The Stung Treng Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River in Stung Treng Province

Stung Treng Province

Stung Treng is a northern province of Cambodia.-Description:The Cambodia/Lao border is located in the north of Stung Treng Province. The Mekong river crosses the province roughly in its midst.-History of stung treng:...

, Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. It is located on the mainstream of the Lower Mekong River, which has not been developed. The project is controversial for several reasons, not least on their possible impact on the fisheries, as well as other ecological and environmental factors.

History

In 2007, the Russian company Bureyagesstroy got a license to conduct a feasibility study on a dam. The feasibility study was carried out and the company asked permission to build the hydroelectric power station. However, on December 9, 2009, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Cambodian Government and the Vietnam Industrial and Urban Area Investment Development Corp (IDICO) to conduct a new feasibility study on the dam. The results of this survey have not yet been released.

Description

The Stung Treng Dam would be an earth core rockfill gravity dam. If completed, the dam's crest will be 10844 metres (35,577.4 ft) long and 22 metres (72.2 ft) high. Its rated head is 15.2 metres (49.9 ft). It will have an installed capacity of 980 MW, and will, on average, generate 4,870 GWh per year. The dam's reservoir, which will extend well beyond the mainstream canal, will have an active storage of 70000000 cubic metre, and will inundate an area of 211 square kilometres (81.5 sq mi). The reservoir would be 50 kilometres (31.1 mi) long.

Impact

Multiple independent agencies, including International Rivers

International Rivers

International Rivers is a non-profit, non-governmental, environmental and human rights organization based in Berkeley, California, United States...

, the Save the Mekong campaign and other have all raised concerns about the dam's construction. In addition, Cambodia is a member of the Mekong River Commission, which requires prior notification of hydropower construction on the river's mainstream – i.e. plans for the Stung Treng will be subject to scrutiny by Laos

Laos

Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...

, Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 and Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. A report authorized by the Mekong River Commission and released in January 2010 recommended that the Stung Treng along with the Sambor Dam

Sambor Dam

The Sambor Dam is a proposed dam and hydroelectric power station on the Mekong River south of Sambor village in Prek Kampi District, Kratie Province, Cambodia...

 be delayed for 10 years.

The dam site lies within the Stung Treng Ramsar Site, which effectively obliges the Royal Cambodian Government to ‘actively support' the three 'pillars' of the Ramsar Convention

Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...

:

• ensuring the conservation and wise use of wetlands it has designated as Wetlands of International Importance,
• including as far as possible the wise use of all wetlands in national environmental planning,
• consulting with other Parties about implementation of the Convention, especially in regard to transboundary wetlands, shared water systems, and shared species.

It is expected that fish migration routes (which support the Tonle Sap

Tonlé Sap

The Tonlé Sap is a combined lake and river system of major importance to Cambodia.The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997....

 fisheries, the world's largest inland fishery) will be more or less wholly impeded. The two proposed dams of the Sambor and the Stung Treng would have the Mekong

Mekong

The Mekong is a river that runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is the world's 10th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annually....

 river basin's highest sediment trapping efficiencies of all the Lower Mekong Basin's proposed mainstream projects, destabilising downstream channels and between Kratie and Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...

 and cutting overbank siltation in the Cambodian floodplain.

If built, an estimated 21 villages with 2,059 households and 10,617 people will be displaced with the construction of the dam.

Additional resources

• Halls, A.S. and Kshatriya, M. 2009. Modeling the Cumulative barrier and passage effects of mainstream hydropower dams on migratory fish populations in the Lower Mekong Basin.
• MRC Technical Paper No. 25. Vientiane, Mekong River Commission
  Mekong River Commission
  The Mekong River Commission is an intergovernment body charged “to promote and co-ordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit and the people’s well-being by implementing strategic programmes and activities and providing...
  
  .
• King, P., Bird, J. and Haas, L. 2007. The current status of environmental criteria for hydropower development in the Mekong Region: a literature compilation. Vientiane, Lao PDR, WWF-Living Mekong Program.