3rd Mekong Forum on Water, Food & Energy. Presentation from Session 17: Governance, institutions and decision-making about dams.

1. Lessons Learnt about Hydropower Decision Making
Processes in Cambodia
3rd Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy
19-21 November 2013, Hanoi, Viet Nam
MK8 Project on “Improving Hydropower Decision Making Processes in Mekong Basin”
By: Royal University of Phnom Penh Team

2. The study is intended …
 To identify ‘power in relation’ in HP decision-making
 To identify key drivers that influence hydropower (HP);
 To understand EIAs and SIAs influence HP decision-making; and
Kamchay Dam

3. Study’s areas

4. Drivers/Factors influencing HP decision making
• Energy for economic growth (measures for electricity
shortage, dependency on outside sources and high price oil)
• To meet domestic need (only short-term)
• Hydropower and green/renewable energy (regional renewable
target)
• “Larger scale means more efficient”; “larger scale means more
availability of finance/investor”; ”Dam on tributaries is ok to
go”
• Macro vs Micro perspectives

5. Situation of winners & losers
• Benefit sharing is still a challenge
• Limitation of EMP implementation (Kamchay is the lesson
learnt for LS2 dam)
• Multipurpose of dam is still an issue (water are used mainly
for electricity)
• No clear standard of compensation, but case-by-case basis
• Regulation gives way to project to move forward
• Problem of impact scoping (upstream/downstream; direct
impact/indirect impact) and the important of EIA
• Intangible asset

6. Politics of LS2 Dam
• The concern is mounting, even though the LS2 has yet to exist;
people awareness of impact was raised by Community
Network, NGOs, independent media, …
• People has less confident on governmental mechanism, but turn
to other NGOs and other stakeholders even though not much is
done
• Limited access to information and limited space for civil society
• Resources are used to gain popularity (political parties); “Negative
focus vs positive focus”; ”No Dam” vs “Yes Dam”
• However, democratic process and non-violent are used to
influence the decision makers (shift of political support)

7. Positive signs
•
•
•
•
Government is changing even though “no word is spoken out”;
Compensation and resettlement policy improvement
Representatives of people & CSOs are allowed to participate
Trend of “No Dam” to “Yes Dam+”
New promise of administrative change of new government (e.g.
Reservoir clearance hauled)

8. From lessons learnt, ….
Better cooperation and participation among
stakeholders in Cambodia’s hydropower issues
will improve decision-making and benefit
sharing processes.

9. Thanks for your
attention