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[justinm at ucr.edu]

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2008-0221 - VOA - International Rivers Voices Concerns About
Laos Hydro-power Developments

http://www.voanews.com/lao/2008-02-21-voa2.cfm

International Rivers Voices Concerns About Laos Hydro-power
Developments
By Phaysarn Vorachak
21/02/2008

Report in Lao, 2.26 MB - Download (MP3)
Report in Lao, 2.26 MB - Listen to (MP3)

A US-based conservation group expresses concerns? that the Nam
Ngum hydro-power cascade threatens poverty reduction efforts
in Laos, adding that poor sector planning and lack of public
participation are aggravating social and environmental impacts
as described in an ADB report.

In a press release on January 22, the International Rivers
group says that a report presented in Vientiane a day earlier
on the cumulative impacts of hydro-power development in the
Nam Ngum basin indicates that the proposed dams would have
serious impacts on the livelihoods of tens of thousands of
local people. But the flawed planning process makes it
unlikely that this cumulative impact assessment, which is
supported by ADB or the Asian Development Bank, will have any
influence on any decision-making regarding whether or how to
proceed with these developments.

How serious are the impacts posed by these developments?
Shannon Lawrence, Lao Program Director of International Rivers
says, “It depends on how many and which project will go
forward; right now Nam Ngum 2 is under construction and the
ADB study mentioned problem with the settlement in that
project, so there is some social impact that need to be
addressed; there is also Nam Ngum 3, the project that is most
likely to go forward next; Nam Ngum 5, and dams on the
tributaries such as Nam Lik and Nam Bak; and the extent of the
impact really depends on just how many projects are developed
and how that is done and how that project is managed and
implemented.”

The cumulative assessment considers various scenarios for
hydro-power and irrigation developments which include one dam
in operation, another under construction, and at least six
more proposed projects in the Nam Ngum basin. The study finds
that blocked migration routes, destruction of riverine
habitat, and water quality caused by these dams would gravely
threaten the basin’s fisheries, including the productive
fishery in the existing Nam Ngum 1 reservoir. The assessment
says subsistence farmers, the poor, the landless, ethnically
and otherwise marginalized groups with few alternatives, are
likely to be hit hardest by any impact on habitats and
wild-capture fisheries.

The Nam Ngum hydro-power cascade could undermine the Lao
government’s poverty reduction commitments, particularly in
the absence of revenue management or legally enforceable
contracts to share benefits with affected people. “The impact
of hydro-power development on the rural poor will depend
largely on the existence of concrete mechanism that would
guarantee that affected villagers are benefiting directly from
the revenue earned by hydro-power projects through formal
benefit-sharing mechanism,” says the cumulative impact assessment.

International Rivers says workshops on these hydro projects,
like the one held in Vientiane recently to discuss the
cumulative impact assessment, are being hastily organized, and
little, if any, project information is made available to the
public. Shannon Lawrence, International Rivers’ Lao Program
Director, said decisions have been taken to proceed with
hydro-power projects even before their individual and
cumulative environmental and social impacts have been fully
assessed. As an example, she cites Nam Ngum 2, which has been
under construction since 2006, but no impact study result has
been disclosed yet for this project.

In another development, the Norwegian advocacy group FIVAS has
recently expressed concerns about the Theun-Hinboun Expansion
Project. FIVAS Director Andrew Preston told VOA from Oslo that
the expansion should not go forward until the company and
shareholders have done a great deal more to resolve the
impacts that are already there.

Laos plans to build as many as nine new dams and expands its
hydro-power capacity 10 folds in the next eight years,
insisting that these dams will not harm the environment.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting presenting the ADB
report in Vientiane on January 21, Mr. Hadsady Sisoulath, Lao
Deputy Director General of the Electricity Department, said
the cumulative impact assessment would provide a basic
planning and management roadmap to minimize the social and
environment impacts of the projects and ensure the well-being
of local people.

Listen to our special report for details in Lao.

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu