Save the Mekong, before it’s too late!

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November 19, 2012 1:00 am

Dear Mekong River Commission Member Countries, Secretariat and Development Partners,

The construction of Xayaburi Dam is proceeding despite the concerns of Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries. Laos and Thailand’s decision to proceed with the dam not only threatens the livelihoods of communities depending on the Mekong but also undermines the integrity of the 1995 Mekong Agreement.

The MRC – which has a responsibility to make “every effort to avoid, minimise and mitigate harmful effects that might occur” from development and use of the river – has remained silent, while regional cooperation and the future sustainability of the Mekong River moves towards the brink of collapse.

The Save the Mekong coalition demands that the MRC, its member countries and development partners take immediate action to stop all construction on Xayaburi Dam for these reasons:

In a May letter to the coalition, Hans Guttman, the MRC’s CEO, stated that under the prior consultation process, “the country proposing the project is required to take into account the rights and concerns of other member countries”. However, there has been no assessment of Xayaburi Dam’s transboundary impacts or further public consultations, as requested by Cambodia and Vietnam during the April 2011 Joint Committee meeting. To our knowledge, no agreement has been reached by the MRC to close the prior consultation process or to approve Xayaburi Dam, which means that construction should not be underway.

The project is also under review by three administrative decision-making bodies in Thailand for a violation of the Thai people’s constitutional rights.

Xayaburi Dam poses a major threat to people’s livelihoods, food security and the ecological integrity of the Mekong River. The MRC’s technical review of the project has warned that Xayaburi Dam could affect 23-100 fish species and potentially lead to the extinction of the iconic Mekong giant catfish.

Laos claims that Xayaburi Dam has been re-designed to address the concerns of neighbouring countries. Yet Laos has not studied the dam’s downstream impacts, nor has the final redesign of the project been made public or independently assessed. Instead, Laos has resorted to unsubstantiated and misleading claims by the Poyry Group that the dam will not have downstream impacts. Studies by the region’s leading scientists as well as the MRC have concluded that Poyry’s work lacks credibility. The true environmental and economic costs of the project are not yet known. The technologies proposed by Laos and Ppyry are unproven and have never been used successfully in the Mekong or any other tropical river.

The Mekong should not be used as a testing ground for unproven technologies. Xayaburi Dam developers must prove that they can meet the MRC’s preliminary design guidance measures, such as the requirement for a 95-per-cent fish passage effectiveness rate. Without any evidence of the effectiveness of mitigation measures, Xayaburi Dam is in violation of the agreed-upon Mekong standard and risks causing irreversible damage to the world’s largest inland fisheries.

Since 2009, the Save the Mekong coalition has been demanding regional governments to cancel plans to build hydropower dams on the Mekong River. The MRC must acknowledge the tens of thousands of people who have expressed concerns over Xayaburi Dam at the local, regional and international levels, through numerous letters, petitions and protests. The concerns that have been expressed by people dependent on the Mekong must be paramount in the dam’s decision-making process.

By moving forward without understanding the full implications of the project, reaching regional agreement, or even abiding by the preliminary design guidance measures, Xayaburi Dam is creating a dangerous precedent for decision-making over future Mekong mainstream development. This has called into question the purpose of the MRC. Xayaburi Dam’s “prior consultation” process has failed in its responsibility to the MRC and to the wider public.

Our demands

_ The Xayaburi Dam’s construction and power purchase agreement must be immediately suspended, as the dam does not fully comply with the 1995 Mekong Agreement;

_ Laos and Thailand must publicly release the final design of the dam and have it undergo an independent technical expert review commissioned by the MRC;

_ The MRC must immediately hold a regional public consultation in order to allow the public an opportunity to discuss Xayaburi Dam and the future of hydropower development on the Mekong River.

There has never been a more urgent time for the MRC to uphold its responsibilities and speak out against Xayaburi Dam. Before it’s too late, the MRC member countries must use the 21st Asean Summit to demand the suspension of Xayaburi Dam and uphold their commitments to protect the Mekong River and its people.

Save the Mekong coalition

US criticizes Laos decision to build dam across Mekong River, says ecological impact unknown

 

US criticizes Laos decision to build dam across Mekong River, says ecological impact unknown

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By Associated Press, Published: November 5

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday criticized a decision by the struggling Asian nation of Laos to build the first dam across the mainstream of the Mekong River, a project that environmentalists warn could affect tens of millions of livelihoods and trigger a dam-building spree along Southeast Asia’s mightiest waterway.

