The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy will begin the final phase of bidding for a dam construction project in Bokor National Park by the end of May, the official in charge of the process said Tuesday.
The ministry, however, has not released the environmental impact assessment for the project as required by law, and environmentalists and politicians have serious doubts about the project.
“We will select five companies,” said Bun Narith, director of the ministry’s Hydropower Department, “maybe as soon as next week.”
The companies, selected from nine foreign companies who submitted bids, will then do an analysis of how much it will cost to build the dam, how much the electricity will cost, and how the environment will be affected, he said.
Plans to build the dam sparked controversy in 2001, when the Canadian government funded a study that included an environmental impact assessment.
Canada pulled funding part of the way through the study, Canadian Ambassador Stefanie Beck said Tuesday. “They weren’t satisfied with the way it was proceeding,” she said, but she did not know what the problems were.
A Canadian firm called Experco used its own funds to finish the study, she said.
Bun Narith said Tuesday he could not release the environmental assessment report now, though he admitted it was required by law. Perhaps, he said, the ministry will release it after the dam is built. The dam is scheduled for completion in 2008.
A Sam Rainsy Party statement dated April 22 called the bidding for the dam “illegitimate,” and said the project’s costs and benefits need to be reassessed.
In 2001, environmentalists raised concerns the dam would contaminate fresh water downstream with salt water, said Tep Bunnarith, director of the Culture and Environment Protection Association, who was involved in consultations on the project.
Roads built for the dam would also open the park to more poaching and logging. There is also the question of whether it would be appropriate to flood part of a protected forest, he said.
“In other countries you are not allowed to build a dam in a national park,” he said.
