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Hydropower Planning in Informal Institutional Settings: Chinese Institutions and the Failure of Environmental and Social Regulation in Cambodia

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Evolution of Dam Policies

Abstract

This study considers Chinese hydropower investment in Cambodia, examining the degree to which Chinese companies adhere to international or national environmental and social standards and analysing the roles played by and the interactions between Chinese and Cambodian actors in the building of hydropower capacity in Cambodia. The example used is the Kamchay Dam, built by Sinohydro and financed by the China Export Import Bank (China Exim Bank). An analysis of the distribution of responsibilities enables us to take a close look at interactions, processes and conflicts between the two sides in the planning and implementation of hydroelectric dams. It also enables us to identify weak points in the environmental and social regulations and to direct criticism more precisely, thus avoiding general accusations against either the Cambodian government or Chinese companies. The legal and political situation in Cambodia is made difficult by a number of factors: a neo-patrimonial, authoritarian polity in combination with elite economic interests produces a legally problematic situation in which personal interests and perceptions outweigh abstract administrative processes. This explains the failure of environmental and social regulation in Cambodia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    China was the largest investor in 2008 and 2009, and the second largest in 2006 (after South Korea), 2007 (after Malaysia), 2010 (after South Korea) and in the first 9 months of 2011 (after the United Kingdom).

  2. 2.

    For details of the China Exim Bank’s environmental policy, see China Exim Bank (2007). For an assessment of how the policy is applied in Chinese hydropower investment in Ghana, see Hensengerth (2011).

  3. 3.

    Conversations with officials from OECD embassies in Cambodia, 6 April 2010 and 10 September 2010.

  4. 4.

    Interview P07092010.

  5. 5.

    Interview P10092010a.

  6. 6.

    Interview P10092010a.

  7. 7.

    Interview P10092010a.

  8. 8.

    Interview P10092010a.

  9. 9.

    Interview with a representative of an international organisation in Phnom Penh, 14 September 2010.

  10. 10.

    Interview P08092010.

  11. 11.

    Interview at the Cambodian Investment Board, 8 September 2010.

  12. 12.

    Interview at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, 10 September 2010. Middleton (2008, p. 20), however argues that the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology also grants the water construction licence.

  13. 13.

    Interview P10092010a.

  14. 14.

    Interview P08092010.

  15. 15.

    Interview P10092010a.

  16. 16.

    Interview P08092010.

  17. 17.

    Interview P10092010a.

  18. 18.

    Interview P10092010a.

  19. 19.

    Interview P10092010a.

  20. 20.

    Interviews P10092010a and P16092010.

  21. 21.

    Interview P10092010a.

  22. 22.

    Interview P10092010a.

  23. 23.

    Interview P08092010.

  24. 24.

    Interview P08092010.

  25. 25.

    Interview P08092010.

  26. 26.

    Interview P10092010a.

  27. 27.

    Sub-decrees are instruments for implementing laws. They are approved by the Council of Ministers but, unlike laws, do not require parliamentary approval. Prakas are regulations adopted by a ministry and are binding only on the ministry in which they are adopted. For a brief overview of the hierarchy of Cambodia’s legal norms see, for example, McCallum (2008, pp. 81–82).

  28. 28.

    Interview P16092010.

  29. 29.

    Interview P16092010.

  30. 30.

    Interview P16092010. See also Royal Government of Cambodia (1996).

  31. 31.

    Interview P20092010a.

  32. 32.

    Interview P07092010.

  33. 33.

    Interview P16092010.

  34. 34.

    Interview P20092010a.

  35. 35.

    Interview P20092010a.

  36. 36.

    Interview P20092010a.

  37. 37.

    Interview in the Ministry of Environment, 16 September 2010.

  38. 38.

    Interview in the Ministry of Environment, 20 September 2010.

  39. 39.

    Interview P07092010.

  40. 40.

    Interview P10092010a.

  41. 41.

    Interviews P20092010a and P07092010.

  42. 42.

    Comment by an OECD embassy official, 9 August 2011.

  43. 43.

    Interview at the Ministry of Environment, 7 September 2010 and 20 September 2010.

  44. 44.

    Interview P07092010.

  45. 45.

    Interview P07092010.

  46. 46.

    Interview P20092010b.

  47. 47.

    Interview P20092010b.

  48. 48.

    Interview P20092010b.

  49. 49.

    Interview P14092010.

  50. 50.

    Interview P10092010b.

