Se San River news
George Moore
Huge Viet dam devastates Se San valley and its people
[Photo: Kreung women from Lam Pat village cross the parched river bed
of the once mighty Se San]
[The immensity of the Yali Falls dam can be grasped by comparing the
same orange construction crane]
[40-gallon drums can be seen on the ground to the left of the crane.]
[the belly of a child from Ta Lao village showing skin disease also
believed caused by the Se San]
Vietnam's $1 billion Yali Falls dam, under construction for the past
seven years, drains into the Se San river which runs through Cambodia
to the Mekong. Before the dam-building began, no study was done of its
environmental effect on Cambodia. Now, as Bou Saroeun reports, a study
has been done, and shows that the dam is bringing death, disease and
environmental devastation to Cambodia even before it is fully working.
EARLIER this year the first reports began to emerge from Ratanakkiri
that problems had developed with the Se San river, and that the source
of these problems was upstream at Vietnam's new Yali Falls dam.
Cambodians along the Se San river told of sudden surges of water
drowning five people. In the single worst case three teenage girls were
drowned trying to cross the river. Villagers spoke of their fishing
boats and nets being swept away, livestock being drowned and crops
inundated.
Meetings were held between Vietnamese and Cambodian officials and
assurances were given that there would be no more releases of water
without prior warning. At that point both sides said the matter had
been resolved and that was an end to it.
However a report issued this week shows that sudden releases of water
were only one of a host of problems.
A community-based study of the effects of the dam conducted by the
Ratanakkiri Fisheries Office in cooperation with the Non-Timber Forest
Products (NTFP) Project funded by Oxfam, concluded that the dam has
caused and is causing serious environmental and socio-economic problems
downstream on the Se San in Cambodia's Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng
provinces.
The reports says interviews with locals revealed that the death toll
from drowning stood at 32 rather than five - and most of the victims
were children.
In addition, locals reported 952 deaths from disease since they
perceived a change in water quality over the past four years. Stock
losses have been reported in the thousands as well as significant
numbers of wild animals dying after drinking water from the river.
A two-day workshop attended by representatives of ethnic minority
groups living on the Tonle Se San, local and international NGOs, and
provincial officials, was held at the end of May to discuss the effect
of the dam.
The majority of people living along the affected parts of the Se San
are ethnic minorities. Their representatives who attended the workshop
demanded that the clock be turned back.
"I want the Se San river to be restored to its natural state," said
Lamas Voen from Phi village, Se San commune, O'Yadao district, the
closest Cambodian settlement to the dam.
"We have suffered flooding for four years. I don't know what we are
going to do. We just sit and wait to see what will happen next. You
[dam builders] have to think how hard our lives are."
She complained that the water used to be clear even in the dry season,
but now it was permanently dirty and too unhealthy for humans and
animals.
The call for changing the river back was far more dominant than any
request for cash compensation.
"If they want to give us compensation will they be able to feed us all
our lives? It seems impossible, and what about our children and
grandchildren? How are they going to survive? We want the old Se San
back so we can fish and do other activities the same as before."
According to the study, the water quality has deteriorated greatly
since 1996. Surges of water coming downstream are reddish in color,
muddy and have the foul odor of stagnant water.
The report could not quantify the health effects of the water quality,
but noted that people living along the river reported a rapid decline
in health once the changes became apparent.
Locals complain of intense itchiness, lumps and infections on their
skin, and eye irritation. They have also reported other health problems
that have coincided with the sudden rises in water levels.
These included stomach aches, diarrhea, respiratory problems, throat
and nose irritation, dizziness, vomiting and coughing. Many reported
family members dying one to five days after becoming ill.
Bou On, 58, of the Kachok ethnic minority group, represented Kachot
village of Ven Say district at the conference; she said her own health
had suffered as a result of poor water quality.
She complained of itchiness, diarrhea, vomiting and a persistent cough.
"I am not lying about the water quality. It is real," she said, showing
the marks of illness on her body.
"I am sure the water quality has changed a lot since before."
Villagers also complained about the effects the water has had on their
livestock.
