Laos Dismisses Concerns Over Hydropower Project

Laos Dismisses Concerns Over Hydropower Project

High-ranking Laos officials said on Wednesday that the proposed Pak Beng
hydropower dam will not have a major impact on downstream communities,
claiming that they would take time to study its potential impacts.

Pak Beng, a $2.3 billion dam some 1,500 kilometers from the Cambodia border,
will be the third dam the country has constructed on the mainstream Mekong
river if it is built.

The project is expected to get the go-ahead and be completed by 2024.

Laos' two other controversial Mekong projects, the Xayaburi and Don Sahong,
have become a major concern for environmentalists and downstream communities
who rely on the river ecosystem.

At a two-day regional stakeholder meeting this week, organized by the Mekong
River Commission, the country's minister of natural resources and
environment, Sommad Pholsena, said it would be difficult to reach "absolute
agreement" on the dam.

"I am also like you. I am responsible for natural resources and environment.

I would like to leave a good environment for our next generation," he said.

"The MRC members have the responsibility for the people of Laos, Thailand,
Vietnam and Cambodia, and it is the duty of the Laos government, especially
the ministry, to give importance to their [concerns]," the minister told
reporters.

Daovong Phonekeo, the permanent secretary of Laos' Ministry of Energy, told
VOA Khmer that the dam will not have a major impact on the lower Mekong
river countries.

"And Pak Beng is upstream from the Xayaburi. We will follow the same
standards, the same requirements. So I believe that this is less of a
concern for the Pak Beng," he said.

When asked if Laos will continue to build more dams, Daovong said, "Yes,
yes, of course. It depends on cost-benefit and the economics of the project.
If the project is financially, economically and environmentally valuable,
then why should it not be developed? That is the easy principle."

Daovong added that Laos would also consider solar and wind energy if the
cost was cheaper than hydropower dams.

Prior to the meeting, Cambodian environmental groups asked the government to
reject the project, alarmed by the potential impacts on fisheries and
sediment flow in the Mekong.

It is expected that 25 villages in Laos and two villages in Thailand will be
directly affected by construction of the Pak Beng dam, with an estimated
6,700 people re-settled, according to International Rivers.

Nuanlaor Wongpinnitwarodom, the director of the Bureau of Mekong Management
of the Thai National Mekong River Committee, told VOA Khmer that the Thai
government will do more studies following concerns raised by villagers in
Chiang Rai province.

"From the Thai side, people are worried about that. We will do more
scientific surveys. We did not know the impacts yet," she said.

Laos contributes 41 percent of the flow into the Mekong River, more than any
other country. Laos, the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia, plans to
develop more dams to profit from electricity exports.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.voacambodia.com/a/laos-dismisses-concerns-over-hydropower-project
/3735377.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com