Laravel
Last Days of a Valley Damned

Published on Feb 8, 2013 by Luke Hunt

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FAR EAST CORRESPONDENT — Yong Yim’s voice rises to a high-pitched quiver when she talks about a planned dam in the Areng Valley that would inundate land her family has inhabited for hundreds of years to form what amounts to a giant battery.

“Sometimes I am crying, because I will miss my homeland and my ancestors’ farmland,” she says, spitting out chunks of betel nut.

The trees and shrubs that flourish in this haven between peaks of the Cardamom Mountains now bear an ominous token: red demarcation ribbons posted by Chinese engineers a few weeks ago.

From  May Titthara, David Boyle and Danson Cheong in The Phnom Penh Post.