In recent years, China’s enthusiasm for dam building has spilled over into South-east Asia. Hydrolancang - a chinese state-owned enterprise responsible for no less than 7 dams in the upper Mekong - began in 2013 the construction of its first overseas hydropower project, the Lower Sesan II dam in northern Cambodia. The $800 million project have been among the most controversial and destructive ones to be developed in recent years and, once completed, it will block the Sesan and Srepok rivers - two of the main tributaries of the Mekong - creating a 36.000-hectares reservoir and displacing thousands of people who’ve been living along the river banks for generations, relying on it for
survival. The potential impacts, both good and bad, are enormous. Some estimates suggest that the dam could potentially generate a fifth of the power Cambodia is likely to need by 2018; yet its physical impacts could threaten the food security for tens of thousands of people
The cost of power: damming the Mekong - Cambodia
The cost of power: damming the Mekong - Cambodia
In recent years, China’s enthusiasm for dam building has spilled over into South-east Asia. Hydrolancang - a chinese state-owned enterprise responsible for no less than 7 dams in the upper Mekong - began in 2013 the construction of its first overseas hydropower project, the Lower Sesan II dam in northern Cambodia. The $800 million project have been among the most controversial and destructive ones to be developed in recent years and, once completed, it will block the Sesan and Srepok rivers - two of the main tributaries of the Mekong - creating a 36.000-hectares reservoir and displacing thousands of people who’ve been living along the river banks for generations, relying on it for
survival. The potential impacts, both good and bad, are enormous. Some estimates suggest that the dam could potentially generate a fifth of the power Cambodia is likely to need by 2018; yet its physical impacts could threaten the food security for tens of thousands of people