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Coalition raises dam worries

Written by Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post. Thursday, 18 June 2009
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009061826554/
National-news/Coalition-raises-dam-worries.html


Group says Cambodian fisheries vulnerable to planned Mekong hydro
dams.

ELEVEN large-scale hydropower dams proposed for the Mekong River's
lower mainstream will threaten regional food security and the
livelihoods of millions of people, including thousands inside
Cambodia, according a regional anti-dam coalition.

As part of a new campaign to be launched in Bangkok today,
representatives from the Save the Mekong coalition, which includes
NGOs, community groups and citizens, are to present Thailand's Prime
Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva with a petition signed by 15,000 people
calling for the halt of controversial dam developments.

The signatures were collected on postcards distributed by the group,
many of which were returned with personal messages.

"What we're collecting is a diversity of opinions about what the river
means to different people. Everyone has a lot of different
perspectives," said Carl Middleton, Mekong program coordinator of
International Rivers, a US-based advocacy group involved with the
coalition.

"What everyone agrees on is that the Mekong is a valuable and shared
resource that's worth protecting."
The petition will also be delivered to Prime Minister Hun Sen and to
the leaders of Vietnam and Laos.

Vital arteries
Of the 11 proposed projects highlighted by Save the Mekong, just two
are in Cambodia. But the country, heavily reliant on the freshwater
fisheries of the Mekong and Tonle Sap, could also be vulnerable to the
nine developments planned in Laos.

At a workshop Tuesday, environmental scientists and government
officials said the 240- to 360-megawatt Don Sahong dam, to be situated
in Laos's Champassak province, could have particularly serious effects
downstream in Cambodia.

"I think the main concern of Mekong mainstream dams in relation to
Cambodia is related to changes to the Mekong and Tonle Sap, especially
when looking at fisheries production," Premrudee Daoroung, co-director
of the Bangkok-based Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional
Alliance, said by email.

She added that 70 percent of the fish catches on the Tonle Sap Lake
use the Mekong as a migration channel, which is likely to be blocked
by dam developments, including Don Sahong.

Pich Dun, secretary general of the Cambodian National Mekong
Committee, said Cambodia would work through the Mekong River
Commission - which also includes Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar -
to discuss proposed developments on the river.

"My own opinion is that we need development, but we have to be careful
about building dams along the Mekong River," he said, adding that the
government had requested Vientiane forward on technical studies of the
Don Sahong dam.

"We are waiting for the official notification from the Lao side ... in
order to proceed with the negotiations and consultations."
Ultimately, Middleton said that such developments are risky, since the
replacement value for lost fisheries stocks, which reach remote
communities inaccessible to development workers, would be
"unimaginable".

"This is a food source that spreads itself laterally through the whole
region, and reaches the most remote communities," he said. "It's not a
matter of being against the dams; it's about being in favour of the
river and ... what the Mekong provides to the region."
 
 

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