News
Laos agrees to more extensive consultation for dam on border with Cambodia
The Lao government said yesterday that it would have the controversial Don Sahong dam undergo a formal process of prior consultation - a decision that will probably delay the project further. "The government has already demonstrated that it is committed to developing the Don Sahong project ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YjI5ZmRlNDg3Y2M
Mega First boosts spending on Lao dam, Cambodian rubber project
Malaysia's Mega First Corp Bhd says it increased spending on a controversial dam project in Laos and a new rubber project in Cambodia by 45 percent to MYR 50.4 million ($15.7 million) in 2013. Project development expenditure on the Don Sahong dam on the Cambodian border ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MmI4Yzk4ZDQ4MjA
Laos draws ire of neighbors with Mekong River dam plans
Laos will push ahead with its ambition to become the “battery of Southeast Asia,” planning a Mekong River dam that has drawn opposition from neighbors and threatens to involve China and the U.S. Four Mekong River nations are scheduled to meet June 26-27 in Thailand to ...
Bloomberg News Staff
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-03/laos-draws-ire-of-neighbors-with-mekong-river-dam-plans
WWF petitions to halt Don Sahong dam
World Wildlife Fund is taking to the internet to halt a hydropower project it claims will serve as the nail in the coffin for the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. On Friday, WWF launched an online petition calling on the developers of Laos’s 120 megawatt Don Sahong ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wwf-petitions-halt-don-sahong-dam
Lao Dam troubles Mekong waters
Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/magazine-regional/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters.html
Despite dolphin-saving plan, dam threat remains
A little more than two years after signing off on a scheme aimed at improving protection of the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin, experts said last week they were concerned that Mekong dams would see wholesale destruction of the population. During a two-day workshop that closed on ...
The Cambodia Daily
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-dolphin-saving-plan-dam-threat-remains-57509/
Activists dismayed at mekong summit outcome
Environmentalists have expressed disappointment at the outcome of the second Mekong River Commission (MRC) summit, which wrapped up yesterday. International Rivers, an environmental and human rights organisation, yesterday released a statement slamming regional leaders’ failure to address concerns over the proliferation of dams on the mainstream ...
Bangkok Post News Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/403657/activists-dismayed-at-mekong-summit-outcome
Cambodia to call for moratorium on Laos' dam during MRC summit
Cambodia will probably call for a moratorium on the Laos' 260-megawatt Don Sahong dam development project on the lower Mekong River during the second Summit of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), to be held on April 4 and 5 in Ho Chi Minh City of ...
Xinhuanet news Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/04/c_133238376.htm
Intervention urged for dam
In anticipation of a regional summit this weekend, government officials and civil society have their sights locked on a controversial hydropower development just across the Cambodian border in Laos. NGO Forum submitted an open letter yesterday urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to confront Laos about its ...
Laignee Barron and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/intervention-urged-dam
Authorities halt march against Lao dam, citing Khmer New Year
Kompong Cham authorities blocked several hundred activists from marching Monday to raise awareness about the environmental dangers raised by Don Sahong dam, officials and activists said. ... Kompong Cham provincial governor Lun Limthai confirmed that he banned the campaign. “We did not allow them to hold this ...
Khuon Narim and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/authorities-halt-march-against-lao-dam-citing-khmer-new-year-55385/
Hundreds protest Laos dam
Yin Vuth, one of hundreds of Cambodians who protested against the Don Sahong dam over the weekend, said that if construction on the project in Laos goes ahead, the fish will disappear, and once the fish disappear, the dolphins will be next. “All we will have ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-protest-laos-dam
Cambodian experts concerned over Laos dam project near border
Cambodian experts on Thursday expressed concerns over the Laos Don Sahong dam development project, saying the proposed hydroelectric dam would pose a serious threat to the existence of the biodiversity on the Mekong River in Cambodia. Some 90 conservationists, environmentalists, development partners, academia, fishery scientists, and ...
