Villagers affected by dam meet with government officials
Villagers from Stung Treng whose homes stand to be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam met with representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy at an NGO Forum-sponsored meeting in Phnom Penh on March 9, in hopes of establishing a dialogue towards a long-awaited compromise. One observer, however, said the meeting was fruitless, and faulted the government for failing to offer any new alternatives to the holdouts. Nong Sareth, the Ministry of Mines and Energy’s deputy director of hydro-electricity, said that four villages, or 846 households, in Sesan district will be flooded as a result of the dam project. Of these households, Sareth said, 126 – or 13 percent – have not accepted compensation.
