"‘Green’ hydro dams are forcing Indigenous Cambodians from homes", 3 April 2025

... Thousands of people, mainly from marginalized indigenous minorities, are being thrown off their land and losing their livelihoods as well-connected local and foreign conglomerates — mainly Chinese — cash in on the hydro boom and lucrative government contracts…

Critics say compensation for the thousands of villagers being forced out by dam projects is nowhere near enough to cover the impact of losing their homes, their livelihoods, their history — and even ancient burial grounds.

The human cost falls disproportionately on the country’s more than 20 Indigenous communities, who are mainly animist and make up less than two percent of Cambodia’s more than 17 million mostly Buddhist people…

Indigenous communities suffer the most because their homelands are concentrated in Cambodia’s northeast — home to the biggest hydro projects.

To give an idea of the sheer scale of these dams and their reservoirs: the proposed Lower Srepok 3 dam in northeastern Ratanakiri province will flood more than 67,000 hectares, or 670 square kilometers…

There are no exact figures on displacements, but Sesan 2 forced about 10,000 Indigenous people from their homes, according to estimates by several NGOs.

… Cambodia’s hydro dams are built by well-connected private companies with foreign backing — mostly from Chinese companies.

Critics say there is little government oversight, leaving control to the companies under generous Build-Operate-Transfer contracts.

Lower Sesan 2, for example, is 51 percent owned by China’s Huaneng Group, 39 percent by Cambodia’s Royal Group, and 10 percent by a subsidiary of Vietnam Energy.

The companies behind Srepok 3 are Royal Group and China (Cambodia) Rich International Co...