Laos Agrees to More Scrutiny on Mekong Dam After Calls for Delay

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Jason Folkmanis |  Jun 27, 2014 12:07 AM ET

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-27/laos-agrees-to-more-scrutiny-on-mekong-dam-after-calls-for-delay.html

Laos agreed to open a proposed hydropower project along the Mekong River to further scrutiny from neighboring countries, after Vietnam previously called for a delay in developing the dam.

The Don Sahong hydropower project, which had been submitted under a procedure known as notification, will now instead undergo a process known as prior consultation, giving member nations the opportunity to address any harmful effects on the environment, according to the Mekong River Commission, which works with member nations to promote sustainable development of the Southeast Asian artery.

“This shows some willingness to work together with other member countries, but I’m not sure if one can read too much into the change in language,” said Phuong Nguyen, a research associate at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This may be partly an attempt to work with other member countries and partly rhetorical, as long as Laos doesn’t have any other significant economic alternatives to dam-building,” Nguyen said in a telephone interview.

The Lao government said in a statement at a meeting yesterday of the commission’s council in Bangkok that it is committed to developing the Don Sahong project in a “responsible and sustainable manner” and that hydropower development is a top priority and key to stimulating the Lao economy.

‘On the Record’

“The change from notification to prior consultation means that everything we have put on the table will be put on the record,” the Lao government said in the statement. “The prior consultation process will formalize our exchange of ideas, and further demonstrates the Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s pledge to work openly and in close cooperation with member countries and development partners.”

Malaysia’s Mega First (MFCB) Corp. agreed in 2008 to build and operate Don Sahong and said in April that construction of the dam is expected to start this year and finish in 2019. Vietnam’s government in April called for a delay in construction until at least the end of 2015 and said this month it would “carefully study” the environmental impact of the Don Sahong project.

The prior consultation process “ allows the other member countries to bring forward in a more formal manner their concern,” said Hans Guttman, the chief executive of the Mekong River Commission secretariat, speaking to journalists late yesterday in Bangkok after a meeting of the commission. “Much like in the Xayaburi case, it is still a sovereign decision by a member country whether they go ahead with a project or not.”

Xayaburi Project

The Xayaburi hydropower project, which is in northwestern Laos, went through the prior consultation process before construction began. Thailand’s Ch. Karnchang (CK) Pcl, which has a stake in Xayaburi, said in March it has accelerated construction and there has been “substantial progress.”

In a 2011 filing on Xayaburi, Vietnam’s government said that the “limited timeframe of the prior consultation was not adequate to facilitate the achievement of the process’s objectives,” and asked for the project to be postponed for at least 10 years.

“Upstream hydropower development, especially the mainstream cascade, will present serious threats to the Mekong Delta, in particular saline intrusion, reduced fisheries and agricultural productivities, and degradation of bio-diversity,” Vietnam’s government said in the 2011 submission on Xayaburi.

Near Cambodia

The Don Sahong dam would be built in the far south of Laos, near the country’s border with Cambodia. The plan calls for the construction of a 260-megawatt power station, with the majority of energy generated to be exported and Thailand and Cambodia the primary target markets, according to a 2013 environmental impact assessment posted on the river commission’s website.

The commission will await a communication from Laos on switching to the prior consultation process, and a working group will be established with representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, according to Guttman, who said the prior consultation procedures don’t clearly stipulate whether field work can proceed during the process and that member countries would likely raise the issue with Laos.

“It appears that the Lao government has half-blinked at the Bangkok meeting, but will be able to continue work on the Don Sahong site,” said Milton Osborne, a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney.

Thailand appreciates Laos’s decision to switch to the prior consultation process, which normally takes at least six months, said Chote Trachu, Thailand’s permanent secretary for natural resources and environment.

“Laos told us they won’t start” construction during the process, Chote told reporters in Bangkok late yesterday. “Still, there is no clear rule on that.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net; Jason Folkmanis in Ho Chi Minh City at folkmanis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tony Jordan at tjordan3@bloomberg.net

 

 

Vietnam Leading the Way for Improved Transboundary Water Governance

 

Wed, 06/18/2014 – 2:43am

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/259

A boat travels along the Mekong River between the border of Laos and Cambodia International Rivers

1997 UN Watercourse Convention to Enter into Force

Vietnam has ratified a United Nations treaty on transboundary rivers, and it is time for other Mekong countries to do the same.

On May 19, Vietnam became the 35^th country to ratify the 1997 UN Convention on Non-navigational uses of International Watercourses (UNWC). This is an important global milestone because the treaty required 35 ratifications to enter into force. It will now come into effect on August 17, 2014.

Vietnam’s decision also sends an important message to the Mekong region. While the Mekong River is already governed by an international treaty – the 1995 Mekong Agreement – it has been wrongfully misinterpreted at times by Laos and other governments in the region as meaningless and unbinding.