The U.S. has urged a moratorium on such projects until impact studies are complete. But the State Department said Monday that Laos has announced its intention to start construction on the $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam despite lingering concerns downstream.

“The extent and severity of impacts from the Xayaburi dam on an ecosystem that provides food security and livelihoods for millions are still unknown,” the department statement said.

Laos is one of Asia’s poorest nations and hydropower is already a key source of revenue. The project, which will generate electricity for sale to neighboring Thailand, is strongly opposed by longtime Lao ally, Vietnam.

Opponents say the dam in central Laos would open the door for a building spree of as many as 10 other dams on the 3,000-mile river in Laos and Cambodia, degrading its fragile ecology and affecting the livelihoods of residents who rely on its fish and its water for irrigation.

The State Department said the U.S. has a strong interest in the sustainable management of the river and understands that members of the Mekong River Commission — a regulatory agency that includes representation from all four affected nations — has not yet reached consensus on whether the project should go ahead.

“We hope that the government of Laos will uphold its pledge to work with its neighbors in addressing remaining questions regarding Xayaburi,” the statement said.

Vietnam, which has fraternal communist party relations with Laos dating back to the Vietnam War, has urged at least a 10-year moratorium on all mainstream dams on the Mekong.

A commission meeting in April deferred a decision on the dam, but that outcome is not binding. An approach road and other dam-related facilities to the Xayaburi dam are already being built.

Media reports Monday quoted Lao deputy energy minister Viraphonh Virawong as saying full construction would formally start Wednesday. He said that modifications had been made to the design of the dam to address environmental concerns.

Laos is currently hosting a meeting of Asian and European leaders. The Lao Embassy in Washington said Monday it had no information about the dam project.

The dam would cut across a stretch of the river flanked by forested hills, cliffs and hamlets where ethnic minority groups reside in Xayaburi province, forcing the relocation of about 2,100 villagers and impacting many more. Environmentalists say it would also disrupt fish migrations, block nutrients for downstream farming and even foul Vietnam’s rice bowl by slowing the river’s speed and allowing saltwater to creep into the Mekong River Delta.

China has placed three dams across the upper reaches of the Mekong and more are planned. But otherwise the mainstream flows free.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Laos to Start Building Mekong Dam This Week Amid Opposition

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By Daniel Ten Kate – Nov 5, 2012 4:39 AM ET

Laos will start construction this week on a $3.6 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River that has been delayed for 18 months amid opposition from downstream countries and activist groups.

The groundbreaking ceremony will take place on Nov. 7 at the site of the dam, according to Viraphonh Viravong, deputy minister of energy and mining. Bangkok-based Ch. Karnchang Pcl (CK), PTT Pcl (PTT) and Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO) are among major shareholders of Xayaburi Power Co., the dam’s operator.

“It has been assessed, it has been discussed the last two years,” Viraphonh said today by phone. “We have addressed most of the concerns.”

The hydropower plant is the first among eight that Laos plans to build on the Mekong to expand Southeast Asia’s smallest economy by selling electricity to neighboring countries. Vietnam last year recommended a 10-year delay for all dam projects on the river, which also runs through Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia from its source in China’s Tibetan plateau.

Ch. Karnchang shares rose 5.7 percent to 9.30 baht in Bangkok, the highest close since Jan. 20.

Thai opponents of the dam held a protest today on the Mekong across from Vientiane, the Laos capital where Asian and European leaders from about 50 countries are meeting for a summit. In August, they filed a lawsuit in Thailand’s Administrative Court to cancel an agreement for the Electricity Generating Authority, known as Egat, to buy almost all the power from the 1,285-megawatt project.

Environmental Concerns

“Laos never collected basic information about the ways that people depend on the river, so how can it say that there will be no impact?” Pianporn Deetes, a campaign coordinator with International Rivers, a Berkeley, California-based nonprofit group that aims to protect rivers and human rights, said in an e-mail. “The environmental and social concerns were never taken seriously.”

Viraphonh said measures have been taken to ensure a limited impact on the environment. Cambodian officials who had opposed the dam are now “very happy” with its design, he said.

