Hydropower dams

Conservation groups have called on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to press Lao President Choummaly Sayasone to postpone the construction of the much-criticized Don Sahong dam project on the Mekong River in Laos. ...

Conservation groups have called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to address “the elephant in the room” and lobby Laos’ president to postpone his country’s controversial Don Sahong dam project when the leaders meet later this week. Arriving on Thursday, Laotian Head of State Choummaly Sayasone will ...

Global consulting group Poyry has been awarded a consulting assignment for the construction of Cambodia’s 400-MW Lower Se San 2 hydropower plant. Awarded by developer Hydro Power Lower Se San 2 Company Ltd., the assignment includes independent engineering services including construction monitoring and inspection throughout the ...

Less than a week after Laos declared its “sovereign right” to develop hydropower regardless of neighbouring countries’ objections, the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) gathered an “extraordinary meeting” to stress the importance of sustainable waterways. During the two-day discussions in Pakse, Laos which concluded yesterday, the US ...

In the government’s latest defense of a proposed dam in the heart of the sparsely developed Cardamom Mountains, Prime Minister Hun Sen in a letter downplayed the impact the project would have on the hundreds of ethnic minority families it would displace and touted its ...

Just before the regional consultation period for Laos’ Don Sahong dam comes to a head at a final meeting in Vietnam on Sunday, Laos government officials are already espousing plans and timelines for the project’s completion. ...

Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi has been called on to investigate and seek justice for human rights violations caused by the development of two large-scale hydropower dams in Cambodia. ...

Deep in the forest, about an hour from Stung Treng’s provincial capital through a rough and difficult road, just over half of the houses in an ethnic minority village have been tagged with bright orange spray paint saying, “LSS2”. According to a 2010 environmental impact ...

A public consultation organized by the Mekong River Commission opened in Pakse, Laos, Friday, where opponents continued to call for Laos to reconsider a controversial dam project. Cambodia, whose border is just two kilometers from the dam site, urged the commission to “educate” Mega First ...

The four-nation Mekong River Commission (MRC) this week holds public consultations on the development of a large hydropower dam in southern Laos. The project is one of a series of planned dams in the Mekong River Basin that environmentalists say could harm an ecosystem critical ...

As Cambodia prepares for a regional meeting over a contentious Lao dam on the Mekong River, fishing communities in Stung Treng province have appealed to Laos to cancel the project. The Don Sahong dam would be built on the Mekong, two kilometers from the Cambodian border. ...

The Vientiane-based Mekong River Commission will hold a regional public consultation on a controversial dam project in Laos later this month. The Don Sahong dam discussion will allow civil society and other relevant stakeholders to voice their concerns over the dam’s impacts, the commission said in ...

Vietnamese living in the Mekong Delta have raised objections to a proposed Lao dam on the mainstream of the river next to Cambodia, Thanh Nien News reported. The report Monday said the objections followed a two-week survey in five delta provinces by the Hanoi-based Green Innovation ...

The Mekong River Commission has announced plans for a regional public consultation next month on the Don Sahong Hydropower Project on the the border with Cambodia. “The regional public consultation will provide an additional forum for civil society, non-governmental organisations, research institutes, governmental organisations and regional ...

Opposition CNRP lawmaker Pol Ham on Monday said he will visit the site of a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province on Monday with colleagues from his parliamentary commission before they quiz government officials about the controversial project later this month. If built, the 108-megawatt ...

Companies contracted to carry out social and environmental studies of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province yesterday confirmed that the Sinohydro Group is set to renew work in the Areng Valley in the coming days. The studies, which would pave the way ...

Despite reports that Prime Minister Hun Sen recently offered assurances that construction of the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam would not be allowed to begin in the near future, local officials are allegedly pushing forward with plans to relocate villagers. Multiple provincial, district and village ...

Six environmental organisations opposing Laos’ controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam yesterday took their complaints to a new level: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. In a 23-page letter, the organisations from Cambodia, Thailand and the US collectively requested an investigation into the trans-boundary impacts of the ...

Ahead of a national consultation meeting about Laos’s Don Sahong hydropower dam later this week, communities that will be affected by the project have made their opinion clear: suspend the dam. ...

Very quietly, with no official public announcement, the intergovernmental assessment process for Laos’s contentious Don Sahong dam is almost over before anyone knew it began. ...

Communities living close to the Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province have called on the government to publicly disclose what compensation they will receive. Logging continues as the area is cleared ahead of construction, but those who will be forced to leave their ...

With regional consultations on Laos’s Don Sahong dam expected to commence soon, the developers are violating pledges to postpone construction, which is being undertaken by a Chinese company associated with several controversial hydropower projects, the Post has learned ...

Fearing loss of land, about 150 farmers in Svay Rieng province yesterday marched to the provincial hall, filing a petition that demands land titles on their property. Many villagers in Svay Chrum district’s Chhoeuteal commune lost parts of their property in 2011, when a dam was ...

Cambodia on Tuesday defended its plan to build the 108-megawatt Chhay Areng River hydropower plant in a jungle in southwestern Koh Kong province, saying the project would greatly contribute to developing the energy sector. “An initial study found that the project has a capacity of 108 ...