Cambodia had no warning as to the likely effects of the Yali Falls dam, because no
study was done by the Vietnamese authorities or international agencies involved in
its construction.
As the dam has neared completion recently and test runs of the spillway were undertaken,
water surged down the Se San river into Cambodia, causing the deaths of five people
and inundating farm land and disrupting river flows.
The $730 million project is situated near the Cambodian border in the central highlands
of Vietnam.
Water from the dam flows into the Se San river which then travels through Ratanakiri,
entering the Mekong near Stung Treng, but none of this was taken into consideration
during the planning or building phases.
The only Environmental Impact Assessment of the project in effect assumed that Cambodia
did not exist.
The $1.19 million Swiss Government-funded report commissioned by the Mekong River
Commission from Electrowatt Engineering, a Swiss-based consulting firm, avoided looking
at the effects of the dam on Cambodia by limiting the area it deemed to be affected.
"For the purpose of this study, the downstream area has been defined as an area
eight kilometers long and one kilometer wide below the dam," the Electrowatt
report says.
Attempts by the Post to clarify with the MRC why only one assessment was done, and
such a limited one at that, were unsuccessful.
However, environmental researcher Chris Lang said that he interviewed a project officer
for the Mekong River Commission in 1995, who told him that "the downstream impacts
of the dam have not been discussed with the Cambodian authorities, as in 1991 UNTAC
had not gone into Cambodia, and the position was unsafe."
"Cambodia was not a member of the Interim Mekong Committee. Now that Cambodia
is at peace it has been reintroduced into the Mekong River Commission."
However it is far from clear that, even if Electrowatt had included Cambodia in the
study, they would have given sufficient weight and warning to the consequences of
the project.
A report on Electrowatt commissioned by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
criticized the company for recommending that dams be built even in the face of serious
problems.
The report gave the examples of the Senegal River project which caused an escalation
in the conflict between Senegal and Mauritania, the Manantali dam which caused an
infestation of water-borne diseases so bad donors refused funding to finish the project,
and the Theun Hinboun dam in Laos which blocked fish migration, destroyed dry-season
water resources and severely under estimated the costs of resettlement and migration.
In the case of the Yali Falls dam the report criticized Electrowatt for its attitude
to the indigenous hill tribes.
The reports says: "The EIA takes little account of the traditions and culture
of the Jarai and Bahnar villagers to be evicted by the project, and adopts a patronizing
attitude toward their way of life. For example, the EIA consultants state: 'It is
understood that an effective support is required since the affected populations belong
mainly to the mountain (minority) tribes. Their knowledge regarding modern agricultural
production systems is limited as well as their thinking regarding economic terms'."
