Silences of the Dam: The Intimate Geographies of Ethnic Lao Well-Being on the Sesan River

In the locales where hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin have been constructed, ethnically and economically marginalized groups who depend on rivers and their tributaries for well-being often bear the greatest burdens: loss of fisheries and river-based livelihoods, riverbank gardens, and sacred sites, to name a few. In December 2018, the controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam in northeastern Cambodia started operations, exacerbating old challenges and creating new ones for the riverine communities along the Sesan and Srepok Rivers. In this article, I employ a feminist political ecology framework to explore the varying ways that personal and community well-being are impacted in two ethnic Lao locales of Sre Kor (Na Kor in Lao language) commune and Phluk village as a result of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. While the dam has disrupted flows of water and fish habitats and migrations, rendering new ecological circumstances, I argue that infrastructural violence can variably hide intimate geographies of well-being and un-wellness. Only by interrogating the silences of intimate geographies of the body and home in local villages and communal ethnic spaces will such impacts of violence become visible. 

大坝的沉默：塞桑河上老挝族群福祉的亲密关系地理学

关键词：LS2 大坝，女权主义政治生态学、老挝、福祉、亲密关系地理学

在湄公河流域建设了水电大坝的地区，那些生活福祉依赖大河及其支流的边缘族群及经济群体通常承受着最大的负担—渔业和围绕河流的生计、河岸花园及神圣场地的丧失等等， 不一而足。2018年12月，位于柬埔寨东北部争议很大的塞桑河下游2号大坝开始运营，不仅加剧了对塞桑河和斯雷波河社区旧有的挑战，也带来了新的困难。我在本文中利用女权主义政治生态学框架探讨了作为塞桑河下游2号大坝的后果，在 Sre Kor（老挝语中的 Na Kor）公社和 Phluk村的两个老挝族群的个人和社区的福祉如何以不同方式受到影响。我认为，尽管大坝扰乱了河水的流动和鱼类的栖息地及迁徙，制造了新的生态环境，但是基础设施的暴力能够不同程度地隐藏关于福祉和欠安的亲密关系地理学。只有通过对当地村庄和社区的族群空间中的身体和家庭的亲密关系地理学的沉默加以拷问，这些暴力的影响才会变得可见。本论文利用了一种女权主义政治生态学方法来对老挝族群的人们的不同的边缘化的经历加以集中，使得福祉的亲密关系地理学成为理解水电大坝开发影响的重要部分， 而这些影响通常在影响评价中遭到摒弃和忽视。

Translated by Li Guo