World Green Groups Will Fight Lao Dam Across Mekong

[webfact]

World green groups will fight Lao dam across Mekong

By Janjira Pongrai

The Nation

Environmental and conservation networks in six countries have vowed to fight a big dam planned across the Mekong River at Sayabouri in Laos.

"We have been gathering signatures of people who are against this dam," Thailand's Chiang Khong Conservation Group leader Niwat Roykaew said at an international meeting in Mexico.

"We will fight to the end because the dam will cause huge trouble to so many people".

He spoke at an international meeting of dam-affected people and their allies in the city of Temacapulin.

Laos recently gave official notice to the mekong River Commission (MRC) of its plan to construct the Xayaburi dam.

Jeremy bird, chief executive officer of the MRC secretariat, said recently he would tell all country members of the matter and encourage them to find a mutual conclusion.

The 260-megawatt electric dam is expected to disrupt the lives of millions of people who live downstream from the proposed site, near the town of Luang Prabang, if it goes ahead.

The mekong is one of the world's major rivers - stretching 4,350 kilometres from China, through Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Niwat lamented yesterday that a handful of people had used their money and power to manage rivers for their benefit at great cost to large numbers of others.

He said four dams on the mekong River in China had already caused a crisis and the Xayaburi dam would make the situation even worse.

Speaking at the same meeting, International Rivers Network executive director Patrick McCully, said many dams had been dismantled in North America and Europe after people became aware of the dams' adverse impacts on the environment and ecology.

"Developing countries, however, continue to build new dams," McCully told the meeting, which concludes tomorrow.

-- The Nation 2010-10-06

[humqdpf]

This report is probably based on the press release of the Thai conservation group in question. There is still no evidence that the 4 dams mentioned have "already created a crisis." There would appear to be a serious factual error (although the writing is itself less than cristal clear here) when there appears to be a claim that the site will be near the town of Louang Prabang and that millions will be affected.

First, the nearest point to Louang Prabang where the river joins Sayabouri province is in fact at least one hour drive from Louang Prabang where there a confluence of two rivers. Second, Sayabouri is a very under-populated province and unlikely to be affected by the dam. Third, the river travels for a very long distance within very underpopulated Laos before joining more highly populated Thailand.

Might the real reason for the opposition be the fact that the part of Sayabouri on the western side of the Mekong was a disputed territory and that some years ago Thailand fought a low-level war with Laos for this territory and did not get it?

[cup-O-coffee]

Environmental and conservation networks in six countries have vowed to fight a big dam planned across the Mekong River at Sayabouri in Laos.

"We have been gathering signatures of people who are against this dam," Thailand's Chiang Khong Conservation Group leader Niwat Roykaew said at an international meeting in Mexico.

"We will fight to the end because the dam will cause huge trouble to so many people".

He spoke at an international meeting of dam-affected people and their allies in the city of Temacapulin.

Laos recently gave official notice to the mekong River Commission (MRC) of its plan to construct the Xayaburi dam.

Jeremy bird, chief executive officer of the MRC secretariat, said recently he would tell all country members of the matter and encourage them to find a mutual conclusion.

SO, Niwat Roykaew, of Thailand's Chiang Khong Conservation Group, is going to take matters into his own hands, outside the protocols of the MRC, and try to get this project halted.

In the meanwhile, Laos has given official notice to the MRC of its plan to build the project.

Then, Jeremy bird, chief executive officer of the MRC secretariat, says he will tell everyone about it. A bit late for that isn't it?

What no one bothers to say is that the MRC has been (and perhaps still is) under probe for being inneffective in its job; here (from 2007), here (from 2004), and only the gods knows how much more corruption this organization is rife with. They face losing their sponsers. It's funny that the member nations, being composed of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, have a secretariet with the surname of "Bird". Is that Asian? And we all know these four countries are the leaders of the world whenever it comes to honoring one's word, responsible handling of funding, integrity and trust.

I could not find any current info for 2010, because I grew weary looking for what seems to be non-transparency into this commission's activities since those times. At the end of the day; this seems to be another elite problem, between four countries of unblemished character, that will be sorted out, and justified as soon as the right amounts of wealth are distributed into the right amount of coffers. It is the drama that gets played out, in what they think is for our benefit, and to give us the illusion that they care about silt, rice paddies, and catfish, that makes it so degrading.

Incidentally, so far only one (1) legitimate group is mentioned in the article's text; so the "World Groups" headline is another idiotic spin by another idiotic media outlet. What business do World Groups not on the member nation list have with this issue? Money?

