Hydropower dams

Representatives of holdout families who are refusing to evacuate two Stung Treng province villages that will be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam traveled to Phnom Penh to petition the Mines and Energy Ministry for help on Friday. ...

Villagers embroiled in a battle against the government and builders of the Lower Sesan II Dam in Stung Treng province yesterday demanded that provincial officials vacate a local pagoda they have occupied as an office. ...

Villagers living near the Lower Sesan II dam in Stung Treng province are being stopped and searched at a road checkpoint by officials fearing possible “terrorism” attacks on the controversial dam. ...

A second road leading to the embattled communities of Sre Kor commune, where defiant villagers continue to live through floods caused by dam construction, has been blocked by Stung Treng provincial authorities.​ ...

Families in Stung Treng province that returned to a village near the Lower Sesan II dam after floodwaters temporarily receded are being warned they will be forced again to flee when a far worse deluge comes as all of the new dam’s gates are shut. ...

About 100 ethnic minority members were forced to trek 12 km on Wednesday out of a Stung Treng village on the verge of being flooded by a new hydroelectric dam after authorities blockaded a road. ...

Since Sunday, Military Police and provincial police officials have been stopping outsiders from entering Sesan district’s Srekor and Kbal Romea villages as 200 people – mostly ethnic minorities from all over Cambodia – continued to gather in defiance of the blockade for a series of events, including ...

The temporary detention and questioning of 24 people travelling to the reservoir area of the Lower Sesan II dam prompted a three-hour confrontation between Military Police and provincial police officials and more than 100 villagers in Stung Treng’s Kbal Romea village yesterday. ...

Rescuers armed with speed boats and emergency supplies have been deployed to two Stung Treng province villages where residents remain despite expected flooding as the country’s largest hydropower dam undergoes testing. ...

The doors of the Lower Sesan II dam were closed on Saturday for a monthlong test run, forcing more than 100 families holding out in Stung Treng’s Srekor and Kbal Romea communes to prepare for floods. Since the doors’ closure on Saturday morning, water levels ...

An official in Stung Treng province said there was no way to grant a last-minute reprieve requested on Thursday by villagers whose homes could be flooded within days once testing of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam begins on Saturday. ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities have vowed to demolish the Sre Pok Bridge ahead of the testing of the Lower Sesan II dam – which will submerge a number of villages – and warned that police will be deployed should villagers protest. ...

The Lower Sesan II Dam hydropower plant will start generating 50 megawatts of power by October this year, according to a senior government official.​​ ...

Over a hundred families in Stung Treng province’s Srekor and Kbal Romea communes said yesterday that they have located around 2,000 hectares to relocate to when a scheduled test run for the Lower Sesan II dam this week leaves their villages flooded. ...

Nearly 200 villagers from three communes in Stung Treng province protested yesterday at Sre Pok bridge to demand that authorities stop dismantling it when the Sesan dam sluice gate closes next month. ...

Villagers living near the Lower Sesan ll Hydropower Dam in Stung Treng province have been warned to expect flooding in their villages soon as the operators of the dam close its doors for technical tests. ...

The consultation process for the controversial proposed Pak Beng dam in Laos concluded on Monday, allowing construction to begin even as local and international civil society groups continued to urge a delay until a forthcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) environmental assessment is released later this ...

Local communities in the Tonle Sap Lake region have appealed to the Laos government to immediately put on hold plans to construct the Pak Beng hydropower dam. ...

A coalition of youth and community groups yesterday held a meeting in Phnom Penh to discuss the controversial Pak Beng dam in Laos, issuing a request for its construction to be halted until after an impact assessment expected from the Mekong River Committee (MRC) is ...

According to the Stung Treng Provincial Electricity Authority’s announcement yesterday, an electrical line was connected from the dam to a transmission network at the new site in Srekor. ...

A national police spokesman yesterday said a report alleging that tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group was colluding with loggers to launder timber was mistakenly posted on the body’s official site by a “tired” employee who meant to share the information with local reporters but not ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities say they have warned villagers living upstream of the Lower Sesan II dam to expect floods in September as one of the dam’s 50-megawatt turbines goes into operation. ...

So Sophort, deputy secretary-general of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee, said Cambodia would attend the meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in Vientiane, which is part of a six month prior consultation process for the 921-megawatt dam. ...

The last remaining Irrawaddy dolphins have stopped coming to a stretch of the Mekong river in Preah Rumkel commune due to the Don Sahong hydropower dam in nearby Laos, locals have warned. ...