Thai court agrees to hear case against Laos dam

More study ordered on environmental impact

A fisherman checks his nets on the Mekong River in Siphandone, southern Laos (picture by International Rivers)

Stephen Steele

Bangkok, Thailand  | June 24, 2014

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.ucanews.com/news/thai-court-agrees-to-hear-case-against-laos-dam/71246

The Supreme Administrative Court of Thailand said today it will accept a lawsuit against the Xayaburi dam in Laos, ruling that further study was needed to examine the project’s potential environmental impact.

The court also dismissed a component of the lawsuit that sought to cancel a purchasing agreement between the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and the dam’s operators. EGAT is set to buy 95 percent of the power generated by the dam.

But the court said that EGAT had failed to properly notify the public about the transaction and cited the lack of an adequate environmental impact assessment as the reason for allowing the lawsuit to move forward. The omissions were a violation of the Thai Constitution, the court ruled in its 29-page decision.

The Xayaburi dam would be the first dam to be built along the lower Mekong River.

A group of about 40 Thai famers and fishermen from the Mekong region, who were plaintiffs in the case, were jubilant as they left the courtroom, but said more work was needed in their struggle to halt constrction of the dam.

“We have to stop this dam. If it continues, our livelihoods will be destroyed,” said Nichol Poljan, a rice farmer from Bung Khka district in northeastern Bueng Kan province.

Poljan told ucanews.com that he wants his village to avoid a similar experience of those affected by the Pak Mun dam in Ubon Ratchatani province. Fish stocks decreased by about 80 percent after that dam’s completion in 1994.

“It’s not a victory, but it’s giving us hope. We’re grateful that the court has given us a chance to make our case,” said Saranarat Oy Kanjanavanit, secretary general of the Green World Foundation, a Thai environmental organization.

Kanjanavanit said the dam would have a “devastating, far reaching impact” on millions of people who depend on the Mekong River for their survival throughout Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Among the potential environmental catastrophes, the dam’s plans do not provide adequate pathways for migrating fish, Kanjanavanit said. In Cambodia, for example, eight of 10 fish species lay eggs in the flood plains of the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater body of water.

“If the Tonle Sap doesn’t flood, the fish can’t lay eggs,” she told ucanews.com.

More than 600 species of fish are threatened, she added. Cambodia and Vietnam have also raised concerns about the Xayaburi dam and its impact on the region.

In May, the Cambodia Senate sent a letter to Mekong leaders calling on Thailand to cancel the purchasing agreement with the dam’s operators.

The letter said that the Xayaburi dam “constitutes the greatest trans-boundary threat to date to food security, sustainable development and regional cooperation in the lower Mekong River”.

Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia Program Director for International Rivers, said: “It’s clear that the signing of [the] Xayaburi Dam’s power purchase agreement most likely violated the constitutional rights of Thai people, as well as the prior consultation procedures of the 1995 Mekong Agreement, as no trans-boundary impact assessment was carried out nor was them adequate consultation.”

“We hope that the court will now suspend the power purchase agreement and call for a halt to the dam’s construction, in order for the environmental and health impact assessments to be carried out,” she said. “Thai banks should also cancel any further loans to the project, as the lawsuit clearly makes further investment questionable and opens them up to great reputational risk.”

Related reports

Laos goes ahead with dam despite widespread concern

Sydney scientist leads Laos dam protests

Sydney scientist warns of Laos dam fallout

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/28/sydney-scientist-warns-laos-dam-fallout

A Sydney University professor says the Mekong River would be affected if a 260 megawatt Don Sahong Dam was to go ahead.

Source AAP | UPDATED 11:02 AM – 2 Mar 2014

An Australian scientist has warned that a planned hydro-electric dam on the Mekong River in Laos could damage fish stocks vital to the hundreds of thousands of poor in neighbouring Cambodia.

Philip Hirsch, a professor at Sydney University’s School of Geosciences and the Mekong Research Centre, says the Mekong River, in its role as the “world’s most productive inland fishery” would be affected if the 260 megawatt Don Sahong Dam was to go ahead.

“The overall hydrological impacts of Don Sahong will be quite small, but it has a major, major impact in Cambodia on the source of that country’s animal protein which the poor depend on for the bulk of their dietary requirements,” Hirsch told AAP.

The proposed Don Sahong Dam, is located in Laos’ Champasak Province and situated on the five-kilometre long Hou Sahong, one of the ‘braided channels’ of the Mekong River about two kilometres upstream of the Lao-Cambodia border.

The Don Sahong dam is one of eleven dams planned for the lower Mekong River. Laos has already pressed on with construction of the US$3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam in northern Laos despite criticism from environmentalists and donor countries, including the US and Australia.

A study by the Mekong River Commission – an intergovernmental body bringing together Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, has warned that damming the river could reduce fishery by 300,000 tonnes a year, having a major impact on a million people, especially in Cambodia.

Hirsch says the go ahead the Xayaburi Dam has raised fears of an “unstoppable momentum” it would be “more difficult not to be build a second, third until you’ve got all eleven” dams.

“When you have all eleven then the hydrological as well as the ecological impacts are significant in Cambodia and all the way down to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam,” he said.

A meeting by the MRC in January delayed a final decision on the dam, calling on ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, to further appraise the project. Hirsch said the delay marked a “silver lining” in the Mekong co-operation framework.

He said Cambodia and Vietnam have realised the potential impacts from the dam and have put in objections.

The issue will now be referred to the ministerial or political level, “and a lot depends on what happens at the council meeting”, so far unscheduled.

