More Lao dam deals inked

Villagers stand on the banks of the Mekong in Xayaburi province, Laos, near the building site of a controversial dam. Photograph: International Rivers

Thursday, 25 October 2012
David Boyle and Shane Worrell

Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydropower plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furore over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam.

The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making up the Xe-Namnoy plant on two tributaries of the Se Kong River, which flows into the Mekong from the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos – just some 100 kilometres from Cambodia.

Because of this close proximity, communities on the Cambodian-Lao border would feel particularly acute downstream affects; however, since no impact assessments of the project had been made public, this was hard to measure, conservation group International Rivers warned yesterday. 

Sang Lee, an employee from the architectural department of South Korean firm SK Engineering & Construction, which has been contracted to build the dams, confirmed yesterday that project details were now being ironed out ahead of construction. 

“As far as I know, they’re trying to arrange finances, and at this stage, they are working on technical documents,” he said. “I’m not so sure about when construction will start.”

Lee asked for further questions to be emailed so they could be answered by someone handling the project. A response was not immediately received.

Tania Lee, Lao program coordinator at International Rivers, said the plant would have potentially severe but unclear impacts on hydrological flow, fishing and food security.

“The major lack of any information is a huge problem, because we don’t know if the environmental impact assessment has been done or a social impact assessment has done,” she said. 

The Laos government’s failure to publicly release such assessments violates the country’s own laws regulating development projects, yet despite this, an international lender was considering granting a loan for the project, she added. 

In total, Lee said, Laos planned to build more than 70 dams on various tributaries of the Mekong and was now constructing eight dams on the Xe Kaman and Xe Kong rivers dams with about 15 planned for the Sekong River Basin and seven on the Nam Ou river in the north. 

The Xe-Namnoy plant will generate an estimated 400 megawatts of electricity from water flowing from a height of 630 metres, according to the website of the firm Team Group, which is providing consulting services for the project.  

As is the case with Xayaburi, Laos is planning on selling significant amounts of the power generated by the dam – 90 per cent – to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Team Group’s website states. 

EGAT, which has resisted pressure from conservation groups to cancel its power purchase agreement for the 1,285 megawatt Xayaburi dam because of the predicted environmental havoc it will wreak, did not respond to inquires from the Post yesterday. 

An SK Construction spokesman estimated Laos would earn about $30 million annually from fees and taxes, Agence France Presse has reported.   

South Korean state-run firm Korean Western Power will operate the dam until 2045, when control will be handed over to Laos, according to AFP.

Officials at the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment could not be reached and Mao Hak, Cambodia’s director of river work at the Ministry of Water Resources, declined to comment, because he was not aware of the project.

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To contact the reporters on this story: David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com
Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com

Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102559403/National-news/more-lao-dam-deals-inked.html

Mekong dolphins risk deadly entanglement

Thursday, 27 September 2012

 Justine Drennan

An Irrawaddy dolphin swims in the Mekong River. Photograph: Gerard Ryan/WWF/Phnom Penh Post

In a Khmer fable, the dolphin originated from a woman who threw herself into the river, escaping disgrace, according to a new World Wide Fund for Nature report calling for protection of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong along the Lao border.

The report cautions that if the Mekong is to remain the dolphin refuge it was in fables, Laos must act immediately to extend a ban on gill nets and co-operate with Cambodia to control the use of boats and explosives for fishing in the area.

Only six dolphins remain in the deep pool that spans the southern edge of Laos and Cambodia’s Stung Treng province – down from dozens a few decades ago, the report says. 

The remaining dolphins daily “risk entanglement and death in the many floating walls of nets,” according to Gerry Ryan, the report’s author and Technical Adviser with WWF-Cambodia.

Although Cambodia, probably home to more than 100 dolphins, recently banned gill nets and limited motorised boat travel in protected areas of the Mekong, Laos has moved more slowly, said Touch Seang Tana, chair of the Mekong River Dolphin Conservation and Eco-Tourism Department. 

“They recognise the importance of protection but have different ideas and interests,” he said, citing Laos’s construction of the Xayaburi dam. 

Dr Victor Cowling of WWF-Laos said he did not know if the Lao government would adopt WWF’s recommendations but hoped “they will act once aware how serious the situation is”. 

In addition to collaborating on negotiations with Laos, the Cambodian government and WWF are working together to help balance fishermen’s livelihoods with dolphin protection, Tana said.

These moves include spreading alternative fishing techniques and mediating discussions about a proposed pier at Stung Treng’s Anlung Cheuteal village in light of concerns it would harm dolphins. 

Due to this work and to tourism, protecting dolphins is giving villagers a financial boost, Tana and WWF officials said.

“In Cambodia, visitors to one of the two main dolphin-watching sites have increased nearly 30-fold since 2005,” WWF’s press release notes.

Source:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092758937/National-news/mekong-dolphins-risk-deadly-entanglement.html