Whatever happened to objective journalism, and journalistic investigation, before going to print?

Edited October 6, 2010 by cup-O-coffee

[chantorn]

Dam the Mekong? I though only the Chinese does such horrible thing.

[jaideeguy]

Dam the Mekong? I though only the Chinese does such horrible thing.

I think I heard that they [the Chinese] are financing the project.....they have been financing all the roads and infrastructure projects in 3rd world SE Asia.....I wonder why??

can someone please post a map or link of this proposed dam??

[brahmburgers]

For sure, a map would be helpful in assessing what's going on.

Some good points mentioned above, such as; "it's likely the Chinese are financing the dam."

As for 'low population density' being a reason that it's not a problem: That's low population of people. People are but one of thousands of species which inhabit that watershed. There are those who believe that progress which benefits people should go on and on (such as the Chinese and the Thais) and others, like myself who believe there is incalculable value in preserving 'wildness' and natural habitat. Plus, the idea that; if it's just some villages (perhaps several thousand people, rather than hundreds of thousands), then flooding the watershed is somehow alright, then I don't agree with that. Your immediate family might be 10 people, but are they less important than 100 people who live in your neighborhood, because they're less in number?

One thing is for certain: if the watershed gets flooded, the people affected with get shafted. In other words, there will be promises (compensation, re-location to 'better places' etc) but minimum compensation (if any at all) will happen. That's been the pattern for all such mega-projects, particularly when Asian governments and businesses are involved.

Solar is the wave of the future. Not more artificial lakes, not nuclear. Look at the trend-setters (Americans) and see what's been happening with dams and nuclear power plants being intentionally torn down and decommissioned. That's the result of socially enlightened people speaking out (campaigning) via ballots - and getting their consensus honored by government action - something that's alien to the Asian way of doing such things.

[LaoPo]

Solar is the wave of the future. Not more artificial lakes, not nuclear. Look at the trend-setters (Americans) and see what's been happening with dams and nuclear power plants being intentionally torn down and decommissioned. That's the result of socially enlightened people speaking out (campaigning) via ballots - and getting their consensus honored by government action - something that's alien to the Asian way of doing such things.

Solar is only one of the few new sources for energy, next to dams, and let's hope the sea/ocean (wave-movements) will be another source in the future.

But to say that America is now trend-setting and paving the way, demolishing dams (and nuclear power) installations is a bit overdone wouldn't you say?

If I recall correctly, the US has torn down 2 or 3 dams so far.

Interesting debate about dams*

Not exactly impressive on a total of 75.000 dams in America of which more than 8.000 (!) are major and very important dams. Without them, the US would have a "small" problem, wouldn't they?

If the 6 Mekong river countries would have the same infrastructure and wealth as the US we wouldn't even have to discuss dams in SE Asia.

Apart from that, water management, also in the form of dams is something that a lot of people have to get used to.

I NEVER hear anything from anybody WHY there is such a waste of water in SE Asia, whilst, at the same time the region is flooded on a very regular basis but nobody pays attention to all the huge amounts of precious water, running into the Gulf of Thailand/South China Sea.

But there's also some interesting data in the wiki link, also about Solar:

http://en.wikipedia....ydroelectricity

* http://debatepedia.i...roelectric_dams

LaoPo

[LaoPo]

Dam the Mekong? I though only the Chinese does such horrible thing.

I think I heard that they [the Chinese] are financing the project.....they have been financing all the roads and infrastructure projects in 3rd world SE Asia.....I wonder why??

can someone please post a map or link of this proposed dam??

You heard wrong.

Thailand (and not China) is financing AND building the Xayaburi hydropower plant by means of a Thai company, Ch Karnchang, which will invest Baht 100 Billion, and it's a (semi) Thai governmental institution, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), that will buy the electricity when the dam is finished in 2019.

I didn't find an exact location of the proposed dam yet but it will be between Laos' Luang Prabang and the province of Sayabouri (also Xayabouri or Xaignabouli), a very remote area, a little east of the most Northern part of Thailand.

This Laos area is where the Mekong floats already for a long time before it enters the Thai border again (after it left Thailand further up north near Pak Tha/Laos.

Don't forget that around 35% of the water supply into the Mekong is from Laos.

http://maps.google.n...2,15.655518&z=7

LaoPo

Edited October 17, 2010 by LaoPo

[brahmburgers]

Good retort by LaoPo. I'm not across-the-board against dams. I'm against dams that are unnecessary and/or particularly disturbing for the region's environment.