The Communities along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong River submit their joint statement to Chinese Embassy

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Over the past 16 years, the 3S communities have experienced negative impacts on a daily basis from hydropower dams built upstream in Vietnam on the Sesan and Srepok Rivers. This has included reductions in the number of fish available to feed our families, reduced water quality and changes to water flows, altering the quality of our farmland and water sources. Anticipation, the villagers will suffer many additional harmful effects from the Lower Sesan 2 (LS2) Hydropower Project.

LS2 will be located on the Sesan River in Sesan District, Stung Treng Province, Cambodia, 1.5km downstream from its confluence with the Srepok River and 25km from where the two rivers meet the Mekong River mainstream. The developer is the Hydro Power Lower Sesan 2 Company, a joint venture between Cambodia’s Royal Group and China’s Hydrolancang International Energy (90%) and EVN International Joint Stock Company (EVNI) (10%). The Company’s capital (30%) and an undisclosed bank loan (70%) is most likely from China.

The dam will destroy the essential food and protein sources that communities rely on to feed their children and families, as the dam will lead to close to 10% reduction in fish across the Mekong River Basin. Many of villagers will be forced to relocate from their traditional lands, and they will lose connection with their communities and culture.

Because of concerning of huge impacts to social and environmental, the communities submitted the statement to Chinese Embassy to urge Chinese company to withdraw of their investment from LS2.

On 12th December 2013, 9 local community representatives went to Phnom Penh to submit the petition letter with 923 thumbprints to Chinese embassy.

The Chinese Embassy accepted community letter and will reply back someday for further result of the statement.

For more detail of the statement please read or download Joint statement of Communities along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong River in Khmer, Chinese and English language.

sources: http://www.3spn.org/the-communities-along-the-sesan-srepok-and-sekong-river-submit-their-joint-statement-to-chinese-embassy/