Four years into its establishment, ‘Lower Sesan 2 dam’ still causes suffering

Four years after its completion, the “Lower Sesan 2 dam” project that was inaugurated in 2018, has been a source of discomfort for many indigenous communities.

They have been lamenting the fact that the dam has cost them their communities and they expressed their dissatisfaction about the compensations they received instead of their suffering.

Government spokesperson Phay Siphan said the government has built a new and better community with schools and hospitals, explaining that the situation the local communities have got now is far better than that they had before the building of the dam. Local communities, however, would dispute this.

Lay Mai, who is a native woman, said she is not happy with the compensation offered, adding that she would have preferred to stay in the flooded village, where she can still secure food. Em Sovannara, who is a political analyst, argued that the government does not have the right strategy to solve the local people’s problems.