Opposition Party Highlights Illegal Logging Near Dam Site

28 February 2012
The Cambodia Daily
Energy / Environment and natural resources / Forest products / Forests and forestry / Generation and distribution facilities / Hydropower dams / Land / Logging and timber / Renewable energy production
Areng / dam / hydropower / Koh Kong / logging / SRP / Stung Tatay Dam / Tatay

The Opposition SRP has asked the government to halt plans to proceed with the next hydropower dam slated for Koh Kong, saying that experiences with dams currently in construction in the province suggest the government has been unable to control the attendant illegal logging. In a letter sent to National Assembly President Heng Samrin, SRP lawmaker Son Chhay highlighted illegal logging in Thma Bain district that has come in the wake of construction on the 246-megawatt Stung Tatay Dam, located on the Tatay River. Six hydropower dams – three of them already underway – are planned in Koh Kong’s biodiversity rich Cardamom Mountains. “We request not to allow the building of the hydropower dam in Areng,” Mr. Chhay said in the letter. “And we request that measures be taken to end anarchic logging near the Tatay hydropower dam.”