Three Rivers Dams (1)
Sorry for the absence… I was out in the bushes this past weeks. Well… in what is left of the bushes, as most of the forest in Ratanakkiri province seems to have been replaced by rubber trees, cashew nut trees or cassava. In what might be the most interesting (and tragic) story about land issues yet in Cambodia, I started the ‘Three Rivers Dams’ story.
Here is a first teaser.
CAMBODIA. Veun Sai (Ratanakkiri). 21/02/2013: Volleyball field submerged by the Sesan river. The river is subject to rather unpredictable daily surges because of water released by the Vietnam located Yali dam. A massive water release in 2009 caused considerable damage to several villages, destroying houses and killing livestock.
CAMBODIA. Taveang Leu (Ratanakkiri). 19/02/2013: Indigenous Brao cutting up a buffalo sacrificed for a relative hospitalised in Phnom Penh. The community is under threat of being displaced to make way for the reservoir of the Sesan3 dam.
CAMBODIA. Kahchen (Ratanakkiri). 21/02/2013: Water levels meters on the Sesan river. The water released by the Yali dam in Vietnam strongly influences the levels, making land cultivation on the shores of the Sesan practically impossible. In 2009 a flash flood submerged vast tracts of land and washed away numerous houses, killed hundreds of livestock. of livestock.