Environmental group calls for postponement of new dam deals in Laos

Environmental group calls for postponement of new dam deals in Laos
Bangkok - Thailand and Laos should delay signing deals for 1,500 megawatts of hydro-electricity this month until the social and environmental impact from past projects is addressed, the International Rivers Network said Thursday.


Thailand and Laos plan to sign four new power purchase agreements from hydro-electric dams in Laos before the upcoming December 23 general elections in Thailand, which will usher in a new government.

One involves a dam that has already severely harmed the livelihoods of some 30,000 Lao people, while another promises to open up one of the world's 35 "bio-diversity hotspots," the group's Lao program director Shannon Lawrence said.

"Before new project go forward, they should at least meet minimum standards on their previous projects," said Lawrence.

Laos, a land-locked, mountainous country that is ranked among the world's poorest nations, is banking on its abundant hydro-electric resources to pull itself out of poverty.

The government recently said it hopes to turn the country into the "battery" of South-east Asia. To date, neighbouring Thailand has received most of the juice.

Laos currently has six large hydro-power plants in operation, all of them exporting to neighbouring Thailand. Another four projects are under construction and five to 10 more are in the advanced planning stage.

The government, under communist rule since 1975, hopes to attract foreign investment to build 30 new hydro-electric dams by 2020.

While Thailand and Laos agreed in Bangkok last September to implement social and environmental standards on Lao dam projects, their track record on past projects has raised scepticism about their pledges.

For example, the Theun-Hinboun hydropower project, owned by Norway's state-owned Statkraft, the GMS Power Company of Thailand, and the state-owned Electricite du Laos, has ruined the ecology of two rivers in Laos and the livelihoods of 30,000 Lao people living downstream of the dam over the past nine years, according to a newly released report called Ruined Rivers, Damages Lives, compiled by FIVAS, a Norwegian advocacy group.

Now the Theun-Hinboun project is being slated to double its capacity. It is one of the four projects Thailand's is seeking a new PPA with Laos on.

Another is the Nam Theun 1 project, just south of the World Bank-backed Nam Theun 2. Nam Theun 1, operated by Gamuda of Malaysia and the Electricity Generating Company of Thailand, is being constructed in the middle of the Nam Kading National Protected Area, one of the most remote and bio-diverse protected areas left in Asia.

"Given Nam Theun 1's social and environmental costs, many of which cannot be met, this project undermines the sustainable hydro-power pledges made by the Lao and Thai governments in September," said Lawrence.

"The Theun-Hinboun also fails to meet these standards, and as such both projects should be dropped."//dpa