“The lesson of Xayaburi is that we have raised the standard of dam projects,” Viraphonh said. “We are taking care more of the environment and other concerns. Other projects can follow some similar standards to Xayaburi.”

Laos, a landlocked nation of 6 million people, plans to expand its generating capacity and sell electricity to its neighbors. Hydropower’s contribution to government revenue will more than double to 1 percent of gross domestic product compared with two years ago, according to the World Bank.

Fisheries, Rice

Planned hydropower and mining projects combined with increased electricity demand in neighboring countries will probably keep economic growth at 8 percent a year through 2015, the International Monetary Fund said in a report last year. Laos opened a stock exchange last year that has two companies.

About 60 million people depend on the Mekong and its tributaries for food, water and transportation, according to the Mekong River Commission, an inter-governmental body. Neighboring countries are concerned the dam will disrupt fisheries and rice production.

Ch. Karnchang, Thailand’s third-biggest construction company by market value, owns a 50 percent stake in Xayaburi, according to its website. PTT, Thailand’s biggest company, has a 25 percent stake and Egat owns 12.5 percent.

“Hydropower is a big natural advantage for Laos,” Viraphonh said. “If you cannot develop the Xayaburi project, what other choice do we have?”

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net

Laos admits work is going ahead on a controversial dam

Damming the Mekong river

River elegy

Laos admits work is going ahead on a controversial dam

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21565676-laos-admits-work-going-ahead-controversial-dam-river-elegy

Nov 3rd 2012 | from the print edition

In this section

• Power grab
• »River elegy
• What’s Strine for “Asian century”?
• Going underground
• Shuffled, not stirred
• Toil and trouble
• Unforgiving history

THE Mekong river, snaking its way through the heart of South-East Asia, has long sustained the world’s biggest and most productive inland fishery, supplying protein for around 65m mainly poor people from four riparian countries, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. But scientists warn that this ecosystem is gravely threatened by the Lao government’s rush to exploit its water resources, egged on by Thai, Chinese and European energy companies.

The decision by Laos to push ahead with the giant Xayaburi dam makes it the first of what could prove to be a cascade of 11 proposed dams on the lower Mekong. Because the decision fails to take account of the consequences for downstream countries, it has raised tensions with neighbours. Having long pretended otherwise, the Lao government recently asserted that construction was forging ahead, and indeed was on schedule. That prompted a warning from the president of Vietnam, Truong Tan Sang, that “tensions over water resources are not only threatening economic growth in many countries, but also presenting a source of conflict”.

Cambodia and Vietnam have jointly called upon Laos to observe an agreement in December 2011 by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to wait for further scientific study about the impacts of dams on the lower Mekong (dams already exist much higher up, in China, but their downstream impacts are limited). The MRC, made up of the four riparian states, is supposed to operate within a framework of mutual co-operation and consultation. But with a consortium of Thai banks backing Ch. Karnchang, the Thai construction company behind the dam, there is in effect an alliance between Thailand and Laos, dividing the commission down the middle.

With the MRC in disarray, some hope that an Asia-Europe summit in the Lao capital, Vientiane, on November 5th-6th will provide a chance for governments opposed to the Xayaburi dam to put pressure on the host nation. Many marvels of the Mekong face being wiped out, including the Mekong giant catfish and the Irrawaddy dolphin, as well as the spectacular Khone waterfall. Scientists say the stakes could not be higher. Philip Hirsch at the University of Sydney predicts that the loss of the fish catch for millions of Asia’s poorest people will prove larger than the entire freshwater catch of Europe and West Africa combined.

The United States and Finland, the largest donor to the MRC, are among nations urging Laos to wait for more scientific data on the likely transboundary impacts. The Lao energy ministry has turned for justification to the work of international energy firms that include Colenco, a Swiss consultancy, Poyry, a Finno-Swiss power company, and Team Consultants of Thailand. But Jian-hua Meng of the WWF, a conservation group, argues that the standard of work done by Colenco for the Xayaburi proposal would be “highly unlikely” to be acceptable back in Switzerland. Meanwhile the Finnish parent company of Poyry has been blacklisted for corruption by the World Bank, and NGOs have urged Finland to investigate the Swiss arm for alleged violation of OECD guidelines in dealing with the Lao government.

