Nearly Over Before It Started: Prior Consultation for Don Sahong Dam Silently Begins
Following a meeting of the Mekong River Committee’s (MRC) Joint Committee last week in Phnom Penh, the MRC has finally confirmed the start date for Prior Consultation for the Don Sahong Dam as July 25. The announcement, or rather lack of announcement, of a start date for the Prior Consultation process which is more than two months past, illustrates just how backwards the process is.
Under the 1995 Mekong Agreement, the Prior Consultation process must be conducted within a six-month timeframe, although an extension is possible based upon agreement by the four governments. With a start date of July 25, it means that the regional consultation process is already nearly half-way complete, despite no official announcement by the MRC.
The start to the Prior Consultation process comes amid serious concerns about the legitimacy of the PNPCA process and whether or not it will really have a bearing on if the project is allowed to move forward. The sincerity of Laos’ intentions in submitting the project for regional consultation, following months of refusing to do so, has been called into question since the MRC Council meeting in June. During this meeting, the Lao government announced that they would submit the Don Sahong Dam for Prior Consultation and in the same breath announced that they would continue development of the project. Despite putting forward a public message, that they would not start construction while regional consultations are taking place, Mega-First Corporation Berhad, the project developer, has also been quick to confirm that construction at the project site is on-going. Furthermore, it appears negotiations over the project’s engineering, procurement and construction agreement are underway with China’s Sinohydro International.
As the Don Sahong Dam follows the same slippery pathway of the Xayaburi Dam - in which agreements and construction towards Xayaburi helped seal the deal, making it costly and difficult for Laos to make significant changes to the project’s design or reverse its position on the project - one can only question whether Laos is genuinely willing to negotiate in good faith with its neighbors?
The rationale behind the Prior Consultation process is to allow other countries to evaluate and comment on the project, giving them time to carry out “due-diligence” to assess any adverse impacts, which the project may have to their rights and interests. The intended outcome of the process is for the four governments to arrive at an agreement on how to proceed.
In September, the Save the Mekong Coalition sent a letter to regional Prime Ministers calling for a halt to the Prior Consultation process for the Don Sahong Dam, until the PNPCA process itself could be reformed and until necessary baseline studies, which include a transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment, could be carried out, to provide neighboring countries with sufficient information to evaluate the potential impacts of the project. The letter recognizes the well documented limitations of the PNPCA process to enable meaningful and participatory consultation.
It appears that no official announcement will be made to signify the start of the process by the MRC and the ‘road-maps’ for public consultations in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam have yet to be made publically accessible, further questioning the validity of the Prior Consultation process, and whether it is simply a façade for regional cooperation.
With the Mekong River’s fisheries at stake, it is clear that the Prior Consultation for the Don Sahong Dam cannot be swept under the rug, nor can it be allowed to follow the same failed process as the Xayaburi Dam.