Global Times News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/849722.shtml#.UyucxvmSxqU
Tonle Sap Lake fisheries a concern for dam project
Already under attack by overfishing, pollution and deforestation, Tonle Sap Lake fisheries face an even bigger threat in the form of hydropower dams, according to experts. Laos’ planned Don Sahong Hydropower Project in particular has environmentalists fearing an emptier, less bio-diverse lake, and a nation pitched ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tonle-sap-lake-fisheries-concern-dam-project
Development pushes poor from land as Cambodia dams its rivers
“From my view, I don’t want to have it, but it is development, we can’t stop them,” says Srekor’s village chief, Leang Saroeurn. Cambodia’s impressive yearly GDP growth rates of 7 percent for the last decade have come, in part, through a ravenous consumption of the countries ...
Daniel Quinlan
http://asiancorrespondent.com/120212/development-drives-displacement-as-cambodia-dams-its-rivers/
Impact study on dam problem-ridden: WWF
The conservation NGO WWF today slammed developers of the Don Sahong Hydropower project for providing “flawed” and scientifically unsound impact assessments. In an analysis released today, WWF criticised the hydropower project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and Social Impact Assessment, finding both “riddled with problems such as inappropriate ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/impact-study-dam-problem-ridden-wwf
Waiting for the deluge
The Lower Sesan II dam project is a microcosm of the carving up of Cambodia. In one of the world’s most diverse river ecosystems, the ground burns. Whole forests are felled with scant regard for the law, while the project is backed by the country’s ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/waiting-deluge
Dam ‘dire for dolphins’
Construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos is likely to decimate an already dwindling population of critically endangered Mekong dolphins, according to a World Wildlife Fund science brief published today. About 85 dolphins inhabit a deep-water pool restricted to a stretch of the ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-%E2%80%98dire-dolphins%E2%80%99
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 ...
Michelle Tolson
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-02-181213.html
Mekong Countries Agree to Expedite Dam Study
The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) study on the potential long-term effects of large-scale dam building on the Mekong River needs to be expedited, members of the MRC agreed at the Fifth Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Saturday. However, they did not set a date for the ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-countries-agree-to-expedite-dam-study-49360/
Dam channel’s classification hotly debated
As Laos pushes toward its goal of becoming the “battery of Asia” through hydropower, its newfound claim that the location for the proposed Don Sahong dam is not on the Mekong River’s main stream is provoking incredulity from some observers. Less than two kilometres north of ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-channel%E2%80%99s-classification-hotly-debated
Vietnam Doubts Sustainability of Second Lao Dam Project on Mekong
Vietnam has joined Cambodia in questioning the sustainability of the planned Don Sahong dam project on the Mekong River in southern Laos, saying more environmental impact studies are needed before the scheme moves forward. Le Duc Trung, director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee under ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dam-11152013181814.html
Laos chided for ‘Selling’ dam project
An environmental group has hit out at the Lao government for organising a tour of the proposed Don Sahong hydropower dam site, saying it should not be trying to “sell” a project that has not been regionally approved. ... Other NGOs have also warned of the ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/laos-chided-%E2%80%98selling%E2%80%99-dam-project
NGOs threaten to sue over Don Sahong dam
Environmentalists and NGOs are threatening to sue developers of a controversial hydropower dam, claiming the project would cause irreversible damage to the Mekong River. The Don Sahong dam, a 260-megawatt project proposed on a site less than two kilometres north of the Cambodian-Lao border, is expected ...
Sen David and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-threaten-sue-over-don-sahong-dam
Lao consultants give dam the thumbs up
The controversial Don Sahong hydropower dam, which Laos says it will soon build just a kilometre from the Cambodian border, will not have significant effects on the Mekong River, according to an environmental impact assessment paid for by the dam’s builder. Obtained yesterday, the report – ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lao-consultants-give-dam-thumbs