New Dams May Harm Cambodian Way of Life

柬築新壩生活方式受威脅

By Simon Marks

KAMPOT PROVINCE, CAMBODIA – Cambodia’s economy grew 6.5 percent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, and to keep up with demand, the government wants to increase energy production tenfold, to more than 10,000 megawatts. The giant Chinese company Sinohydro started work on the 193-megawatt Kamchay Dam here in 2007, and over 20 more hydropower dams are planned.
根據國際貨幣基金的說法，柬埔寨經濟去年成長6.5%。為了滿足需求，柬埔寨政府打算把能源產量增加10倍，總發電量達到逾1萬百萬瓦。2007年，規模龐大的中國水電建設集團開始在柬埔寨貢布省建造發電量193百萬瓦的甘再水壩，另外20多座力發電水壩的興建，也已排上了計畫。

Cambodia wants to sell to other countries a portion of the electricity generated from the dams, reduce dependence on energy imports, lower energy costs and to create more jobs.
柬埔寨打算把這些水壩生產的部分電力賣給其他國家，降低對進口能源的依賴與能源成本，並創造更多就業機會。

“The expected benefits of these projects are huge,” Maria Patrikainen, an analyst in London for IHS Global, said, “including ‘greener’ energy and wider energy source diversity.” But she and environmentalists say the dams would do more harm than good. The most worrisome threat, some say, is to food security for the rural population that depends heavily on fish of protein.
倫敦IHS全球透視公司分析師瑪麗亞‧帕垂凱南說：「這些水壩建造計畫的預期利益非常可觀，包括更綠色的能源與更多元的能源來源。」然而她與其他環保人士指出，這些水壩絕對弊大於利。部分人士指出，最令人擔心的問題是，主要透過漁產獲取蛋白質的鄉村人口食物保障勢必受到威脅。

“Large dams disrupt the ecosystems of rivers, block vital fish migration routes and stop nutrient-rich sediment from flowing downstream to the country’s riverbank gardens and rice fields,” Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia program director for International Rivers, an American organization, said by e-mail.
美國民間組織「國際河流」的東南亞方案負責人艾美‧川登在一封電子郵件中指出：「大型水壩足以破壞河流的生態系統，阻斷至為重要的魚類迴游路線，同時使富含養分的沖積物無法流到下游的柬埔寨河岸果菜園及稻田。」

She added: “Large dams are likely to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, increase malnutrition levels and lead to an environmentally unsustainable future.”
她又說：「大型水壩可能導致貧富差距擴大、民眾營養不良的比例增加，同時形成環境意義上無法永續的未來。」

Environmentalists say these dams would prevent the flow of the sediment to the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, Southeast Asia’s large freshwater lake in, and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The Delta is where 40 percent of Vietnam’s rice stock is grown, where the majority of its fish is caught and where 17 million people live, says the Mekong River Commission, an intergovernmental organization with representation from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
柬埔寨的洞里薩湖是東南亞最大的淡水湖。環保人士指出，這些水壩將使河流的沖積物無法流入洞里薩湖與越南的湄公河三角洲。湄公河委員會是泰國、越南、寮國、柬埔寨共同組成的跨國組織。它指出，湄公河三角洲的稻米產量占越南全國的40%，越南的大多數漁獲出於此處，居民達1700萬人。

“A significant part of those wild fish are migratory species,” Marc Goichot, a hydropower specialist from the WWF’s greater Mekong program, wrote in an e-mail, and no system for fish passage through large dams has proven effective in similar cases.
世界自然基金會大湄公河計畫的水力發電專家戈查特透過電子郵件指出：「這些野生魚類的相當部分是迴游魚種。」迄今就類似案例而言，沒有任何穿過大型水壩的魚類迴游系統證實有效。

Environmentalists say Cambodia should scrap the dams for technologies like solar power, gasification and co-generation, in which heat generated from power plants is captured and converted to energy.
環保人士說，柬埔寨政府應該放棄水壩，改用太陽能、氣化與廢熱發電等技術。廢熱發電指的是，截留發電廠產生的熱氣轉化為能源。

Some say dam projects should be subject to strict environmental and social assessments.
部分人士指出，水壩興建計畫應該接受嚴格的環境與社會影響評估。

David Blake, a doctoral candidate in the school of international development at the University of East Anglia, England, said locals can be included in the economic benefits of hydropower dams through profit-sharing programs like those in Canada. There, aboriginal First Nation people have started to receive be paid an income from hydropower revenue.
英國英格蘭東安格利亞大學國際發展學院博士候選人布雷克指出，當地人可以透過類似加拿大的利益共享方案分享水壩帶來的經濟利益。加拿大的「第一民族」原住民已經開始分享水力發電的營收。

China has already built four dams on the upper Mekong.
中國大陸已經在湄公河上游興建四座水壩。

In December Mekong commission delegates decided to postpone the construction of the Xayaburi Dam in Laos. The decision was based largely on findings in a 2010 report by the International Center for Environmental Management, a consulting firm based in Melbourne.
去年12月，湄公河委員會的代表決定暫緩在寮國境內建造札雅布里水壩。這項決定的主要根據，是墨爾本顧問公司「國際環境管理中心」2010年公布的一項調查報告。

The report cautioned that if proposed dams on the mainstream Mekong go ahead, fish productivity would shrink by 798,000 metric tons, or 42 percent of the total catch recorded in 2000.
報告指出，如果位於湄公河主流的水壩全數按既定規畫建造，這條大河的漁獲量將減少79萬8000公噸，相當於2000年所記錄全部漁獲量的42%。

Half of riverbank gardens would be lost as agricultural land is flooded to create reservoirs or is taken over for transmission lines, the report said. And 106,942 people could be evicted.
報告又說，由於必須淹沒農耕用地以形成蓄水庫，並且徵收農地以鋪設輸電線路，半數的河岸果菜園將化為烏有。屆時，10萬6942人可能被迫遷徙。

Bun Thavry is one of many villagers whose trek to gather bamboo for the baskets they weave was made more arduous by the building of the Kamchay Dam.
和許多村落居民一樣，邦莎芙莉經常徒步採集編織竹籃所需的竹子。興建甘再水壩使她採竹子這趟路變得更費力。

“The electricity will flow,” she said, “but it has destroyed my ability to get bamboo.”
她說：「電力一定會輸送，然而它卻讓我再也沒辦法採到竹子。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/business/global/17iht-rbog-cam17.html

2012-02-28聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯原文參見紐時週報八版右