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Save the Mekong Press Release: As Mekong Leaders Gather, Public Awaits Answers on Xayaburi Dam

Save the Mekong Press Release: For Immediate Release

As Mekong Leaders Gather, Public Awaits Answers on Xayaburi Dam

1 May 2012

Phuket, Thailand –As the Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries gather today for the MRC’s Mekong 2 Rio International Conference on Transboundary River Basin Management,  the Save the Mekong coalition has called upon regional governments to immediately address the ambiguities that have been left unanswered with respect to the future of the Xayaburi Dam and other mainstream dams.

On April 20th, the Save the Mekong coalition sent letters to the MRC’s respective Council members and CEO Mr. Hans Guttman asking for clarification on whether the prior consultation process for the Xayaburi Dam remains open and whether approval has been granted to build the Xayaburi Dam.  These concerns follow the April 17th announcement by Xayaburi Dam developer Ch. Karnchang that it had signed a $711 million construction contract with the Xayaburi Power Company, and that construction on the dam commenced on March 15, 2012.

“Ch. Karnchang has no right to build this project because no regional agreement has been made,” said Niwat Roykaew, Chair of the Chiang Khong Conservation Group in Thailand. “In December, the four governments agreed to postpone the decision on the dam, in order to carry out a transboundary impact assessment of the Mekong mainstream dams.  Thailand and Laos must act decisively and demand a stop to all construction activities.”

The Save the Mekong coalition also expressed concern over reports that the Thai government had signed the Xayaburi Dam’s power purchase agreement and granted permission for state-owned Krung Thai Bank to fund this dam, which appears to be in direct violation with the 1995 Mekong Agreement.  The coalition urged Thailand to immediately withdraw all involvement in the dam.

“The MRC’s prior consultation process is not finished, and yet construction is starting. Thailand and Laos are endangering the entire future of the Mekong River Basin,” said Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator for International Rivers. “Before regional cooperation becomes jeopardized, it’s time the four countries renew their commitment to work together to protect the Mekong.”

“The Xayaburi Dam is not on the agenda of the Mekong2Rio conference, but will be the elephant in the room,” said Youra Sun, Executive Director of My Village in Cambodia. “Now is the time to spotlight the urgent need for the Mekong governments to chart a clear political path forward on the Xayaburi Dam.”

Tu Dao Trong, a representative of Vietnam Rivers Network said, “If the Mekong governments really want to discuss the future of transboundary cooperation around the Mekong River, they first need to agree on an immediate halt to the Xayaburi Dam while further studies are underway. We hope this conference becomes an opportunity for real dialogue.”

The Save the Mekong coalition’s April 20th letter stated that “scientific evidence to date overwhelmingly supports our position that these dams will cause significant and irreparable damage to the Mekong River and the people who depend on it.” The coalition has called upon regional governments to work together to protect the Mekong River as the river is central to the lives, ecology, and cultures of the region.

The Save the Mekong coalition fully supports the actions of Thai villagers from the Mekong region, who have traveled to Phuket and will be presenting a petition to the MRC member governments this morning to raise awareness about the Xayaburi Dam and call for its cancellation.

Mekong 2 Rio is considered a key regional event in the run-up to the United Nations’ Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development that world leaders will attend in Brazil in June. The Xayaburi Dam has become one of the most controversial sustainable development issues in Southeast Asia.

Contacts:

• Dr. Tu Dao Trong, Representative of Vietnam Rivers Network. T: +84 913 236 542, E: tudaotrong49@yahoo.com.vn
• Ms. Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaign Coordinator, International Rivers. T: +66 81 422 0111, E: pai@internationalrivers.org
• Mr. Niwat Roykaew, Chair of the Chiang Khong Conservation Group in Thailand. T: +66 89 955 7890, E: mekonglover@hotmail.com
• Mr. Sun Youra, Executive Director, My Village, Cambodia, T: +855 16 590 111, E: myvillage@mvicambodia.org

For more information:
Read the Save the Mekong letters sent to the MRC Council Members and CEO

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.internationalrivers.org/

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Protestors Condemn Ch. Karnchang Over Xayaburi Dam Construction

Thai villagers gather ouside Ch. Karnchang Headquarters to protest construction of the Xayaburi Dam

The Mekong River sustains the lives of millions of people living in the region