  51. 51.

    Interview P14092010.

  52. 52.

    Interview P23092010.

  53. 53.

    ADB 2007, p. 55; interview at the Ministry of Environment, 20 September 2010; interview P20092010a; interview P23092010; personal communication from an independent consultant, 7 July 2012.

  54. 54.

    Interview at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy; interview P20092010a; and Royal Government of Cambodia 2010, Articles 22–24.

  55. 55.

    Interview P20092010a and Royal Government of Cambodia 2010, Articles 22–24.

  56. 56.

    Interview P20092010a.

  57. 57.

    Interview P20092010a.

  58. 58.

    Middleton (2008, p. 19); Sam (2007, p. 1); interview at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, 10 September 2010.

  59. 59.

    Interview P08092010.

  60. 60.

    Interview P08092010.

  61. 61.

    Interview P10092010a.

  62. 62.

    Interview P10092010a.

  63. 63.

    Interview at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, 10 September 2010.

  64. 64.

    Interview on 10 September 2010.

  65. 65.

    Interview P10092010a.

  66. 66.

    Interview on 10 September 2010.

  67. 67.

    Comments made during a meeting with representatives of the German construction industry at the German Development Institute in Bonn, 1 October 2010.

  68. 68.

    Interview at the Ministry of Environment on 16 September 2010.

  69. 69.

    Interview P23092010.

  70. 70.

    Interviews on 16 September 2010 and 20 September 2010.

  71. 71.

    Interviews on 16 September 2010 and 20 September 2010.

  72. 72.

    Interviews at the Ministry of Environment, 16 September 2010.

  73. 73.

    Interviews P23092010 and P16092010.

  74. 74.

    This is the Stung Atay hydropower project.

  75. 75.

    Interview on 16 September 2010.

  76. 76.

    Interview P07092010.

  77. 77.

    Interview P23092010.

  78. 78.

    Interviews K18092010c.

  79. 79.

    Interviews K18092010c.

  80. 80.

    Interview K18092010a.

  81. 81.

    Interview K18092010a.

  82. 82.

    Interview K18092010a.

  83. 83.

    Interview P23092010.

  84. 84.

    Compensation was presumably paid for the loss of the economic trees, not for the loss of land.

  85. 85.

    Interview P16092010.

  86. 86.

    Interviews P11092010 and K18092010a.

  87. 87.

    Interview K18092010a.

  88. 88.

    Interview P20092010b.

  89. 89.

    Interview P10092010a.

  90. 90.

    Interview K18092010b.

  91. 91.

    Interview K18092010a.

  92. 92.

    Interview K18092010a.

  93. 93.

    Grimsditch (2012, p. 22) reports slightly different numbers.

  94. 94.

    Interview K18092010a.

  95. 95.

    Interview K18092010a.

  96. 96.

    Personal communication, Phnom Penh, 9 September 2010.

  97. 97.

    Interview on 10 September 2010.

  98. 98.

    Interview on 10 September 2010.

  99. 99.

    Interview at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, 10 September 2010.

  100. 100.

    Interviews K18092010c.

  101. 101.

    Interviews K18092010c and Royal Government of Cambodia (2007, Article 32).

  102. 102.

    Interview K18092010a.

  103. 103.

    Comment by an OECD embassy official, 9 August 2011.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to express his gratitude to the following people and institutions who made the research for this study possible: Hady Riad, Counsellor at the German Embassy in Phnom Penh; In Veasna at the German Embassy in Phnom Penh; the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy; the Ministry of Environment; the Cambodian Investment Board; the Ministry of Agriculture; Katrin Seidel, then Head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Phnom Penh; Jean-Yves Dekeister; and Petra Schill, then MRC-GTZ Cooperation Programme Coordinator at the GTZ/GIZ Office in Vientiane. I am also grateful to Mark Grimsditch for his detailed comments on a previous draft of this article.

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  1. Department of Social Sciences and Languages, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK

    Oliver Hensengerth

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  1. Oliver Hensengerth
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  1. Environmental Policy and Natural Resources Management, Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik, Bonn, Germany

    Waltina Scheumann

  2. School of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Southampton, United Kingdom

    Oliver Hensengerth

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Hensengerth, O. (2014). Hydropower Planning in Informal Institutional Settings: Chinese Institutions and the Failure of Environmental and Social Regulation in Cambodia. In: Scheumann, W., Hensengerth, O. (eds) Evolution of Dam Policies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23403-3_9

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