Sala Kwek, of the Kachok ethnic minority group living in Kachot
village, Nhang commune, Andong Meas district, said that since the dam
construction started, his village lost hundreds of buffalo and cows;
sometimes 20 to 30 died each day.
According to the study, villagers claimed that more than 4,900 buffalo
have died of unusual diseases since the water quality problem began in
1996. They also reported the similar deaths of more than 2,200 cows,
7,800 pigs, 1,600 ducks, tens of thousands of chickens, and more than
2,500 dogs and cats.
However similar outbreaks of livestock disease have been recorded far
away from the Se San river, though occurring at the same time that
locals say the river water quality started to decline. A CARERE
official said that makes it hard to draw definite conclusions about the
cause and effect of the dam on livestock health.
Still, villagers remain convinced that water quality in the Se San
river has harmed their domestic animals, with the greatest effects
being noted near the river.
Dr Lena Vought, an expert on lakes, ponds and streams from Lund
University in Sweden, has suggested that the problem may be associated
with the presence of toxic blue-green algae in the Yali reservoir
contaminating the Se San.
Since there has never been any detailed water quality surveys conducted
in the Se San in Ratanakkiri, it is difficult to confirm this
hypothesis.
But, if blue-green algae is causing the problem, it has probably
developed in the Yali reservoir, where excessive nutrients have been
released from the decaying vegetation causing excessive algae growth.
Dr Vought said in the study that there have been similar cases where
water contaminated with the toxic blue-green algae has proved fatal to
livestock.
Ratanakkiri province has some of the richest areas of wildlife in
Cambodia, but these animals too have been seriously affected by the
hydrological changes in the Se San as well as suffering from the
effects of the water quality changes.
In Virachey National Park, on the northern side of the Se San river in
Ta Veng and Ven Say districts, reptiles, mammals and birds have died or
become ill at a greater than usual rate.
People from many communities along the Se San have reported finding
dead wildlife near their villages over the past few years. Many
villagers believe that the wild animals had gone down to the Se San
river to drink and then died shortly afterwards.
The species most affected were wild boar, barking deer and sambar deer.
In addition, a small number of civet cats, porcupines and rodents have
also been found dead in the forest.
People from O'Yadao district, near the Vietnamese border, reported
finding 10 dead Gaur near the Se San river over the last year.
The changing water quality is also believed to have harmed fish stocks
and habitat.
The number of fish has declined noticeably, with some villagers putting
fish stocks down by as much as 30 percent.
Meanwhile four years of irregular flooding have caused major food
shortages to people in the area.
Dry season crops which are planted along the banks of the Se San have
been swept away by the surges of water following discharges from the
dam.
Locals now rely on wild potatoes and other tubers to sustain them.
"We have no rice to eat; we survive with the wild potatoes and bamboo
shoots mixed with banana fruit to make the porridge," said Bou On.
She said food that was collected and stored like prahok was no longer
available because of the decline in fish stocks.
Sal Kway, deputy chief of Se San commune, explained how the villagers
can no longer plan how to plant their crops because the unpredictable
water levels in the dry season can wipe out their work - and their seed
stocks, which they could not afford to lose.
To Peav, 50, of the Taveng commune committee, echoed Kway's comments
and added that people were being forced to travel increasing distances
to forage for food.
He said the tubers and cassava that they rely on for food during the
rainy season when the rice had run out were being destroyed by the
excessive flooding.
Peav said he was disappointed that the Government had persuaded the
hill tribes people to come down from the mountains and settle along the
Se San river in the vain idea of national progress.
"How can we progress the country without food to eat?" he asked.
"We want the country to progress, but how can it while we can't grow
rice, farm or even have a garden?"
He said people needed food for their day-to-day living before they can
think about progress.
The lack of food security in villages along the Se San river is
particularly critical this year. Lowland areas have been devastated by
the floods while the upland swidden farms have been badly affected by
early rains in 1999. Hence very little rice has been stockpiled since
last year. Villages that used to have rice surplus, such as Ko Piak and
Pak Kalan of Ven Say district, are below subsistence level.
In addition, the study said that about 14 types of river plants that
villagers used to collect to eat have been in serious decline over the
past few years.
