, it is believed that only a fine line exists between using the environment and its natural resources to meet the needs of the people and damaging these resources to the point where people’s lives, well-being and health are put at risk. If the ecosystem is not maintained, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable sec-tors, including women, will be most at risk to greater poverty and further marginalization as most women take part in unpaid agricultural and household work and both women and ethnic minorities are often disadvantaged in terms of access to education, social benefits, and access to economic opportunities. For these reasons, it is very important that if the government wants to reduce poverty and promote economic growth, it needs to pay close attention to en-suring that the benefits and corresponding costs (impacts) of development are distributed eq-uitably between the rich and the poor; the ethnic majority and minority groups; and women and men.

The government has launched several initiatives aimed at economic growth and poverty re-duction under the all encompassing frameworks of the National Poverty Reduction Strategy and the Rectangular Strategy. One of the priority areas to be developed and receive support as part of this economic policy agenda is the rehabilitation and construction of physical infra-structure including – among others, the development of cheap and reliable electricity through hydropower development and the development of a centralized power grid to match the in-creasing energy demands of its growing economy. Another area that has been prioritized and given parallel importance by the strategy is capacity building and human resource develop-ment that incorporates the promotion of gender equity.

Recent economic growth is reflected in the increasing energy generated domestically and im-ported from Thailand and Vietnam. Between 1998 and 2004 for example, local generation increased by an average of 8% annually while imports grew by an average of 250% annually except for the period between 2002 and 2003, when imports from Thailand decreased by 18.5% . Although domestic power has been mainly generated with the use of diesel and heavy fuel oil, the government has undertaken and is planning to harness energy through hy-dropower on its various water resources, including on ones that are shared with its neighbours in the Lower Mekong Basin. Much of this electricity will then be exported to neighbouring countries as part of the Mekong Power Grid, which is a regional power grid and electricity trading scheme being devised by the Greater Mekong Subregion program of the Asian De-velopment Bank.

While Cambodia’s total predicted hydropower potential is approximately 10,000 megawatts, of which nearly half is on the Mekong River, Cambodia announced in May 2008 that it is now in the process of planning to build 14 new hydropower dams in order to produce 1,850 megawatts. If the Cambodian Government can secure $3.2 billion dollars of private invest-ment, these 14 dams will be built by 2020 . While these dams may help secure access to electricity, they may also adversely impact water regimes, agriculture, and fisheries for thou-sands of downstream villagers who depend on these rivers as a source of livelihood, thus un-dermining the sustainable development of Cambodia. Hydropower projects are also being promoted as a source of clean energy and a way for Cambodia to mitigate climate change, however, this is a myth as hydropower reservoirs, especially in tropical countries, are a sig-nificant source of methane emissions, one of the worst forms of green-house gases.

The case of hydropower development on the Sesan River exemplifies the impacts and chal-lenges hydropower development poses to Cambodia. Since 1996, the 720 MW Yali Falls dam, located in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, has been a source of death, destruction and suffering for approximately 50,000 ethnic minorities who live along the river in north-eastern Cambodia. Changes to the river’s hydrology and water quality through the dam’s construction and operation has caused considerable ecological damage and has impacted the livelihoods and food security of affected communities. Some of the downstream impacts of Yali Falls dam have included: unpredictable water flows (causing drowning, lost and dam-aged property and reduced riverbank agriculture), worsening water quality (contributing to an increase in illness and disease in humans and animals), and a severe decline in fisheries caused by blocking fish migration and changed hydrology (which has led to a loss of livelihood and income) . While these impacts have been serious for men and women, local communities along the Sesan River believe that women have been more affected by the changes in the river except during periods of heavy floods when men work equally as hard as or harder than women. Women are also believed to be more stressed from the impacts due to worrying that their children may drown in water surges and floods.

These problems have been further exacerbated by the operation of the Sesan 3 dam (260 MW) and the Sesan 3A dam (96 MW) and the construction of the Pleikrong dam (100 MW) and the Sesan 4 dam (360 MW). In addition to these dams, there are plans to build five more dams on the river inside of Cambodia. The Lower Sesan 2 dam (420 MW) located is Stung Treng province is one of these planned dams, which is currently under study and is expected to result in the relocation of approximately 5,000 people and flood 7000ha of forest. Despite the local protests by affected communities for compensation and mitigation of past projects, remedy has yet to be found and new projects are underway.

While the challenges on the Sesan River remain, transboundary hydropower development on the 3S Rivers and the mainstream Mekong River continues to threaten communities inside Cambodia. There are currently 4 hydropower dams under construction on the Srepok River in Vietnam, which have already begun to impact downstream communities in Cambodia. On the Sekong River, plans are materializing to build 16 dams. Of these dams, five projects (one of which is under construction) are expected to negatively impact downstream Cambodians. On the Lower Mekong River mainstream, feasibility studies are currently being done for five hydropower dams, one of which is the Sambor Dam (2600 MW) located in Kratie province, Cambodia and another is the Don Sahong dam (240 MW) located 2 km from the Lao-Cambodian border in the Khone Falls area of Laos. In 2008, agreement was made between the Lao government and a Malaysian company to build the Don Sahong dam despite the fact that the Cambodian government has yet to be notified or consulted on the dam as outlined in the 1995 Mekong Agreement. The Don Sahong and Sambor dam are both expected to block fish migration, which will reduce spawning and drastically impact the region’s fisheries and food security.

Hydropower dams are also being planned for and built throughout Cambodia, in areas rich in natural resources. The 193 MW Kamchay dam is the first of a series of large dams currently being constructed in Cambodia. Located in Bokor National Park in Kampot province, con-struction on the Kamchay dam was approved in April 2005 without public consultation or an adequate environmental EIA. Mitigation measures for affected people has also not been con-firmed or finalized. In addition to the Kamchay dam, construction began in 2008 on the 120 MW Stung Atay and 18 MW Kirirom 3 dams, both situated in the Cardamom Mountains, one in the protected area of the Cardamom Mountain and the other in a community forestry pro-ject. In June 2008, agreement was made with Chinese investors to construct two more hy-dropower projects in the Cardamom Mountains. These build-operate-transfer dams are the 246 MW Stung Tatay and the 338 MW Lower Russey Chrum dam. As these dams are being constructed without EIAs or meaningful public consultation, the extent of impact these pro-jects will bring to the country’s rivers, abundant natural resources, and the livelihoods of communities living near project sites remains unknown. Many of these projects are consid-ering applying for funding through the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a car-bon credit offsetting program, despite the fact that they can not prove additionally, commu-nity approval or a reduction of green-house gases emissions. Cambodia’s Kamchay dam and Vietnam’s Buon Koup dam have both applied for CDM credit despite the negative impacts these projects are causing to the environment and Cambodian people.

In order to strengthen the ability of local communities and NGOs to voice their concerns to decision makers, local communities and civil society organizations need support to effectively engage with the responsible institutions on this issue. Implementation and enforcement of relevant national laws and “Best Practice” standards and agreements in the Lower Mekong River countries needs to be encouraged, while taking into consideration human rights and the existing cultural, environmental, and socio-economical conditions.

The World Commission on Dams (WCD) is widely considered to be the “best practice” stan-dard on hydropower development. Under the WCD, there are seven strategic priorities listed 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 affected communities from the nega-tive impacts of hydropower dams, there is a need for NGO groups to actively assist in: iden-tifying relevant stakeholders for dam projects, using the rights and risk approach; monitoring compliance with agreements and assist both male and female members of 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; to identify unresolved social and environmental impacts; and to convince relevant authorities and stakeholders to take effective steps to address problems and seek solution.