Plans to proceed with a benefits-and-risks review of a proposed hydropower dam on the Mekong River has sparked concern in both Laos and Thailand about the impact on communities and the ecosystem.
The US$2-billion, 12-turbine Sanakham hydropower dam will be built about 155 kilometers (100 miles) west of the Lao capital of Vientiane, and 25 km (15 miles) upstream from Sanakham district of Vientiane province, near the Thai-Lao border.
More than 62,500 people in Thailand and Laos will be forced to relocate due to rising waters, according to submitted documents.
Lao residents say they have hardly had a chance to give feedback on the project.
“I’m so concerned that we’ll have to move to another village,” a Sanakham district resident told Radio Free Asia. “They [the government] did not clearly explain it to us at all.”
Dozens of hydropower dams have already been built on the Mekong and its tributaries, and there are plans to build scores more in the coming years. The Lao government wants to harness their power generation to boost the economy, which has been battered by soaring inflation and a weakening currency.
Electricity generated by the dam, to be built by China-owned Datang (Lao) Sanakham Hydropower Co. Ltd. and Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development Public Co. Ltd., will mainly be exported to Thailand.
Thailand’s Office of National Water Resources said on Dec. 17 that it would begin the consultation process during which Mekong River Commission member countries and other stakeholders review proposed projects to try to reach a consensus on whether or not they should proceed.
The Thai National Mekong Commission is holding four public information forums about the dam for residents living in the eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River during the coming weeks.
‘Rushed ahead’
International Rivers, a group acting to protect rivers and the communities that depend on them, said there there has been little up-to-date information publicly available about the project.
“It appears this process is being rushed ahead, with little regard for the needs of local residents to be able to make arrangements to attend the forums, let alone prepare and develop informed opinions about the project specifics,” the group said in a Dec. 21 statement.
Villagers who will be affected by the dam don’t want to move, a resident of Kenethao district in Xayaburi province said.
“They don’t want to relocate at all [because] here they have their livelihoods,” he said. “If they moved somewhere far away, what would happen to their lives? If they have no choice but to move, then they should get more compensation.”
Phonepaseuth Phouliphanh, secretary general of the Lao National Mekong Committee, told Radio Free Asia that the project developer will take into consideration concerns raised about the dam.
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“All project developments have both good and bad impacts which we cannot avoid,” he told Radio Free Asia. “We have done research to ensure the impact is as little as possible.”
After hearing the concerns from people in areas to be affected by the dam, the Lao government or the project developer will review and correct issues that may occur, he added.
Thai concerns
Meanwhile, some Thai residents and advocacy groups also oppose the construction of the dam.
Channarong Wongla, a member of the Chiang Khan Conservation Group and Local Fisheries Group in Chiang Khan, a district in Thailand that will be affected by the dam, said other hydropower projects have already altered water routes and islands and caused erosion.
With hydropower projects in the past, including Laos’ Xayaburi Dam, developers moved ahead with their projects regardless of the concerns raised by residents, he told International Rivers.
“Most importantly, for the Sanakham Dam project, the [Thai] ombudsman and the National Human Rights Commission have already provided a clear basis for a more precautionary approach recognizing the serious impacts on local people and ecosystems,” he was quoted as saying.
A report by the ombudsman said there “was still a serious lack of information on the transboundary impacts of the dam project and that clear commitments of accountability are required from both the developers and government agencies in Thailand,” he said.
Construction of the Sanakham Dam was expected to begin in 2020, but was put on hold when government officials from Thailand’s National Mekong Commission raised questions about the impacts of the project and called for comprehensive technical studies on its environmental, social and transboundary effects, according to International Rivers.
The “snap decision” to schedule expedited public information sessions for the Sanakham Dam marked a distinct shift in the Thai government’s approach to the project, the group said.
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.