The Sesan, Sekong and Srepok rivers, tributaries of the Mekong, are depended upon by thousands of people in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. While the hydropower projects planned for the 3S Rivers and other tributaries may not receive as much attention as those on the Mekong Mainstream, they are just as potentially destructive to local communities and nations as a whole. To learn more about the 3S Rivers, click here.
Meach Mean, an EarthRights School Mekong 2008 alumnus from Cambodia, collaborated with Save the Mekong coalition – an advocate group representing the local and international communities for a free-flowing Mekong – at a regional meeting in August 2011 to discuss the campaign strategy and framework for further cancellation of the Mekong mainstream dams as well as its tributary dam projects. There is strong opposition to the dams due to the foreseeable long term impoverishment of communities and the destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems.
Many alumni, including Chhuon La and Sangthorng from Cambodia and Van from Vietnam, provided valuable input to the campaign, encouraging strong regional ties and international cooperation to protect the Mekong River and its tributaries.
Meach Mean represents the Sesan, Sekong, Srepok Protection Network (3SPN) and focuses on promoting a sustainable environment and monitoring destructive development projects on the 3S Rivers. He arranged field trips to 3S rivers villages that have been suffering the impacts from the Yali Falls dam in Vietnam. The field trip also included villages in the area of proposed project sites of Lower Sesan 2 Dam, Lower Sesan 3 Dam, and Lower Srepok 3 Dam. These trips aimed to expose participants to the future downstream impact of dams in Vietnam, a reality that has very rarely been publicly discussed in Vietnam. Hong Van was inspired to raise awareness about the dam impacts within Vietnamese society after witnessing firsthand the impacts on the health and livelihoods of the communities along the 3S Rivers.
“I think the trip is very important for me because it helped me to see the real life of the local people. Most of them are ethnic minority people. I can see that the people strongly dislike the dam because they have experienced many negative impacts from the upstream dam,” said Van.
She also said that the grassroots campaign strategy to stop the dam is challenging for the people because internal political power limits the space of public engagement. Affected people are cut off from information which makes it difficult to participate meaningfully in initiating sustainable development practice. She believes that strong cooperation and pressure from international communities to raise awareness on the trans-boundary impacts of the dams can open opportunities for change for the better. “We should let this issue be heard by the international community a lot more. When I go back to my country I will write about the issue and how Vietnamese dams have negative impacts for Cambodian people,” Hong Van said.
Hong Van also said that there are opportunities for Vietnam and Cambodia to work together for better dam management. However, independent evidence is needed as few are willing to criticize the dams in Vietnam. She suggested that local people should be trained to collect data as evidence of the dam impacts they suffer. “I think the two governments have opportunities to come up with better dam management if we have strong evidence and data of what has been lost and what is going to continue to be lost because of the dams operation.”
