Laos Renews Appeal For Dam
7/14/97
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Headline: Laos Renews Appeal For Dam
Source: Patrick McCully
Campaigns Director
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703, USA
Tel. 510 848 1155
Fax. 510 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
Date: 7/14/97
Author: Thaksina Khaikaew
Bangkok Post
ENVIRONMENT
Laos renews appeal for planned dam
Vowing to minimise fallout from project
Thaksina Khaikaew
Vientiane
Laos is determined to go ahead with the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric dam and
urged the international community to support the $1.5 billion project.
"Nam Theun 2 dam is the best for Laos. The international
community should give support to the project as it will be
implemented with great care being given to environmental and
social impacts," said Khammone Phonekeo, vice minister of the
Ministry of Industry and Handicraft at the end of a week-long
workshop, titled "Third National Public Consultation", which
ended Saturday.
He said if people from the other countries listened to the
voice of the Laotian people, they would certainly hear that the Laotians
wanted the project to uplift their living standard.
None of the non-governmental organisations which took part in the
workshop voiced opposition to the project.
The 680-megawatt hydroelectric dam will be built across the Nam
Theun River which is a tributary of the mighty Mekong. About
450 square kilometres of land in Nakai plateau, or 40 percent of
the area, will be flooded and between 800-1,000 families
will have to be resettled.
Located some 250 km south of Vientiane, the Nam Theun 2 dam
is a build-own-operate-transfer project to be developed by the
Laotian government in collaboration with Nam Theun 2 Electricity
Consortium (NTEC) which involves Transfield Corp, Electricite de
France and three Thai firms - Italian-Thai Development Plc,
Jasmine International Plc and Phatra Thanakit Company.
NTEC holds 75 percent stake in the project and the rest is
held by the Laotian government which will assume full onwership of the
dam after 25 years. Most of the electricity generated will be
exported to Thailand, starting 2004.
Thailand currently imports 195 megawatts of electricity from Laos
150 megawatts from Nam Ngum dam and 45 megawatts from Xeset dam.
For landlocked Laos, export of electricity is its main source of
foreign exchange. It expects to earn $250 million a year by
selling electricity generated by Nam Theun 2 dam.
Mr Khammone ruled out fears that economic slowdown in Thailand would
affect the power purchase from Nam Theun 2.
Despite Laos's determination, a green light is yet to come
from the World Bank which is the major source of funding for the dam.
To convince the World Bank, Laos is obliged to submit independent studies
assuring that the project complies with economic, social and environmental
standards.
Independent studies by research teams were presented at the
workshop last week for comments from NGOs after which the
Laotian government will compile a report and submit it to the
World Bank.
At the workshop, there was a suggestion that the height of the
dam should be lowered to minimise adverse social and
environmental impacts. Also, it was suggested that several
smaller dams instead of one big dam should be built.
But NTEC insisted that downsizing the dam may affect the feasibility of
the entire project.
A representative of the World Bank, Ms Kathryne McPhail, said
she could not give a definite answer now whether the bank would
approve the project.
But she insisted that the project must meet all the
guidelines set by the bank. She added that the bank would take a couple of
months to study all the related findings before coming up with an answer.