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DAM-L LS: ADB Defers "Model" Hydro Scheme in Vietnam (fwd)
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subject: LS: ADB Defers "Model" Hydro Scheme in Vietnam
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Asian Development Bank Defers "Model"
Hydro Scheme in Vietnam
Probe International
PRESS ADVISORY
September 11, 2000
Dam tragedy fuels downstream objections
Reports of at least five drownings as a result of massive
flooding caused by Vietnam's second largest hydro dam
have prompted the Asian Development Bank to postpone
financing of another dam on the same river.
The ADB was expected to approve financing this year for
the proposed 260-megawatt dam on the Se San River - a
powerful Mekong tributary flowing from Vietnam's central
highlands through lowland Cambodia, and one that dam
builders, including Canadian utility, Hydro-Québec, have
long coveted.
But in June, the ADB deferred its decision following news
reports that the Yali dam, located 20 kilometres upstream of
the Se San site, had caused devastating flash floods in
downstream Cambodia's Ratanakiri province, drowning five
villagers, destroying livestock, crops and fishing equipment,
and threatening the lives of 20,000 people living along the
Cambodian stretch of the river.
"We used to make our livelihood from fishing," said one
Ratanakiri resident. "Now our fishing gear has all been lost
. . . All our [rice] paddy has been flooded . . . we are all
starving."
No longer able to drink river water or grow rice, locals fear
that flash floods will take more lives, according to a recent
survey of 59 villages downstream of the Yali dam.
The survey conducted by Ratanakiri officials estimates that
1,800 downstream families have lost crops this year due to
the river's erratic flows. Hundreds of people have reported
stomach ailments as well as skin and eye infections after
drinking or bathing in the foul-smelling water released from
Yali. The dam has also obstructed fish migrations from the
Mekong to Se San, causing the death of the river's fishery -
a main source of food and income.
The Vietnamese government has publicly apologized for the
drownings caused by Yali but Cambodian villagers are
appealing for compensation and for the Se San's natural
flow to be restored so they can resume rice farming.
The ADB has offered to pay for further investigation of
impacts on both sides of the border in order to come up
with "appropriate environmental and social mitigation
programs." But critics in Cambodia and internationally are
skeptical about the ADB's response, saying that more
studies by dam proponents won't help Yali's victims or
protect communities from additional hazards posed by the
Se San dam.
"The ADB's bad record speaks volumes," says Gráinne
Ryder of the Toronto-based citizens' group Probe
International. "An evaluation of bank practice last year
found that ADB-backed hydro developers routinely dismiss
or underestimate downstream impacts, they sometimes pay
for environmental mitigation programs that don't work, and
they never properly compensate people who have lost their
fishing and farming livelihoods."
Before the Yali tragedy, the ADB had planned to provide a
US$80-million start-up loan for the Se San dam this year, in
the hopes of attracting the remaining US$240-million from
international investors, such as Hydro-Québec, seeking
dam-building contracts in the region.
Under the ADB's model of hydro development, no
community is safe, according to Ryder. "Dam builders
expect to get water rights and hydro revenue without any
binding responsibility or accountability to the people who
depend upon the river."
Probe International, together with other citizens' groups in
ADB-donor countries, is urging the bank to withdraw from
the Se San project, which is uncompetitive with other
power sources, and remove itself from the dam-building
business altogether.
Canada is a major shareholder in the Manila-based Asian
Development Bank.
Probe International, a division of Energy Probe Research
Foundation, monitors the economic and environmental
impacts of Canadian aid and business abroad.
For more information, maps, and photos:
CONTACT: Gráinne Ryder, Policy Director
Probe International
Phone (419) 964 9223 ext.228
or E-mail GrainneRyder@nextcity.com
OR visit our web site at www.probeinternational.org/Mekong
--
Grainne Ryder, Policy Director
Probe International
225 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2M6 Canada
tel: 1 (416) 964-9223 (ext 228), fax: (416) 964-8239
http://www.probeinternational.org
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