Dam concerns

LIFT magazine for Cambodian youth is available in Khmer and English inside the Wednesday edition of the Phnom Penh Post each week. This week was its sports issue and in an interview inside, my blog was selected as one of the best websites for Cambodia sport. And why not? The interview was with sports editor Dan Riley and I write for the PPP every week about football. They've gotta look after their own, afterall.
This isn't a news blog, as I've said before, but two events happened this week which may have implications down the line. The villagers at Kor Muoy, sited at the foot of Preah Vihear mountain and home to a couple of guesthouses available to hardy souls that venture to the far north, have been told they have a month or so before they will be relocated at least 10kms away. They are making way for a car park and museum. If you want to stay overnight at Preah Vihear, take a tent. Further southwest, groundbreaking for two new dams in Koh Kong province have taken place with one of them, on the Tatai River, a source of much consternation when I spent a few nights in the area last year. The knock-on effect of the hydro-electric dams isn't really known and there was a suggestion that the province wouldn't even see the benefit of the electricity being generated. Only time will tell what will happen to the Cardamom Mountains and its environment, which is already under attack from other hydropower construction projects.
Change of plan. I will now spend the next two nights aboard the Jayavarman cruise boat. They asked me if I wanted to stop an extra night, and I bit their hand off. Though maybe its an April Fools Joke?