Electricity production
Renewable energy production
Cambodia launches project to develop biomass-fuelled energy technologies
Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday launched a four year project, aiming at promoting the development of biomass-fueled renewable energy generation technologies in industrial sector, officials said. The 5.6 million US dollar project will provide technical and partial financial support for the ...
Lawmakers to Discuss Sesan 2 Dam Draft Law
The National Assembly has announced that it will discuss a draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province on February 15, a move environmental groups called premature. Meach Mean, coordinator for 3S Rivers Protection Network – which has been ...
Last days of a valley damned
Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery. Now they are staring at ...
May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020861238/National/last-days-of-a-valley-damned.html
Concern Over Chinese Investment
Cambodia’s largest opposition party has expressed concern that China’s investment in the country is heavily skewed towards exploiting natural resources, wreaking havoc on the environment. China is Cambodia’s largest investor by a wide margin, having poured U.S. $9.7 billion into the country over the past 18 ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/china-02072013175545.html
Investment Or Imperialism? Tracking China's Big Ambitions In Cambodia
A few years ago this scene would have played out in China. More specifically, it would have played out in a Chinese coastal region to which millions of rural folks had arrived looking for work. A huge hangar, piles of fabrics of all colors at both ...
Russian Firm Steps Up Dam Deal
Laos has stepped up plans for three hydropower dams on Mekong River tributaries, updating an eight-year-old deal with a Russian investor to build the projects for U.S. $1.5 billion. Lao authorities signed a project development agreement with Russia’s Regional Oil for the Sekong 4, Sekong 5, ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/hydropower-02062013151208.html
Relocation site has villagers worried
Villagers facing relocation from the site of the planned Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province were told last week that they would be moved 15 kilometres from the river they rely on for fishing, a commune chief said yesterday. Seak Mekong, commune chief in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020661210/National/relocation-site-has-villagers-worried.html
Draft Law for Lower Sesan Dam Details Plans for Compensation
A draft law on the financing of a controversial dam project in Stung Treng province obtained yesterday shows that about $38 million will be spent on the resettlement of almost 800 families. This marks a significant decrease from the more than 1,000 families the companies ...
Company Building Lower Sesan 2 Dam Gets OK to Clear Land
Representatives of a massive hydropower dam project in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district approached local authorities late last month informing them that the government had granted the company permission to clear 36,000 hectares of land for a reservoir, officials said on Sunday. The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-building-lower-sesan-2-dam-gets-ok-to-clear-land-9252/
Dam in Northeast Built on Earthquake Site, Study Finds
Experts are recommending that a proposed dam on the Sesan River in northeast Cambodia be equipped with earthquake protection measures, after discovering a quake occurred in the area some 30 years ago. The proposed Lower Sesan II dam would be situated on a site in Stung ...
Villagers Still in the Dark About Lower Sesan Hydropower Dam
Thousands of villagers who will lose their land to the construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam in Stung Treng province later this year have not been told of the government’s plans for their resettlement and compensation, a new study released yesterday shows. Through interviews with ...
Vietnam and Cambodia hit back
Vietnam urged Laos to halt construction of a $3.5 billion hydropower dam pending further study, environmental activists said on Friday after a meeting of the Mekong River Commission. The activists said Cambodia, also downriver from the Xayaburi dam, accused Laos during heated discussions on Wednesday and ...
http://bdnews24.com/environment/2013/01/21/vietnam-and-cambodia-hit-back
Laos defends actions on Xayaburi at MRC meet
Laos yesterday defended its decision to begin building the Xayaburi dam amid criticism from Cambodia on a lively final day of the Mekong River Commission’s annual council meeting in Luang Prabang, Laos. According to separate sources who attended, Cambodia spoke out against Laos for “misinterpreting” the ...
Groups slam ministers' failure to discuss Xayaburi Dam
Regional conservationists criticised the Mekong River Commission (MRC) yesterday for leaving the controversial Xayaburi Dam off its agenda at this week’s annual ministerial meeting in Luang Prabang, Laos. Laotian authorities said they would confirm their decision to go ahead with the hydropower project in the mainstream ...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Groups-slam-ministers-failure-to-discuss-Xayaburi--30198036.html
Investment Figures Show Billions of Dollars from China
China has become Cambodia’s biggest investor, putting some $8.8 billion into the country over nearly two decades, according to online data from the government’s lead investment agency. Those investment numbers, from the Council for the Development of Cambodia, from 1994 to 2011, do not take into ...
Xayaburi dam stirs debate on Mekong River Commission
When ministers from the four member countries of the Mekong River Commission and donors meet in Luang Prabang, Laos this week, the future role of the agency will be on the table. Questions about the effectiveness of the Mekong River Commission, set up in 1995 to ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/330603/xayaburi-dam-stirs-up-debate-on-mekong-river-commission
NGOs call for discussion of Xayaburi dam at meet
A coalition of NGOs has called on Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee (CNMC) to push for the Xayaburi dam to be added to the agenda of a regional Mekong River meeting next week. Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum on Cambodia, said it was disappointing ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/ngos-call-for-discussion-of-xayaburi-dam-at-meet.html
Xayaburi dam not on agenda
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) will forgo an opportunity to voice opposition to the Xayaburi dam project – which member state Laos began building in November – when it meets for its annual council meeting next week. Surasak Glahan, communications officer with the MRC secretariat, confirmed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010860670/National/xayaburi-dam-not-on-agenda.html
Royal Group to Take Stake in Mining Project
A mining company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange has announced a plan to pay $14 million for a license to explore for copper in Preah Vihear province, in a deal involving local conglomerate Royal Group. In an announcement to the bourse last Thurday, Geopacific Resource ...
China is top dam builder, going where others won't
Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, ...
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/12/18/2809176/china-is-top-dam-builder-going.html#storylink=rss
New species, old threats to wildlife: WWF
From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said Tuesday in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011. But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects ...
Fourth missing in dam disaster, say witnesses
Workers who directly witnessed the Stung Atai dam accident more than a week ago have contested government accounts, telling the Post four, not three, men were still missing after an outlet pipe burst. Those working or living near the dam also told the Post investigations pledged ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/fourth-missing-in-dam-disaster-say-witnesses.html
UN,Cambodia jointly hold workshop on Sustainable Energy for All
The United Nations Development Program and Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy on Thursday jointly held a workshop on Sustainable Energy for All ( SE4All) in order to discuss the future of sustainable energy in Cambodia. The workshop, opened by Suy Sem, Minister of Industry, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/13/c_132038593.htm
Cambodia could tap up to 10,000 MW from hydroelectric dams
Cambodia has great potential in hydropower development and the country could build and tap up to 10,000 megawatts from hydropower dams, said an energy official on Thursday. “At the present, about 10 percent of the hydropower potential is under construction,” Heng Kunleang, chief of the energy ...