An 88-page report released by International Rivers chronicles the social and environmental debt created by river-rich Laos’ unprecedented dam-building boom. Environmental scientist Dr. Carl Middleton, International Rivers’ Mekong Program Coordinator, will present the report to government and donor representatives today in Vientiane, the Lao capital, at an official consultation on the Mekong River Commission’s Hydropower Program.
Power Surge appeals to the Lao government and donor agencies to:
1) explore economic alternatives to hydropower;
2) designate the Mekong mainstream off-limits to dam development;
3) impose a moratorium on new hydro projects until basin-wide plans are in place;
4) enforce Laos’ environmental laws; and
5) for dams that proceed, share hydro benefits through life-of-project payments and service provision to all affected people, up and downstream.
Laos – an opaque, one-party state – has declared it a national priority to catalyze the country’s development through the rapid construction of large dams that export high-risk hydropower to neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. With six big dams already in operation, seven currently under construction, at least 12 more in the works and development deals pending on another 35, Laos’ flood of hydro projects will monopolize the Mekong at the expense of other vital uses.
Power Surge’s 11 in-depth case studies reveal that Lao villagers are being sold down the river in hydro deals that take their fertile farmland and river fisheries, leaving them without critical sources of food and income. The people of Laos are among the poorest in the region; about 80% are farmers and fishers who have few other means to meet their basic needs and earn a living.
“Big dams don’t develop Laos; they destroy invaluable rivers and resources upon which Lao people depend for daily survival,” says Shannon Lawrence, Lao Program Director for International Rivers and editor of the report. “Poverty reduction initiatives that support rural communities and promote government accountability need to be prioritized and scaled-up.”
According to the report, dam deals appear to be made on a first-come, first-served basis with interested companies, most of which are based in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Russia and Malaysia. The Lao Water Resources and Environment Agency lacks the authority to compel dam developers to pay for the social and environmental costs of their projects or to enforce local law. Laos’ biggest hydro project under construction, the French-led Nam Theun 2, has fallen short of promises made by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank that it would set a new sustainability standard for Lao dams.
One of the most destructive dams highlighted in the report is the proposed Don Sahong Hydropower Project, which would be the first dam built on the lower Mekong River mainstream, one of the six that Laos is proposing. The dam would block the main channel passable year-round by fish migrating between Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
”Mekong mainstream dams - like Don Sahong - would be a tragic and costly mistake. For only 360 megawatts of electricity, Don Sahong would devastate fisheries that are central to people’s food security and the wider economy and undermine the region’s growing tourism potential. In a region where wild-capture fisheries are valued at US$2 billion per year and are of critical importance to riparian communities, these dams simply don’t add up,” says Dr. Middleton.
The Mekong River Commission is a river basin management organization directed by the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and funded by donor governments such as Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan and Sweden. Middleton will make a presentation to the Commission challenging the dam industry’s business-as-usual approach in Laos and the wider Mekong Region. International Rivers is also sending the report and recommendations to other international institutions involved in Laos’ hydro boom including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Supporting statements
“Big dams are risky business for the people of Laos, and for investors. If companies are going to build dams in a one-party state with no free press and little transparency, they have to take extraordinary measures to make sure that environmental and social standards are met. This is the cost of doing business in places where people’s rights are not adequately protected by the rule of law. Dam-affected people must be guaranteed compensation for their losses as well as given a direct share of project benefits.” – Shannon Lawrence, Lao Program Director, International Rivers
“A healthy Mekong River is priceless. It is not simply the provider of economic commodities such as fish, irrigation water, and hydroelectricity. It is also the lifeblood of the region, its history and inspiration. Instead of choking the Mekong with dams, it is time that this tired old development model is replaced with one that celebrates the region’s rich cultural and ecological inheritance.” – Dr. Carl Middleton, Mekong Program Coordinator, International Rivers
"The recent mushrooming of hydroelectric projects in Laos and the wider Mekong Region has very significant implications for the Mekong, its tributaries and - most importantly - the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on these rivers. This report is a timely warning of the human and environmental catastrophe that lies ahead if lessons of the past are thrown to the wind." – Professor Philip Hirsch, Director, Australian Mekong Resource Centre, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney
“The environmental impacts of dams constructed on rivers around the world are well-documented. But in the case of Laos, the impacts are especially severe and present a dire scenario of water quality degradation, irreversible ecological damage and unnecessary human suffering. At a time when global water resources are being pushed to the maximum, we see dam projects in Laos producing increased levels of greenhouse gases, an unnecessary loss of valuable fish species, toxic blooms of bacteria that poison the water, and the real threat of unnecessary human suffering from increased waterborne disease.“ – Dr. Guy Lanza, Professor of Microbiology and Director, Environmental Science Program, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
