Cambodian dam feeding false hopes
RATANAKIRI PROVINCE, Cambodia – “I prefer the dam to the fish,” says middle-aged farmer Ton Noun, when asked his opinion on a proposed 400 megawatt dam on the Sesan river near his home in northeastern Cambodia. Then he chuckles and asks, “What fish?” That’s because there are few fish in the brown, murky waters of the river, and he can buy them cheap from bordering Vietnam. On the other hand, electricity – which the dam promises – is costly. “Electricity is expensive because the village doesn’t have it,” Ton tells IPS. Cambodia, among the least developed countries in Asia, lacks an electrical grid. Only 26% of the population has access to government-supplied electricity. The rest use private operators, generators, or have no electricity at all. Private operators charge consumers as much as the equivalent of 75 US cents per kilowatt per hour. … The government believes rural electrification is important “to reduce poverty, improve the standard of living and foster economic development”, as stated in a report earlier this year titled Rural Electrification Policies in Cambodia. Its two-step target is: “(1) All the villages in the Kingdom of Cambodia have access to electricity of any type by the year 2020; and (2) At least 70 percent of all households have access to grid-quality electricity by the year 2030.” …
Michelle Tolson
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-02-181213.html
