Losing Ground - Human Rights Party.

Losing Ground
The Sekong has its origins in the highlands of Vietnam,
then flows south through Laos and into Stung Treng where
it reaches the Sesan and Srepok. The rivers support the
livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia, including many indigenous groups that live
along the banks.
Several new dams are under construction or planned
upstream along the rivers in Laos and Vietnam, and the
impacts are disrupting villages in Ratanakkiri and Stung
Treng provinces.
“We are facing a lot of projects and we have to be
considering the combined impact across the [Sekong River]
Basin,” Richard Friend of World Fish said.
“It’s not about dollars; It’s a way of life. It’s about food,”
according to Canadian human geography researcher Ian
Baird, explaining that many of these river villages are a few
days walk from a market, and if there is no fish, residents
must walk to the market to buy goods. “Their lives depend
upon the river.”
Surges on the Sesan
A 2006-07 study in Ratanakkiri found that 772 families
comprising 3,545 people from 17 villages and eight
communes located along the river’s four districts have
abandoned their homes along the Sesan River to move to
higher land. Most of the families are indigenous people.
The group that left represented about a fifth of the river
population of 4,071 families in 56 villages and 14 communes
of the four districts living along the Sesan River in Ratanakiri
province.
The study, Abandoned Villages along the Sesan River in
Ratanakkiri Province reported that the people were moving
away because flooding was destroying their rice paddy and
vegetable gardens and because sudden surges in water levels
were frightening. The fish catch was declining due to the
changes in the river, and people complained about food
shortages.
The surges are caused by releases from new dams upstream
in Vietnam.
On February 8, 2009, three villages in Ratanakkiri
province’s Vuen Sai and Andong Meas districts reported
a one-meter rise in the level of the river, which became
“unusually turbid,” according to the Sesan, Srepok and
Sekong Rivers Protection Network (3SPN). Spokesman
Kim Sangha said the surge was caused by tests at the new
Sesan 4 dam in Vietnam.
Thun Bunhean, from Deilo village in Lumpat district in
Rattanakkiri, said once the water flowed so fast that “my
villagers and I could not have enough time to prevent our
cows, pigs, chickens and ducks from being carried away by
the water… and now we have nothing to eat.”
Flooding on the Srepok
Representatives in Stung Treng province have also been
experiencing unnatural flooding. The News Mekong service
(www.newsmekong.org) reported that flooding comes two
or three times a year along the Srepok River.
Chao Chantha, 46, said that the floods have been occurring
since 2004 and in her village in Banmei, many families have
moved out. She said some families have stayed even though
their fields are flooded two or three times per year.
Cambodia’s Dam Plans
As Cambodia struggles to find new sources of electricity, it has
launched its own hydropower projects on rivers all around the
country, and the experiences of the people in Stung Treng may
be a forbearer of what is to come in other areas of Cambodia.
Chinese companies and state banking entities are financing
much of this hydropower investment, a result of Cambodia’s
Forced Evictions and Intimidation in Cambodia
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