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Xayaburi Dam: An Unfinished Story in the Mekong
By Pattara W

Say ‘Mekong dams’ these days and the first thing that comes to mind is the controversial Xayaburi dam project in Laos, which in recent years has been the subject of worries among neighbouring – especially downstream -- communities and governments.

In April, the Lao government agreed to delay, pending further official negotiations, proceeding with the 3.8 billion U.S. dollar project after the governments of Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand asked it to go slow on the building the hydropower project in mountainous Xayaburi province.

In an Apr. 19 meeting held as part of the required consultation process as members of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), these governments requested an extension in Laos’ decision-making process due to concerns about possible transboundary effects of the dam and the need for further technical studies.

The April deferment is far from final though, because a higher-level ministerial meeting will be convened to take up the Xayaburi dam project by the end of 2011.
The April meeting took place after Bangkok-based media reported that early road works had already been undertaken near the dam site, and that some villagers have been told to leave to make way for the project. This was happening during the six-month consultation process in the MRC on the transboundary impacts of Xayaburi dam project, which kicked off in October 2010, the ‘Bangkok Post’ reported.

Laos has defended the early work near the Xayaburi dam site thus far as a “fairly common practice in the country”, the ‘Post’ added. Environmental campaigners such as the U.S.-based International Rivers, have lauded the slowdown in the Xayaburi decision-making process as a “much-needed but temporary reprieve”.

For now, all eyes continue to be on how this project, which is to be built some 80 kilometres downstream of Laos’ Luang Prabang province, works out.

In many ways, it highlights the difficult and conflicting dilemmas for a poor country like Laos. This South-east Asian country with Least Developed Country (LDC) status is banking on its huge hydropower reserves to sell electricity to its neighbours and earn precious foreign exchange for its development goals, including poverty reduction, but its dam plans has raised environmental and other social concerns in the Mekong region.

In the UNDP Human Development Index for 2010, Laos is ranked 122nd out of 169 countries.

Dams along the 5,880-kilometre Mekong River – shared by China, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos – have been debated for many years. The dams China built in the upper reaches of the Mekong, which it calls Lancang, have had their share of criticism and have been blamed for erratic water levels in the lower reaches of the river.

But the Xayaburi project has been a magnet for heated discussion and opposition from environment groups because it is to be situated along the mainstream of the Mekong river.

Vietnam and Cambodia are worried about its possible impact on fisheries – especially in the Delta and the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and water flows to their part of the river.

The Xayaburi dam is also the most advanced among the estimated 11 dam projects planned on the lower reaches of the Mekong. It was first developed by the Thai company Ch. Karnchang, which signed a contract to develop the project with the Lao government in 2008.

The dam will be built with a 30-metre high wall, which will stretch about 800 meters across the Mekong River.

Planned for commercial operation in 2019, the Xayaburi dam is expected to produce up to 1,280 megawatts of electricity. Of this, 1,220 mw – or 95 percent -- is set to be sold to Thailand, while the rest will be fed into Laos’ own electricity grid.

Environmentalists fear that the dam would affect the Mekong River’s ecosystem as well as the lives of riverine communities in several countries.

According to a technical review by the MRC, where the Lower Mekong countries of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam are members, the project could affect between 23 and 100 species, including five in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Together with another five dams planned as a cascade by Laos, about 39 percent of the Lower Mekong basin’s accessible habitat to migrant species from downstream would be blocked. That also means the possible extinction of such key species such as the Mekong giant catfish. The estimated Mekong basin-wide capture fishery yield is 2.5 million tonnes a year, of which an estimated 6 percent could be lost as a result of the cascade.

The same review noted that 458 households would need to be fully relocated, while the livelihoods of an estimated 1,081households are expected to be affected.

Not enough is known about the possible transboundary impacts of a project like the Xayaburi one. But it is estimated that 29.6 million people live within 15 km of the Mekong mainstream, with Laos itself having over half of its population, or 3.4 million, living in its corridor.

The technical review concluded that there are still gaps in knowledge, especially in the number of migratory fish species, their biomass and their ability to pass through a dam and its reservoir. This leads to considerable uncertainty about the scale of impact on fisheries and associated livelihoods, it notes. (END/PW/JS/IPS Asia-Pacific)