Pressure Mounts to Delay "Dangerous" $3.5 Bln Mekong River Dam

By: 
Martin Petty
Date: 
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Originally published in Reuters

  • Experts warn of irreversible damage if dam goes ahead
  • Laos prepares for construction, defies regional pressure
  • Food security, agriculture, fisheries threatened
  • Mekong countries to push for delay, detailed study 

BANGKOK - Plans for the first dam across the lower Mekong River are putting Laos on a collision course with its neighbours and environmentalists who fear livelihoods, fish species and farmland could be destroyed, potentially sparking a food crisis.

The impoverished, Communist nation seems determined to defy international pressure and forge ahead with construction of the $3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam, a project experts say could cause untold environmental damage.

The four countries that share the lower stretches of the 4,900 km (3,044 mile) Mekong -- Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia -- met in the Lao capital Vientiane on Tuesday to debate and possibly decide the future of the 1.285-megawatt (MW) dam, the first of 11 planned in the lower Mekong that are expected to generate 8 percent of Southeast Asia's power by 2025.

Although Mekong basin countries are bound by a treaty to hold inter-governmental consultations before building dams, none has veto powers and Laos will have the final say.

Ecologists and rivers experts say an environmental impact assessment conducted last year by the Lao government was patchy at best. They warn that the livelihoods of 60 million people in the lower Mekong region are at risk if the Xayaburi dam goes ahead without proper risk assessment.

Activists say scores of fish species face extinction, fish stocks will dwindle as migratory routes will be blocked, and swathes of rice-rich land could be deprived of fertile silt carried downstream by Southeast Asia's longest waterway.

Entire villages would be forced to relocate.

According to a study by the Mekong Rivers Commission, an inter-government agency, the proposed 11 dams would turn 55 percent of the river into reservoirs, resulting in estimated agriculture losses of more than $500 million a year and cutting the average protein intake of Thai and Lao people by 30 percent.

Laos has not responded to the warnings or to scientists' recommendations. Its government has hailed Xayaburi as a model for clean, green energy that will stimulate its tiny $6 billion economy and improve the lives of its 5.9 million people, over a quarter of whom live below the poverty line, many without electricity.

Its energy-hungry neighbour, Thailand, will buy most of the power generated by the dam. Thailand's No. 2 building contractor, CH Karnchang Pcl , has a 30 percent share in the project. The Thai government has said little about the dam.

Dubbed the "battery of Southeast Asia" because of its hydropower ambitions, Laos is already committed to supplying 7,000 MW to Thailand, 5,000 MW to Vietnam, and 1,500 MW to Cambodia by 2015. Its energy ministry says it has the potential to generate 28,000 MW of power from the Mekong.

Intense Opposition

But opposition is fierce. Protests over the dam have been held in Thailand and in some villages in Laos where dissent is rare. Some 263 non-governmental organisations have petitioned Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and his Thai counterpart, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to scrap it.

U.S. Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat and chairman of the U.S. senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, said the dam was "very troubling" and would "have devastating environmental, economic and social consequences for the entire Mekong subregion".

"It would be prudent to delay construction ... until adequate planning and multilateral coordination can be guaranteed. Absent this collaborative approach, the stability of Southeast Asia is at risk," he said in a statement last week.

Vietnam and Cambodia have made public calls for the project to be postponed pending further studies, while state-controlled media in Vietnam has been uncharacteristically critical, which suggests behind-the-scenes diplomacy had failed.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong said Mekong countries "must cooperate closely in exploiting and using natural resources in a fair and proper manner", while Watt Botkosal, deputy secretary general of Cambodia's National Mekong Committee, called for a thorough study on the "impact on the social economy that millions of people rely on".

What has raised eyebrows is Laos's refusal to back down in the face of clear opposition from Vietnam, which has long exerted major influence on its much smaller socialist neighbour. Analysts say Laos has a lot to lose if it upsets Hanoi, its biggest investor.

"What's happening is unprecedented. It's hard to see who is really in favour of this dam," said Ian Baird, an expert on Laos and specialist on hydropower dams and fisheries at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Uncharted Waters

"Laos isn't going to make any friends here. Politically, these are uncharted waters and it's difficult to see quite where this is going."

Baird said the environmental assessment carried out by Laos lacked credibility, while five international experts interviewed by the U.S.-based environmental group, International Rivers, delivered scathing criticism of a report they said was "contradictory", "incomplete" and "irresponsible".

But what has outraged most activists and could embarrass Laos within the 10-member ASEAN regional bloc are reports that appear to show the Lao government and its Thai partners have already started construction on the dam.

Sunday's Bangkok Post newspaper carried pictures of construction of what it said was a 30 km (19 mile) stretch of road leading up to the dam site, with 20 trucks lined up each bearing the logos of CH Karnchang.

"If the Lao government does not act in good faith and respect the regional processes that it has committed to, the future of the Mekong River and its people is indeed bleak," International Rivers said.

(Additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh and John Ruwitch in Hanoi.)