River closure held for construction of Cambodian hydropower dam

A river closure ceremony of the lower Russei Chrum river was held on Tuesday in Mondol Sima district of Koh Kong province for the construction of Cambodia's 338 megawatt Russei Chrum Krom hydroelectric dam which was invested and was building by China Huadian Corp.

The ceremony was attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Chinese ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh, Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem and other high-ranking government officials as well as more than 1,000 residents in the area.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen highly valued the friendly relations between Cambodia and China, saying that " good cooperation between the governments of the two countries helped greatly to Cambodia's social and economic development and has brought great amount of investment capital to Cambodia."

"The hydropower dam is just one of the numerous achievements under the cooperation between Cambodia and China," Hun Sen said.

He cited the five hydropower dams being constructed by Chinese companies such as Kamchay Hydropower with the capacity of 193 megawatts, Kirirom 3 with the capacity of 18 megawatt, Tatay river hydropower dam with the capacity of 246 megawatt, Atay hydropower dam of 120 megawatt and the Russei Chrum Krom with the capacity of 338 megawatt.

State-owned China Huadian Corp., one of China's biggest power companies, will build the dam with an investment of about 500 million U.S. dollars.

Yun Gongmin, general manager of China Huadian Corporation ( Huadian Group), said that the hydropower dam is the biggest project in Cambodia at the moment.

"I believe that with the strong support from Prime Minister Hun Sen and relevant ministries, the construction of the hydropower dam will be built successfully and it will become another friendship and economic cooperation milestone between China and Cambodia," he added.

The project is a contract of a 35-year build-operate- transfer (BOT) with the local government. The total power generation is about 1.02 billion kwh per year.

The construction of the power plant began in April, 2010. So far 10 percent of the project has completed and it is scheduled to be entirely completed by 2014, said Minister Suy Sem at the ceremony.

Cambodia's electricity generation is underdeveloped, and most power plants use fossil fuels. Cambodia also buys electricity from neighboring Vietnam and Thailand. Many people rely on generators.