Thailand has rejected a brand new technical report on Laos’ Sanakham dam venture, one in all 9 large-scale Mekong River mainstream dams integral to Vientiane’s controversial financial technique of turning into the “Battery of Southeast Asia.”
The 684-megawatt Sanakham dam is one in all seven future dams in varied levels of planning. At a value of about U.S. $2 billion, it will take eight years to finish as soon as development begins in Laos’ northwestern Xayaburi province.
Thailand’s Workplace of Nationwide Water Assets advised RFA’s Lao Service Tuesday that it doesn’t settle for the revisions submitted Jan. 15 to the Thai Nationwide Mekong River Committee by the Chinese language dam developer, Datang Company Restricted.
“Each our workplace and the Mekong committee concluded that the data within the new report remains to be not adequate. Extra examine is required,” mentioned Somkiat Prajamwong, the workplace’s secretary common.
Somkiat Prajamwong mentioned the brand new report didn’t embody information on the affect on the atmosphere or how it will have an effect on individuals who reside under the proposed dam. He known as on the developer to conduct an intensive environmental affect evaluation and once more revise the report earlier than the subsequent prior session.
RFA contacted the Lao Ministry of Power and Mines however no one there would reply questions in regards to the Sanakham dam venture.
Nevertheless, the ministry advised Thai media in December that it will adjust to all necessities to get the venture began and it was ready for feedback from different members of the Mekong River Fee (MRC), an intergovernmental company that works with the governments of Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, to handle the two,703-mile river’s sources.
The Sanakham dam is slated to be constructed on Mekong River North of Veunkham Village, in Xayaburi’s Kenthao district. The venture is anticipated to displace 3,000 residents of 13 villages.
Residents residing near the proposed development website advised RFA that they have been anxious that they could be compelled to relocate, and so they have been involved that the dam would hurt native fish shares.
“The dam can have a severe affect on the fish inhabitants, and we don’t know the way we’re going to be compensated,” a resident of Kenthao advised RFA underneath situation of anonymity.
One other resident of the district expressed considerations in regards to the property his house and farm sit on, saying, “We don’t know the place we’ll have to maneuver to, nor do we all know how we’ll be compensated. The dam developer has been right here, and so they did some surveys and picked up info.”
Inspections deliberate
Laos plans to conduct security inspections of 79 current dams on the Mekong and its tributaries.
“We’re planning to examine the dams earlier than and after the wet season as soon as each 5 years,” an official from Ministry of Power and Mines’ Power Administration Division advised RFA Thursday.
“If defects are discovered, the dam builders must make the mandatory repairs. Then the repaired dam should be handed the ministry’s inspection once more,” the official mentioned.
Based on the official, the ministry has inspected 55 dams since 2019, discovering that 10 smaller dams weren’t constructed to official requirements. The ministry additionally performed security drills and examined the emergency warning methods of a few of these dams.
The collection of inspections included the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoi dam, which collapsed in July 2018, inflicting a catastrophe that has been described as Laos’ worst flooding in many years.
Surging water and dust killed 71 individuals and worn out all or a part of 19 villages, sweeping away properties and inflicting extreme flooding in villages downstream in Attapeu province and past into Cambodia.
The Nationwide Investigation Committee in Could 2019 held a press convention to elucidate the reason for the dam’s collapse, saying that the primary culprits have been the excessive absorbency of the saddle dam’s basis, and the encompassing porous and simply eroded soil.
Moreover the handfuls of hydropower dams on the Mekong and its tributaries, Laos has plans to construct scores extra in hopes of exporting the electrical energy they generate to different international locations within the area.
Although the Lao authorities sees energy era as a technique to enhance the nation’s financial system, the initiatives are controversial due to their environmental affect, displacement of villagers with out ample compensation, and questionable monetary and energy demand preparations.
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.