Ratanakiri deaths ‘avoidable’
Better communication from authorities in Cambodia and Vietnam might have prevented the deaths of villagers and the destruction of homes in Ratanakkiri at times when water has been released from Vietnam’s Yali Falls dam, researchers said yesterday. Speaking at a national workshop about the Yali Falls dam and its effects on Cambodian communities along the Sesan River, postgraduate researcher Lor Rasmey said information given to villagers about the dam’s water releases was often slow and unreliable. Thirty-two people, he said, had died as a result of water releases from the hydroelectric dam – which is about 70 kilometers upstream from the border – between 1996 and 2000, while about 950 had died due to water-quality problems.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102559406/National-news/ratanakkiri-deaths-avoidable.html
