Hydropower dam development along the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong Rivers in Vietnam and Lao PDR has been viewed as serious threat to numerous different indigenous communities living downstream of these dams in Cambodia. Since the construction and operation of some hydropower dams, such as the 720 MW Yali Falls dam on the Sesan River, villagers have experienced large-scale social, economic, and environmental impacts during the last decade. 

 

A recent study found that 722 households composed of 3,545 people (including 1,800 women, from 17 villages and 8 communes located along the river’s four districts) have abandoned the Sesan River in order to live in upland mountainous areas. The majority of these people are indigenous, with approximately 10 Lao families that have also moved. Presently, there are 4,071 families representing a population of 20,034 people (including 10,246 women in 56 villages) living along the Sesan River in Ratanakiri Province. Most of these people are indigenous with some Chinese and Khmer. 

 

The main reason why many communities have chosen to abandon their homes and villages located along the Sesan River is due to the river’s frequent flooding. This frequent flooding has not only destroyed household materials, rice yields and vegetable gardens along the river, but it has also frightened the villagers with an irregular water regime and occasional strong water surges. Secondly, people have abandoned their villages due to food shortages. Changes in the natural water regime have seriously degraded the river’s resources, in which fish, the main food source, has greatly decreased. Irregular fluctuations, worsening water quality and the loss of wild vegetables along the Sesan River have begun to cause food shortage. Thirdly, and the most serious reason why people have abandoned their homes, is due to fear that the dam may break. This fear has frightened villagers and forced them to move away from the Sesan River. One woman in Pawdal Village along the Sesan River summarized her feelings by stating, “Everyday people are scared of the water, it is the same feeling as if they have just seen a cobra or a tiger.”  Finally, some villagers have had to move because they either wanted to protect their land from encroachment or because there was no land reserved for the expansion of their village.

 

View demands of affected communities

 

These dam-affected communities are now living with economic insecurity due to a sharp decline in fish catches and agricultural production, as well as a fear of the river due to its erratic water-level changes and associated environmental and health risks. The future of the dam-impacted people remains a concern, as there has yet to be an effective solution proposed in resolving the negative impacts caused by the dams.  It appears that the basic rights of villagers living along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong Rivers have been violated.  Their right to life, right to food and water, right to access information, right to participate in decision making, right to compensation for the loss of life and livelihoods they have suffered, and right to be protected are yet to be resolved.

 

The resettlement of communities away from the river has created both positive and negative impacts. Positive impacts include better food security as there is more available land which is better fertilized, there are better health conditions (people are no longer frequently ill like those living along the river), and people no longer live in fear of the river’s water regime or that the dam may break, since their new villages are located far from the river.  Negative impacts include people having to give up some rice fields and property, people have had to move away from villages leaving over 1,000 children without access to public education services as the new settlements are far from schools.  Hundreds of hectares of forest area has been cleared due to the communities’ need to clear a new chamkar (farmland), there has also been severe water shortages during the dry season, while travelling and transportation difficulties have caused barriers in communication with outsiders.