Southeast Asia

BankTrack, International Rivers, Justice and International Mission Unit, Uniting Church in Australia, Les Amis de la Terre, and Netwerk Vlaanderen welcome THPC's decision to put their response to our report, 'Expanding Failure’, on their website. However, we are disappointed that the company failed to (a) respond to key issues that we believe must be addressed immediately; (b) respond to many of the specific concerns stated in the report; (c) state how the company is in compliance with Lao law and the Equator Principles, and (d) give any response to the recommendations in the report. You can

International Rivers and Mekong Watch sent a letter on commercial operation of Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in Lao PDR to the President of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank on March 26, 2010. We raised concerns to the banks that the Nam Theun 2 Power Company (NTPC) began operating the project on March 15, 2010 despite not having fulfilled key environmental and social conditions contained in the project’s Concession Agreement with the Lao government and the World Bank resettlement policy. Click here to read the letter. On 29 March 2010, we sent a letter to a host of private bank

This video is about Laos’ largest and most controversial hydropower project, Nam Theun 2. Risky Business describes how Nam Theun 2 is affecting Lao villagers’ everyday life, including interviews with the affected communities. The video is produced by BankTrack and International Rivers based on a site visit in May 2009.

From World Watch Magazine, Jan/Feb 2010, Volume 23, No. 1Big dams have a serious record of social and environmental destruction, and there are many alternatives. So why are they still being built? Big dams have frequently imposed high social and environmental costs and long-term economic tradeoffs, such as lost fisheries and tourism potential and flooded agricultural and forest land. According to the independent World Commission on Dams, most projects have failed to compensate affected people for their losses and to adequately mitigate environmental impacts. Local people have rarely had a mea

From 2006 - 2011, Carl Middleton, coordinated International Rivers’ Mekong Program to protect the Mekong River from destructive dams. Carl has traveled throughout the region to get to know our partners and learn from local people about how important the river is to their lives. These experiences have made him more committed than ever to protecting the mighty Mekong River for current and future generations.But the threats to the river are mounting. Regional governments plan to build up to eleven dams on the Mekong mainstream. If these dams are built, they will decimate the river’s fisherie

An assessment of the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project’s compliance with Equator Principles and Lao law The Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project – a dam and diversion project under construction in Central Laos – violates the Equator Principles and Lao law, according to this report. Expanding Failure documents how Lao villagers are being sold down the river in a hydro deal that will displace thousands of people from their homes and land, and deprive thousands more of access to fertile rice fields, riverbank vegetable gardens, grazing lands, forests and fisheries. The dam project undermines loca

Still Waters, Deep Troubles; this video by International Rivers and BankTrack tells how the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project in Laos threatens the livelihoods of more than 50,000 local people.

Carl Middleton talks with Alexandra Cousteau about the Mekong region, people and river for Expedition: Blue Planet.

On September 8, 2009, International Rivers sent a letter to the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Executive Directors on the key issues that must be addressed before Nam Theun 2 begins commercial operation. Woman in Sop Ma resettlement village in the Nakai Plateau is planting rice and corn in NTPC's allocated 0.66ha of land. A copy of the letter was also sent to the U.S Department of the Treasury and the Nam Theun 2 Power Corporation (NTPC). The letter addresses International Rivers' main concerns and recommendations based on a site visit in May 2009, when International Rivers