Let's continue the Kampot story:
Because of our personal worries, please, read a few words on the Chinese investents in the Province of Kampot, on the western side of the river – a huge dam to make money on selling electricity!
"The expected benefits of these projects are huge, including cheap electricity, new job and business opportunities, ‘greener’ energy and wider energy source diversity," - Maria Patrikainen, an analyst based in London for IHS Global, said by e-mail.
Ms. Patrikainen and environmentalists also say, „however, that the dams would do more harm than good, and that situations like those being played out in Kampot Province could soon be repeated millions of times over, affecting the livelihoods of families.
The most worrisome threat posed by the dams, some environmentalists say, is to food security for the rural population of Cambodia, people who depend heavily on fish as a source of protein.
Large dams disrupt the ecosystems of rivers, block vital fish migration routes and stop nutrient-rich sediment from flowing downstream to the country’s riverbank gardens and rice fields.”
Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia program director for International Rivers, an organization based in the United States, said by e-mail from Bangkok:
„Large dams, can destroy livelihoods and food security, exacerbate poverty and lead to human rights violations. While each project proposed in Cambodia comes with a different set of impacts, large dams are likely to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, increase malnutrition levels and lead to an environmentally unsustainable future.”
Gregory McCann goes on:
„Much of the western side of the Kampot River has already been bought up by Chinese entrepreneurs (I was told fully half of it), and they have dredged a deep-water port where they hope to bring in 1.5 million Chinese tourists a year on cruise ships and bus them up to Bokor Mountain to gamble at the new casinos and resorts on the top of the mountain, which is part of a national park.”
There is a lot of talk about it and protests, but it's the investors' money that determines the direction of development of this part of Cambodia, anyway ...
