"Stung Treng authority agrees to Bunong request", 5 December 2018

Stung Treng provincial authorities have unanimously agreed to the request and conditions of the ethnic Bunong community members from Kbal Romeas village who have been impacted by the Lower Sesan II dam in the province…

Stung Treng provincial hall spokesman Men Kong told … that the five conditions set by the 52 ethnic Bunong families from the Kbal Romeas community have been accepted by the authorities and the company behind the dam.

… the Kbal Romeas community’s requests include recognition of the ethnic families’ rights in building houses on the new location they have chosen and the construction of a road, school, health centre and a pond that generates clean water for consumption.

…Like the ethnic Bunong families from Kbal Romeas, the Sre Kor villagers demand authorities include them in the official list of ethnic communities.

… Addressing villagers’ concerns about the lack of clean water, Kong said district authorities have been ordered to make a field visit to the site.

During the dam’s inauguration …, Prime Minister Hun Sen said it would lower electricity costs and put the Kingdom on its way to hooking up every village in the country to the electricity grid by 2002.

A joint project between China-based Hydrolancang International Energy, Vietnam-based EVN International and Cambodia’s Royal Group, the dam will be privately operated before being handed over to the government after 40 years.

The dam has displaced around 1,500 households and flooded tens of thousands of hectares of forest in the province’s Sesan district.