“It’s still a ways to go,” Hirsch said.

Laos dam threatens survival of Mekong dolphins in Cambodia, WWF warns

 

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.eco-business.com/news/laos-dam-threatens-survival-mekong-dolphins-cambodia-wwf-warns/

Source: Bernama:  Published: 21 February 2014

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Thursday warned that a dam Laos is planning to build across the Mekong River could threaten the existence of critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in downstream Cambodia, Xinhua news agency reported.

The government’s decision to build the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos located about 1 km upstream of the core habitat for Mekong dolphins, could precipitate the extinction of species from the Mekong River, the WWF said in a statement.

According to WWF, builders of the dam intend to excavate millions of tonnes of rock by using explosives that may create strong sound waves that could potentially kill dolphins which have highly sensitive hearing structures.

“Plans to construct the Don Sahong dam in a channel immediately upstream from these dolphins will likely hasten their disappearance from the Mekong,” said Chhith Sam Ath, WWF-Cambodia’s country director.

“The dam’s impact on the dolphins probably cannot be mitigated, and certainly not through the limited and vague plans outlined in the project’s environmental impact assessment,” he said.

The WWF urged Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to call for a moratorium on the dam during the Mekong River Commission’s Heads of State Summit in April.

Freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins are critically endangered in the Mekong River, where their numbers have dwindled to around 85 individuals restricted to a 190 km stretch of the Mekong River mainstream between southern Laos and northeast Cambodia.

However, the Cambodian government estimated that the total population of Mekong river dolphins in the area is between 155 and 175 heads.

Construction continues on controversial Laos dam

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-03/an-laos-dam/4107890

Updated July 03, 2012 17:47:09

Photo: Despite undertaking to halt construction until further study is carried out, work appears to be going ahead on a controversial dam on the Mekong river in Laos. (Chor Sokunthea: Reuters)

There are concerns amongst Mekong countries that Laos is going ahead with the controversial Xayaburi dam project.

The dam is located south west of Luang Prabang, and north of where the Mekong enters Thailand, before it flows on to Cambodia and Vietnam.

Laos agreed in December to suspend the project, pending an assessment by Japanese experts, but a recent report by the US-based International Rivers organisation has found work is being done near the site.

Kirk Herbertson, the Southeast Asia Policy Coordinator for International Rivers, recently travelled to the dam’s construction site and told Radio Australia’s Connect Asia that it appears the project is very much going ahead.

“We travelled to the construction site where we learnt that the work has moved well beyond the preparatory stage that the Thai company claims is happening,” he said.

“They had told all the governments that only access roads were being built, but when we visited we saw that an entire village has already been relocated, there are dozens of construction vehicles in operations, and villagers were also able to confirm that the company has already dredged and widened the river, which is likely to already be having environmental impacts.”

The project is funded by Thai banks and 95 per cent of the electricity generated will go to Thailand.

Mr Herbertson says there has been high level protest about these actions by both the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments, who expressed their desire that construction be delayed while further studies are being carried out.

Environmental groups in Thailand are concerned about the environmental and food security repercussions.

“On July 23rd, several Thai villagers, in the Northeast, who would be effected by the Xayaburi dam because it is a dam with trans-boundary impacts, they will be bringing a lawsuit in a Thai administrative court, saying that their constitutional rights are being violated,” said Mr Herbertson.

“We are hoping that with the lawsuit filed in July that there will be more attention on Thailand’s role in the project and on the companies involved,” he said.

Topics: dams-and-reservoirs, building-and-construction, government-and-politics, asia, lao-people-s-democratic-republic, cambodia, vietnam, thailand

First posted July 03, 2012 17:37:04

Xayaburi Dam, Mekong River Hydroelectric Project, In Laos Remains Contested (VIDEO)

December 17, 2011

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/xayaburi-mekong-river-dam-project_n_1143716.html

Mekong dam from Gayathri Vaidyanathan on Vimeo.

A proposed dam project in Southeast Asia is drawing greater concerns as it pits opportunities for economic and infrastructural developments against environmental worries.

A final decision on the Xayaburi Dam, a hydroelectric project that may be built on the Mekong River in northern Laos, has been delayed, however. The Mekong River commission, an agency representing the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam announced that the dam’s impact would receive further study, according to the Associated Press.

Yet the commission’s recommendation for further study is non-binding. AP reports “there are signs that Laos is starting preparations for the project.”

Environmentalists celebrated the dam’s postponement. Ame Trandem, the Southeast Asia program director for International Rivers said, “Today the Mekong governments responded to the will of the people of the region. We welcome the recognition that not nearly enough is known about the impacts of mainstream dams to be able to make a decision about the Xayaburi Dam.”

Among environmental concerns is the protection of the Mekong River region’s biodiversity. Scientists announced this week that 208 new species were discovered in the region in the past year, including a “‘psychedelic gecko’ in southern Vietnam and a nose-less monkey in a remote province of Myanmar that looks like it wears a pompadour.”

The recent announcement is not the first delay for the dam, which would be the first across the main stream of the Mekong and would reportedly cost $3.5 billion. In July, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Laos took a “forward-leaning position” by delaying dam construction, according to the Associated Press.

Watch the video above from journalist Gayathri Vaidyanathan about the disputed benefits and drawbacks of the Xayaburi Dam and concerns over future dam construction in the region.

Also on HuffPost:

Xayaburi Dam and concerns over future dam construction in the region

http://embed.5min.com/517165659/