75b579fa-1552-11e8-ace5-29063da208e4_1280x720_192418 — A fisherman pulls up his net on the Mekong in Cambodia’s Kandal province. The mighty river feeds tens of millions of people, but is under threat from the Chinese dams cementing Beijing’s physical and diplomatic influence in Southeast Asia. Photo: AFP

Are Chinese-funded dams on the Mekong River washing away Cambodian livelihoods?

Beijing’s spending on hydropower projects is welcomed by many poorer Southeast Asian countries, but it comes with a huge environmental and social cost, experts say

April 3, 2018

by South China Morning Post

Like many other people living near the Mekong River and its tributaries in Cambodia, Khmer farmer Srey Ly Bik regards the waterways as life-sustaining.

Separated from his family during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal reign in the late 1970s, Srey Ly Bik travelled from place to place with a team of doctors, picking up rudimentary medical skills along the way, until he found his father in Kbal Romeas village on a bend of the Srepok River, a Mekong tributary, in 1979.

Read the full story: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2139751/are-chinese-funded-dams-mekong-river-washing-away

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