A rights
group on Tuesday urged the United Nations to help prevent the displacement of
thousands of people, mainly from ethnic minority groups, by a $780 million
China-backed dam.
Their plea
came a day after Prime Minister Hun Sen said the economic benefits of a series
of controversial dams outweigh environmental concerns in a country where a
quarter of the population still lacks electricity.
Around
5,000 people -- mostly from marginalised indigenous groups -- could be
displaced by the planned 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam on a tributary of the
Mekong River in the northern province of Stung Treng, said the 3S Rivers
Protection Network (3SPN).
Villagers
are already "being pressured and intimidated into agreeing with the
surveys and the proposed resettlement plans", the network said in a
statement.
"Thousands
of people’s lives will be devastated and destroyed by this project,"
according to Meach Mean, coordinator of 3SPN which is backed by foreign and
local groups.
"Despite
its severe impacts, there has been no transparency in the decision-making and
no real consultation with the communities in order for them to express their
concerns."
The group
urged the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to help prevent rights
breaches, and said the dam would damage fish stocks and endanger fishing
communities further down the Mekong.
The U.N.
has previously raised concerns about the dam while scientists from the United
States have joined calls for it to be shelved over fears for the region's
biodiversity and food supply.
But
Cambodia's government, led by Hun Sen who marks 30 years in power on Wednesday,
is backing the Lower Sesan 2 dam which is expected to be completed in 2018.
It also
supports the proposed Stung Cheay Areng Dam in Koh Kong province, which
campaigners say will flood a valley home to a further 1,500 people.
High
utility prices, driven by the lack of supply, are a major obstacle in
Cambodia's efforts to attract foreign investment, and the government has
struggled to find a way to cut the cost of power.
Nine dams,
including several funded by China, are set to open by 2019. Once they are
operational the government has said they will generate 2,045 megawatts of
power, serving all of Cambodia's provinces.
But
Cambodia has been heavily criticized in the past for allowing companies to
clear hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest -- including in protected
zones -- for everything from rubber and sugar cane plantations to hydropower
dams, often for Chinese or Vietnamese companies.
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| The Yangtze river power station generated 98.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2014, the Three Gorges Dam Corporation said in a statement, topping the 2013 production from the Brazilian-Paraguayan Itaipu dam (AFP Photo/Str) |
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