Tobacco, one of the most popular plants that villagers used to grow
along the river bank, is now impossible to cultivate.
Vat Chrang, 30, of Tom Pong Roeung Thom village, said that he and other
villagers were disappointed that they had had to give up on the crop.
"I care more about tobacco than rice; if I don't have tobacco I don't
have energy to harvest or do farm work," he said. "Tobacco is my first
energy."
One of the most important dry season occupations for local people
living along the Se San river used to be gold panning.
It was especially important in Andong Meas and O'Yadao districts, where
gold is plentiful in the river bed.
Local people used to rely on gold panning to supply them with funds to
buy rice in years of shortages, and when they wanted to buy a buffalo
or a cow, gold panning was the main means of getting the cash to do so.
Of 59 villages surveyed, 47 reported that they used to do gold panning
until the dam started causing water level fluctuations. In the upper
parts of the basin, it is the fear of surges of water sweeping people
away that has stopped people panning. Further downstream, locals have
stopped because the holes they dig in the riverbed to find the gold
silt up when the water rises.
The irregular water pattern of the Se San is now looking likely to
force the hill tribes back to their historical practice of swidden
(slash and burn) farming.
Sal Kway said the last few years beside the Se San have been very
difficult. He said they want to abandon their villages but were wary
because they realize it would be against the government's wishes.
"Now that we live along the Se San river we suffer from the floods and
if we go to live in the hills we go against the government policy. I
don't know how to solve this problem," he said.
Vat Chrang's answer is to try to live a double life. He has slashed an
area in the uplands for a rice crop but still lives in his village on
the Se San. He said the situation was not ideal, because the farm is
far from the market and he has to spend two hours each way traveling.
According to the study, other villagers living along the Se San river
have adopted a similar strategy.
For example, 20 Lao families from Hat Pok village have started doing
swidden agriculture in upland areas far from their villages. In Pong
and Fang villages, two other Lao communities in Ven Say district, most
of the people in the villages have started doing swidden agriculture
behind their communities, although they have little experience at this
type of farming.
According to villagers in Pong village, the forest behind their village
has all been flattened as a result, and they admit that they are not
adept at the technique compared to the upland farmers.
But many village leaders spoken to by the study team feel they have no
option but to abandon their villages and return to higher ground and
farm as their forebears did - clearing areas of forest and growing
crops till the land is exhausted then moving on.
The study says that the people living along the Se San river in
Ratanakkiri belong to a diverse array of ethnic groups, and have
significant cultural differences.
However, except for the Lao and the Chinese, who are largely Buddhist,
the vast majority of the indigenous people living along the Se San
river in Ratanakkiri are animists, with deep spiritual connections to
nature and the spirit world.
They attribute the flooding and subsequent water damage to forest
spirits becoming angry.
Bou On and other workshop participants spoken to by the Post said that
before they learned about Vietnam's Yali Falls dam-building, they used
to believe the spirits were angry with the people but did not know why.
"I sacrificed chickens and sometimes the villagers sacrificed the
buffaloes and cows to the spirits so they would not get angry with us
and save us. But nothing changed," she said.
Most of the people spoken to did not know about the Yali Falls dam
until long after the river became erratic, and attributed the river's
behavior to the spirits. Now that they know about the dam, they are
still inclined to think the spirits are playing a part.
One old Tampuan woman, from Kachon Kroam village in Ven Say district,
provided a spiritual explanation for why the people along the Se San
river are suffering so much from the dam.
"I think the spirit of the water and the spirit of the trees are angry
with the humans," she said. "The Vietnamese have blocked the path of
the spirits of the water, and the dam has caused many big trees in the
reservoir area to be flooded.
"Therefore, both the spirit of the water and the spirits of the big
trees are angry. When the Vietnamese release the water downstream from
the reservoir, it is like releasing the angry spirits upon us and the
spirits make us sick and cause a lot of us to die."
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 9/12, June 9 - 22, 2000
© Michael Hayes, 2000. All rights revert to authors and artists on
publication.
For permission to publish any part of this publication, contact Michael
Hayes, Editor-in-Chief
http://www.PhnomPenhPost.com - Any comments on the website to Webmaster
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.