Controversial Chinese projects in Cambodia bow to public pressure

Thousands of families near the Phnom Penh lake face eviction. Retrieved from: www.scmp.com

“CSG, a state-owned company established in 2002 to transmit and distribute electrical power in China’s southern provinces, has quit all its potential power projects in Cambodia, said the company’s spokesman Rambo Niu Feng.

The power utility had conducted feasibility studies for at least six proposed dams in Cambodia with a total power output of more than 3,300 megawatts, according to 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN), a Cambodian civil society organisation that works to support hydropower-dam-affected communities living along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong rivers in northeastern Cambodia.

China has become the biggest builder of dams and roads in Cambodia and, according to 3SPN Co-ordinator Meach Mean, the projected output of the CSG schemes is far above Cambodia’s power consumption of 500MW.

The company’s involvement in several dams in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos threaten local populations and ecosystems, said International Rivers, an international NGO. In a letter to CSG chief executive Zhao Jianguo on 22 June 2009, International Rivers expressed its concerns with some of the Chinese firm’s projects in Southeast Asia, including the Sambor and Stung Cheay Areng hydropower projects in Cambodia.

The Sambor project would have “unacceptable impact on fisheries”, while the Stung Cheay Areng project would flood nine villages, the letter from International Rivers said.”

Read more: South China Morning Post