Sesan River / Reports

The Mekong Water Resources Assistance Strategy (MWRAS), proposed by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Mekong River Commission promotes the construction of controversial water infrastructure projects in three sub-regions of the Mekong Basin where transboundary impacts would occur that include dams, irrigation schemes, and water transfer projects.

Through field research conducted over a one year period with local fishers, this study determines the current state of the Sesan Rivers fisheries. The study also reconstructs the status of the Sesan River’s fishery before, during and after construction of the Yali Falls dam, 80 km upstream of the Cambodian border in Vietnam through interviews with local fishers. The results of the study clearly indicate that the Yali Falls dam has generally led to serious negative downstream impacts on fish, fisheries and other aquatic life in the Sesan River in Ratanakiri Province, northeast Cambodia.

This report, prepared in 2001, gives a brief overview of dams likely to move forward in Vietnam.