Chinese-backed Cambodia dam devastated livelihoods of villagers, rights group says
- Experts had warned that damming the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers would threaten fish stocks crucial to millions living along the Mekong’s flood plains
- Tens of thousands of villagers living upstream and downstream have suffered steep losses to their incomes, Human Rights Watch said
The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in the kingdom’s northeast has sparked controversy since long before its December 2018 launch.
Fisheries experts had warned that damming the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers – two major tributaries of the resource-rich Mekong river – would threaten fish stocks crucial to millions living along the Mekong’s flood plains.
Tens of thousands of villagers living upstream and downstream have suffered steep losses to their incomes, Human Rights Watch said in Tuesday’s report, citing interviews conducted over two years with some 60 people from various communities.
“The Lower Sesan 2 dam washed away the livelihoods of Indigenous and ethnic minority communities who previously lived communally and mostly self-sufficiently from fishing, forest-gathering, and agriculture,” John Sifton, Human Rights Watch’s Asia advocacy director and the report’s author, said Tuesday.
“Cambodian authorities need to urgently revisit this project’s compensation, resettlement, and livelihood-restoration methods.”
“There’s no doubt at all that (the dam) contributed significantly to the larger problems the Mekong is facing right now,” said Mekong energy and water expert Brian Eyler, while adding that more research was needed on the exact losses.