Preliminary construction underway on Luang Prabang Dam, minus key steps — BenarNews

Development work – together with the paving of entry roads and clearing of a constructing website – has begun on the Luang Prabang hydropower dam on the Mekong River in Laos, regardless of an acknowledgment by Lao officers that a number of key steps within the venture have but to be accomplished, Radio Free Asia (RFA) has realized.

The 1,460-megawatt Luang Prabang Dam might be constructed alongside a stretch of the Mekong that passes by Huai village in Chom Phet district of Luang Prabang province. The location is about 25 km (16 miles) upstream from the traditional city of Luang Prabang, a well-liked vacationer vacation spot and a UNESCO World Heritage Website with historic Buddhist temples. 

The U.S. $3 billion venture, considered one of a number of current or deliberate large-scale hydropower initiatives on the Mekong River mainstream, might be constructed by Thailand’s Xayaburi Energy Firm Ltd. and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam Energy Corp. The venture is being financed by the Luang Prabang Energy Firm Ltd., a consortium of the Thai and Vietnamese energy firms and the Lao authorities.

It’s a part of a cascade of 11 Mekong mainstream dams which can be the centerpiece of Laos’ controversial financial technique to develop into the “battery of Southeast Asia,” producing income for the impoverished nation by promoting electrical energy to its neighbors. All energy produced by the Luang Prabang Dam might be offered to Thailand and Vietnam.

However whereas authorities have given the dam the inexperienced mild, and preliminary development is underway, officers instructed RFA that a number of key steps stay to be accomplished, together with the securing of an influence buy settlement, paying villagers affected by the venture compensation, and finishing up a social and environmental evaluation.

Officers from the Ministry of Pure Sources and the Setting met with representatives from Thailand’s S. Kansang Co. Ltd., the venture builder, on Dec. 6 to 9 to debate preliminary development work, a Lao official with information of the assembly mentioned.

“The Ministry of Pure Sources and Setting met with their counterpart on the pre-dam development work, reminiscent of clearing an space for the dam infrastructure,” he mentioned. 

Additionally they mentioned the damaging social and environmental impacts of the venture and compensation for villagers affected by it, mentioned the official, who declined to be named so he might converse freely, instructed RFA on Tuesday.

“The social and atmosphere affect research and World Heritage Website evaluation are near being completed,” he mentioned, although couldn’t present a completion date.

The corporate can solely dig out the venture space and pave an entry street whereas ready for an influence buy settlement, or PPA, to be signed.

These conducting the Heritage Affect Evaluation, which takes the importance of historic property into consideration when growing and designing initiatives which will have an effect on them, are nonetheless amassing info for the report and don’t but know when they’ll end, the officers mentioned. 

The evaluation might be despatched for overview to each UNESCO and the Mekong River Fee, a company that works with governments of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to collectively handle shared water sources and the sustainable growth of the Mekong River.

Ready for compensation

The assembly individuals additionally mentioned affect of the venture on the livelihoods of villagers who’ve misplaced land to the venture and who might be resettled, together with these dwelling in Chomphet district in Luang Prabang province, Hongsa district in Xayabury province, and Nga district in Oudomxay province, the official mentioned. 

As a part of the plan, villagers should forfeit their farmland and evacuate their properties. Greater than 2,130 households in 23 villages might be relocated from Luang Prabang and Xayabury provinces, however have obtained no compensation, which they need earlier than they transfer.

Primarily based on plans mentioned in the course of the assembly, compensation for affected villagers in Nga district might be paid after the start of 2023, an official from the Official from the Power and Mines Division in Oudomxay province instructed RFA on Tuesday. 

“Originally of 12 months affected villagers from Nga district, might be evacuated, however they’re ready for firm to gather knowledge on their property worth and different sources first earlier than being evacuated to a resettlement village,” mentioned the officers who requested anonymity as a result of he was not approved to speak to the media in regards to the venture.

In November, practically 65 from Huai village in Luang Prabang’s Chomphet district, started receiving funds, although the venture developer closed off an entry street and prohibited villagers from getting into the world, an area resident mentioned.

The person mentioned he noticed staff digging a gap for the infrastructure, however didn’t know the way a lot work they’d accomplished. 

“They put a fence across the dam location and will not be permitting villagers to enter the areas as a result of it’s harmful,” he instructed RFA, including that many vans go out and in of the venture website.

Laos has gone on a two-decade dam-building spree in its drive to develop into the “battery of Southeast Asia,” with the hope of utilizing the revenues from hydropower to supercharge nationwide growth.

However along with rising issues about what environmental impacts these initiatives and upstream dams constructed by China are having on the Mekong River basin, the large funding required is including to an more and more unsustainable debt burden for one of many area’s smallest economies.

Activists mentioned the shortage of an influence buy settlement for the Luang Prabang dam will proceed to boost severe questions on its financial viability.

Radio Free Asia (RFA), a information service affiliated with BenarNews, produced this report.