Review of Environmental Impact Assessment for Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project

By: 
David Blake
Date: 
Wednesday, April 16, 2008

This review of the August 2007 drafts of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan for the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project was conducted by independent researcher David Blake. According to Blake, the EIA fails to adequately examine impacts from the existing Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project such as loss of land from erosion and increased flooding. These impacts will only intensify under the expansion project. Nor does it discuss the extent to which mitigation and compensation measures implemented to date have dealt with the impacts. The review concludes,"Rarely does one see such a cynical attempt to blatantly distort or ignore empirical data to achieve a pre-determined outcome: namely, the building of this new dam."