“We never had difficulties in getting our daily sustenance from the forest and river. We had abundant vegetables, mushrooms, fish, and meat. I also vividly remember how my family and relatives enjoyed community gatherings and traditional events in our old village but unfortunately, everything vanished when the dam submerged our land,” Srang Lanh shared her memories of their life in the Old Kbal Romeas village before the encroachment of Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam project.

More than a decade ago, Srang Lanh alongside members of the Bunong indigenous communities in Kbal Romeas raised multiple concerns on the implementation of the Lower Sesan 2 Hydropower Project – a 400-megawatt dam project funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) through its financial intermediary. The Lower Sesan 2 dam is situated below the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers and 25 kilometers from the Mekong River.

The hydropower dam project is owned and operated by Hydropower Lower Sesan 2 Co Ltd., which is a joint venture of a Chinese firm, Hydrolancang International Energy; the Cambodian conglomerate, the Royal Group; and EVN International Joint Stock Company, an affiliate of Vietnam utility company Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

The impacted communities wrote and sent letters to the Cambodian government, project owners, and various investors including Chinese banks asking for meaningful dialogues and exploring potential remedies. However, there have yet to be substantial resolutions reached while communities were left groping in the dark. 

At the onset of project development and construction, indigenous Bunong communities were never provided with full disclosure of project information. Moreover, there was a lack of genuine community consultations which was an outright violation of Indigenous peoples' right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and self-determination. Community members raising concerns about the project's human and environmental impacts have been met with criminal charges, effectively silencing their voices.

Despite the harm inflicted on indigenous communities, the project developers and financiers remained adamant about flooding the vast territories of Bunong communities and uprooting thousands of indigenous peoples from their land. Bunong communities, whose life and survival are deeply entrenched in the land they cultivate, have to suffer the eventual result of forced eviction.

The access road to the submerged village (also known as Old Kbal Romeas) from the main highway in Stung Treng province. Traversing this unpaved road would take around 2-3 hours by motorcycle, depending on the weather conditions, to reach Old Kbal Romeas. The submerged village is located northeast of Phnom Penh with a distance of approximately 400 kilometers.

Srang Lanh at her kitchen preparing lunch for her family while telling stories about the impacts of the Lower Sesan 2 dam. Every time she tells the stories and struggles against the dam, she can’t help but cry, especially after seeing that everything they built together was destroyed. Their ancestors struggled to protect their territories and ensure that generations of Bunong after them would have a home.

A villager is seen cleaning the mushrooms they collected from the remaining forest. They recalled how abundant their life was before the dam reservoir inundated their territory. They used to harvest different types of mushrooms, fruits, and medicinal plants. Now, it has become challenging to find these resources because the Lower Sesan 2 dam submerged major forest areas.

One of the villagers is taking the water out of his boat as he prepares to visit their flooded village. According to community members, witnessing how the Lower Sesan 2 drowned the entire village and damaged sacred sites and graves has been a traumatic experience. The Bunong peoples are known to perform rituals and ceremonies in their sacred areas to seek guidance from the spirits of their ancestors.

From afar, the view of the flooded stilted houses in Old Kbal Romeas. During this time, the dam water was not high making remnants of the house structures more visible. When the Lower Sesan 2 dam flooded the community, it did not only take away their houses, school, health center, and pagoda. Rather, it has eroded the sociocultural fabric of the Bunong communities.

The pagoda is surrounded by water lilies in the flooded area. When community members visit the submerged village, this is one of the places they go to and stay in while reflecting and processing the trauma they have collectively gone through when the dam swallowed their lands and sacred forests. Most of them are still wishing for the dam water to be gone so that they can return back to their land and claim their lives back.

View of the stilted houses from the window of the pagoda in the submerged village. Indigenous Bunong members who were born and raised in the village fought hard against the Lower Sesan 2 dam. Before the dam reservoir flooded their village, they painted their houses with ‘No LS2’ to show their strong opposition to the dam. They were afraid of losing their indigenous identity once their ancestral territories were flooded.

Dead trees in the Lower Sesan 2 dam reservoir. Wild animals and birds are nowhere to be found as tree species in the community forest could not survive the flooding. In addition, villagers claimed that they were not able to save some of the rice seedlings due to the sudden water level rise caused by the operations of the Lower Sesan 2 dam.

In the adjacent community of Srekor Village, the roofs of houses just above the water line only indicate the massive destruction and displacement of communities mostly belonging to the Lao ethnic group. Like the Bunong peoples in Kbal Romeas, villagers in Srekor were enraged and disheartened by the loss of their spiritual sites, forests, and farmlands. They could no longer perform ceremonies at the burial grounds of their ancestors.

The new house was built by Srang Lanh’s family when they moved and settled near the submerged village. They immediately sold their buffalos, pigs, and chickens to afford construction materials for building their house. The accessibility and affordability of basic necessities like food and water have become a daily struggle. They could hardly make ends meet to ensure their daily survival.

The housing units in the relocation site in Stung Treng Province for impacted families who accepted the resettlement offer. However, several housing units remain unoccupied. According to some resettled community members, the relocation area is hotter and humid while potable water is a major concern. It is also far from the sources of food while livelihood opportunities are either limited or job-skills mismatch. Most families in the resettlement area had difficulty in coping with this new environment and different culture so some of them left and moved to other villages.

One of the dilapidated housing units in the relocation site. One villager mentioned that the quality of the housing units is structurally weak as compared to their houses in the old village in Kbal Romeas. Another villager said that vacant houses are more susceptible to deterioration due to lack of maintenance.

The Bunong Cultural Center was built by and for the Bunong people. The community was able to mobilize support from partners and allies in setting up this significant structure that symbolizes Bunong’s tradition and culture. The Bunong Cultural Center is an assertion of their identity and rights as indigenous peoples.

Community villagers including children are seen painting the fences of the Bunong Cultural Center. As a collective project, the community is responsible for doing regular cleaning and maintenance of the cultural center because this space serves as a multi-purpose hall where community meetings and cultural gatherings take place. In most of the meetings at the cultural center, the older generations of the indigenous Bunong remind their children about their origin, culture, and struggle. They hope to learn from their experience and history in confronting various challenges, especially since more aggressive so-called development projects are planning to enter their new village.
 

Carlo Manalansan is a Filipino social activist, researcher, and development worker focusing on Indigenous Peoples. He serves as the Community Organizer at the International Accountability Project for Southeast Asia region.

This photo essay is provided by the International Accountability Project.