In the Media

Article from The Economist print edition Dolphins, catfish and people at risk THINK dams inundating idylls in developing countries were things of the past? Think again. To the dismay of many, the Siphandon ("4,000 Islands") district of southern Laos, home to pretty waterfalls, tranquil waterways and a colony of endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, is the site planned for a 240MW hydro-electric dam. Even parts of the Lao government think it is a step too far. Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Its government is eager to harness what natural resources it has, notably an abundanc

Article from The Associated Press BANGKOK, Thailand - A hydroelectric dam mega-project under construction in Laos has shortchanged local villagers and caused ecological problems including waterway pollution, an environmental group said Wednesday. But the World Bank, one of the lead funders on the project, insisted problems are being addressed and that revenues from the $1.45 billion project would go a long way toward eradicating poverty and improving basic services. Many of the concerns about Nam Theun 2 hydropower are expected to be aired at a three-day meeting that opened Wednesday near th

Article from Bangkok Post More than 200 civil and environmental groups from 30 countries have called on the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to block the planned construction of six dams on the Mekong river. In a petition sent to the commission's chief executive officer and donors of the MRC, the NGOs said they were concerned about the revival of plans to build dams on the lower Mekong and the failure of the MRC to defend the ecological integrity of the river. According to NGOs, the governments of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand have granted permission to Thai, Malaysian and Chinese companies

Article from Economist.com TWO years ago the World Bank returned, after a decade's absence, to the business of financing giant hydroelectric dams. This was in spite of a damning (pardon the pun) report in 2000 from the World Commission on Dams, which had been set up to investigate the many concerns of economists, environmentalists and civil-society groups about big hydropower projects. The commission's report confirmed many of their fears about the underestimated costs and over-hyped benefits of such schemes. However, the project that the World Bank, along with the Asian Development B

Article from Bangkok Post The urgent call to build new power plants is based on governmentelectric load forecasts that have a notorious track record ofoverestimating actual demand.Ten days ago the Ministry of Energy announced a plan to initiate alarge-scale public relations campaign that includes changing schoolcurriculums to "educate" children on the "merits" of coal and nuclearmega-projects to meet Thailand's alleged vast future demand forelectricity. Then key power-planning documents were removed from theministry's website just as the ministry announced that the long-awaitedpublic hearing o

Newsweek, March 19, 2001, Atlantic EditionSECTION: ASIA; Pg. 26HEADLINE: Strangling the MekongBYLINE: By Ron Moreau and Richard Ernsberger Jr.; With reporting by Kevin Platt in Beijing HIGHLIGHT: A spate of dam building has stopped up Southeast Asia's mighty river and may threaten the livelihood of millions who live along its banks. Great civilizations have flourished along the banks of the Mekong River. The Cambodian kings who once ruled most of Southeast Asia built their glorious temples near the shores of the Tonle Sap lake, the Mekong's pumping heart. Later the kingdoms of Thailand, Laos a

Article from The Nation: A special Op-Editorial Pianporn Deetes is a campaigner for the Living River Siam-Southeast Asia Rivers Network. The Salween River is set to become a new source of energy for Thailand. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), has been touting at least five dam projects on the Salween River inside Burma and along the Thailand-Burma border as potentially enormous sources of "cheap" energy. Still, there are unseen costs behind the electricity that have not been fully taken into account by those promoting the dam projects. Environmentally, the cos

PHNOM PENH, Jan 14 (IPS) - Chao Chantha, one of 10 community representatives from the north-eastern Cambodian province of Stung Treng became agitated as officials of the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) fielded questions at a meeting called to discuss the neighbouring country's plans to build more dams on its side of the border. ''We have no hope that Vietnam will give any compensation to Cambodian people affected by their dams,'' Chantha, 46, said on the sidelines of the Jan. 12 meeting. Cambodian activists say this was the first time in more than a decade of Nordic aid-bac

Article from The Cambodia Daily The Sesan River in Ratanakkiri province has flooded and receded for several years due to upstream dams in Vietnam, and now the northeast's Srepok River is also showing the effects of three new dams, locals reported on Friday. Villagers from Mondolkiri, Ratanakkiri, and Stung Treng provinces living along the Srepok gathered in Phnom Penh for a workshop to discuss the impact of dams and voice complaints over the resulting changes to their river and lives. The 30 villagers met with a representative of Electricity of Vietnam at the workshop and asked that the

Opinion piece published in Bangkok's The Nation This week, Thailand's new energy minister, Dr Piyasvasti Amranand signed an agreement to buy up to 5,000 megawatts (MW) of hydropower from Laos by 2015 - 2,000 MW more than envisioned by his predecessor. Dr Piyasvasti claims its eastern neighbour will provide Thailand with a reliable supply of electricity. But that strategy is extremely expensive, particularly for the hundreds of thousands of Lao villagers who will be forced to bear the cost. For Lao farmers and fishers, dams are not power generators but threats to their rivers and liveli