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Opting For The Big Dam
By Andrew Nette
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45278
PHNOM PENH, Jan 1 (IPS) - It has been a long held plan of Cambodia’s
government -- a hydropower dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River
in the central part of the country.
But political and financial considerations coupled with considerable
environmental and social consequences have combined to prevent the
project from going ahead.
Until, it appears, now.
In a move that will fuel concerns about hydropower development on the
mainstream of the Mekong, Phnom Penh is moving ahead with a dam that
would block the entire width of the river at Sambor, Kratie province,
in central Cambodia.
A memorandum of understanding signed in late 2006 between the
Cambodian government and China Southern Power Grid Company to study
the project’s feasibility considered two configurations.
The first a 2,600 Mw run-of- river dam barraging the entire width of
the Mekong, is a variation on the original scheme proposed by the then
Mekong Secretariat in 1994 for a 3,300Mw structure blocking the entire
river. This would have created an estimated 880 square kilometre
reservoir and necessitated the relocation of over 5,000 people -- a
figure many believe would be higher now.
A second, smaller design envisaged a 465 Mw project blocking only part
of the river, necessitating only a six sq km reservoir.
Although no official information has been released about the
feasibility study, several informed sources in Phnom Penh claim the
Cambodia government has already made an in-principle decision to press
ahead with the larger configuration.
In a presentation to a conference in Laos in September 2008, Tung
Sereyvuth, deputy director of energy development for the Ministry of
Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME), the body overseeing Cambodia’s
hydropower development, said the government is looking at a 2,600 Mw
dam, which it hopes to have on line by 2019.
In an interview in mid-2008, Ith Praing, Secretary of State for MIME
said that environmental impact assessments for the Sambor were already
underway. "We hope that it [the dam] will be workable. The dam will be
a historic achievement as the first big dam in Cambodia."
Despite this, Puth Sorithy, director of the EIA department of Ministry
of Environment told a dam-affected people’s conference in Phnom Penh
in early December that he is yet to see any of the paper work relating
to the Sambor.
Officials from MIME did not respond to requests for comment on the
status of the project.
Fisheries experts and critics of Mekong mainstream hydropower
development are scathing of the dam’s potential impacts.
"If built, the dam would block major fish migrations between southern
Laos and Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, destroy critical deep pool fish
habitats, and interrupt the rivers hydrological, sediment and nutrient
cycles, impacting the river’s wider ecology," said Carl Middleton, a
Bangkok-based research analyst with Rivers International.
A study undertaken by the Mekong Secretariat in 1994 on the impacts of
the 3,300 Mw option said it would block fish migration. It said
isolating fish stocks from historical spawning and rearing areas will
have effects far upstream to perhaps Pakse [in southern Laos] and
beyond, and on the Great Lake [Tonle Sap] fishery.
The Tonle Sap contributes almost two thirds of Cambodia’s annual fish
catch, largely comprising migratory fish species.
A paper presented to the 6th Technical Symposium on Mekong Fisheries
in Vientiane, Laos in 2003 was even blunter. "Any dam on the Mekong
mainstream in this part of Cambodia could be disastrous for fisheries,
but this site [Sambor] is the worst possible location."
The World Conservation Union has also identified the Sambor dam as a
serious threat to the habitat of the endangered freshwater Irrawaddy
dolphin. The stretch of the river between Kratie and the Lao-Cambodian
border, important in terms of deep pool habitats along the Mekong, is
a crucial dry season refuge for the dolphin.
The idea of dams on the Mekong mainstream has crept back on to the
agenda in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia due to such factors as higher
petroleum prices and the increased availability of financing from the
private sector and new industry players such as China, Vietnam and
South Korea.
In early 2008, Laos signed an agreement with a Malaysian Engineering
firm for a dam on the Mekong mainstream at a location known as Khone
Falls, where the river forms a complex network of narrow channels at
the point at which it flows into Cambodia.
The dam, the subject of considerable local and international
controversy, would block the deepest channel on that section of the
river and one that migratory fish can easily pass through at the peak
of the April-May dry season, when the Mekong’s water level is at its
lowest.
This will effectively block the dry season migration of fish between
the feeding habitats of the Tonle Sap Lake and upstream breeding zones
in Laos and Thailand.
"From the government’s point of view, neighbouring countries are
developing mainstream dams," said Nye San, deputy director of NGO
Forum in Phnom Penh. ‘Their argument is why should we [Cambodia] miss
out,’
The lack of information about the Sambor project is not unusual.
Cambodia has released little information publicly about any of its
planned hydropower projects. Local people who stand to be directly
affected are also told little.
"Villagers I know have seen Chinese and Khmer engineers drilling from
boats to check the bottom of the Mekong River," said A. Tan, a
fisherman from Sambor district whose village is eight km from the
proposed dam site.
"We know the dam will be built but we have no information. No local
authorities have shown us documents to help us understand this
issue,'' Tan added.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC), the body charged with monitoring
development in Mekong basin is also unclear about Sambor’s status. "It
[the Sambor] is not at the stage where notification procedures would
kick in," said Jeremy Bird, the Commission’s head.
"We have been discussing with the Cambodian National Mekong Committee
for them to provide us with the same preliminary information we have
got from Laos about Don Sahong and they have agreed."
"This will give us an indication of the scale of the process and the
time line for the project."
None of the proposed mainstream dams have reached the point in their
development where they trigger notification under the MRC’s guidelines
for managing the river’s water resources, added Bird. "I expect the
first to be notified in the first six months of 2009," he said.
The Sambor project is part of a major push by Cambodia to develop
hydropower potential for internal use and export to neighbouring
countries. Only 20 percent of Cambodian households currently have
access to reliable electricty supply, a figure the government wants to
raise to 70 percent by 2030.
According to the government unreliable power supply and high power
prices by regional standards are significant obstacles in attracting
foreign investment. Five dams are currently under construction and
over 20 are being studied in partnership with private companies,
mostly Chinese.
While observes agree steps need to be taken to improve Cambodia’s
access to power, not all agree that hydropower is the best option.
"Rather than building destructive dams such as the Sambor, there are
better ways for Cambodia to meet its energy needs," said Middleton.
"National energy policies should prioritise introducing innovative
renewable and decentralised electricity technologies that are now
available and cost competitive."
As was the case in Laos in the mid-nineties, when the regional
economic slowdown saw many dam projects delayed or abandoned, the
current global economic situation could adversely impact Cambodia’s
hydropower plans.
"If there is an effect on the United States and Europe, it should also
effect China and this might slow down dam building in our country,"
said NGO Forum’s San.
"Overall, it is too early to tell what impacts the global economic
downturn is going to have, including access to finance," said
Middleton
"Recent figures point towards significantly reduced rates of growth of
electricity demand in Thailand and Vietnam, the Mekong’s largest
electricity consumers. As happened in the mid-1990s this could result
in large dam projects being delayed or even cancelled."
"The current drop in oil prices does, however, make hydropower less
competitive compared to other electricity sources,'' Middleton said. |
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