3SPN and the Lower Sesan 2 Dam on Al Jazeera
April 2012. Al Jazeera’s Stephanie Scawen reports from Ratanakiri Province: The Mekong River and its tributaries are Southeast Asia’s main waterway flowing through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. There are a number of dams built in the upper Mekong basin, including five in China, to generate electricity. But a second dam on river Sesan, a tributary of Mekong, is threatening the livelihood of people in Ratanakiri area of Cambodia. Activists say the dam will flood more than 30,000 hectares of farmland, forcing around 5,000 people to relocate and severely affect fishermen across the Mekong basin. The government says it has conducted all the relevant environmental surveys and believes the positive impacts outweigh the negative (http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2012/04/20124225512268289.html).
TVK Expose on the Lower Sesan 2 Dam (Khmer language):
During August 2011, Cambodian TVK aired a 30 minute expose on the Lower Sesan 2 dam highlighting the expected impacts to local people, fisheries, and discussing the strategies the government and companies have used in the past and will likely use in the future to mitigate these impacts and compensate local indigenous communities. The program also includes interviews with Mr. Chhit Samath and local people who will have to relocate from the area and their traditional way of life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuyiwG-zC3o).
Villagers Express Concern over the Proposed Lower Sesan II dam (VOA news in Khmer language):
May 2011. Villagers along the Sesan River and Srepok Rivers in Ratanakiri province have appealed to halt the Lower Sesan II dam project, insisting that more studies are needed on the dam’s impact on community livelihoods. The appeal followed the government’s approval of the dam project during a Vietnam-Cambodia investment conference in Phnom Penh last month. Ms. Foy Sut, a representative of riverside fishing communities on the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong Rivers, said the opinions of families who depend upon the rivers should be taken in to account (http://www.youtube.com/embed/M-zON7F1qvo).
Community Voices on the Lower Sesan 2 dam:
Five villages from northeastern Cambodia participated in the creation of a video to express their concerns about the proposed Lower Sesan 2 dam project. During 2009, the five participating villages representing two different provinces (Stung Treng and Ratanakiri), and three different ethnic groups (Lao along with the Pnong and Brao indigenous peoples) chose filmmakers that received basic training on operating a video camera and using a microphone with technical assistance provided by Mr. Daniel Lancot. These five videos were then edited together to make film to represent the full spectrum of feelings about the proposed dam. Community members have many concerns and fears about the possible impacts of the dam, which they discuss in the following videos:
Watch the videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xVCjHXUyq4 (part 1 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbdYw3C8XcQ (part 2 of 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXMdaXkQlNY (part 3 of 3)