Government funding for the Mekong River Commission

For the purposes of the original Yali Falls EIA –conducted with Swiss Government funding for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) – the downstream area was defined as only 8km below the dam, thus ignoring Cambodia totally. In addition, after completions no prior warnings of water releases, resulting in deaths of local people living along the river and an international incident.
Local villagers have also reported negative impacts on the Sesan’s fisheries, and increased siltation has apparently decreased the depth of one of the river’s most important deep pools from 7-8m to just half a meter. In 2003 a study on the Sesan’s breeding birds demonstrated the impacts of changing flow regimes on some of the region’s most at-risk bird populations. Not only were changing patterns of sedimentation and erosion reducing available habitat, but 50% of River Lapwing nests located during the study were destroyed by sudden fluctuations in water releases from the dam.