The UNWC sets out the rules for how governments are expected to share transboundary rivers in a fair way, balancing the rights of upstream and downstream governments. These rules come from decades of international practice across the world. Using various mechanisms such as prior consultations, these rules provide a way to resolve the tensions that can arise when an upstream governments wants to use the river in a way that potentially causes significant harm to downstream governments.

In other words, the UNWC provides a possible way around the gridlock facing the Mekong River Commission.

Indeed, the Mekong Agreement is explicitly based on the draft UNWC. When the Mekong Agreement was drafted, the governments took almost all of the language directly from the text that would later become the UNWC. Unfortunately, the Mekong River Commission has stepped away from using the UNWC as a beacon for how to interpret the Mekong Agreement. If you examine the international law underlying the words that were carefully chosen to be included in the Mekong Agreement, the treaty’s requirements are clear. However if one ignores the underlying international law, as the MRC has done at times, then the treaty appears ambiguous and open to the misinterpretations that have been offered by Laos.

What this means in practice has become alarmingly apparent through the handling of the Xayaburi Dam, the first project to be submitted by Laos to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) for Prior Consultation (PNPCA) under the Mekong Agreement. Instead of responding to the requests from neighboring countries to conduct further studies, Laos moved forward unilaterally with the Xayaburi Dam, beginning construction while Cambodia and Vietnam continued to voice strong concerns about the transboundary impacts. By November 2012, the implementation of the project had advanced so far that Cambodia and Vietnam had little remaining leverage to raise concerns. And yet there has still been no official resolution to the PNPCA process.

Xayaburi Dam has set a dangerous precedent for future cooperation in the Mekong, which urgently needs to be addressed, particularly given the rapid progress towards construction of the Don Sahong Dam. While the 1995 Agreement aims to create an even playing field for upstream and downstream countries, in practice Laos continues to misinterpret the Mekong Agreement and international law, demonstrating a lack of real commitment to shared regional interests.

Vietnam has been steadfast in raising concerns about the impacts of both the Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams. During the PNPCA process for the Xayaburi Dam, Vietnam called for a moratorium on all dam building on the Mekong River for a period of 10 years, as recommended by the MRC’s Strategic Environmental Assessment. However, despite steadily voicing concern within the consultation process and now calling for the Don Sahong Dam to also undergo Prior Consultation, Vietnam has been hindered by regional politics and delicate diplomatic relationships as well as perceived ambiguities in the 1995 Mekong Agreement.

By ratifying the UNWC, Vietnam is making a public call for change, for improved governance and more equitable decision-making in the Mekong, and sending an important message that international rivers must be managed by and for all riparian nations, not just one.

At the second MRC Summit held in Ho Chi Minh City in April, the Prime Minister of Vietnam urged Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos to also sign on to the Convention. We hope that the Lower Mekong countries will follow Vietnam’s example for the sake of the Mekong River, its future and the people who depend on it. Through this action, Vietnam has offered a fair and equitable solution to the Mekong conflict. We hope that the other countries will listen.

More information: 

• For more information on the UN Watercourse Convention’s entry into force see a series of blogs by International Water Law Policy
• WWF Factsheet – All you need to know about the UN Watercourse Convention

Date:

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

——————————-

Kate Ross

Mekong Program Associate

————————————-

Recent Posts in Blog

• Vietnam Leading the Way for Improved Transboundary Water Governance – June 18, 2014
• Don Sahong Site Visit No Substitute for Regional Consultation – March 18, 2014
• Science Takes a Backseat as Xayaburi Dam Continues – December 15, 2013
• Environmental Concerns Prompt Vietnam to Cancel Two Dams – October 8, 2013
• HidroAysén Not the Right Future for Chile – August 14, 2013

Vietnam: Laos should consult Mekong countries before building dam

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/laos-should-consult-mekong-countries-before-building-dam-vietnam-25139.html

Monday, April 07, 2014 08:18

Vietnam and Cambodia have once again asked Laos to consult with countries in the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a consultative body that works with lower basin countries – Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia – before moving forward with the potentiallyriskyDonSahong hydropower project.Minister of Natural Resources and EnvironmentNguyenMinhQuang told a press conference wrapping up the 2nd MRC Summit in HoChiMinh City Saturday that Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen had made the request while meeting with LaosPMThongsingThammavong,TuoiTre (Youth) Newspaper reported.Quang said the two countries asked Laos to wait for the result of a Vietnam-initiated study on the impacts of the planned project on the main current of the Mekong River, scheduled to be released next year, before making its move.“We hoped Laos would also pay attention to the opinions of other countries in the region on the matter as well,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ha Kim Ngoc told the press conference Vietnam considered the development of Laos as its own development, but both Vietnam and Cambodia agreed that hydropower development on the Mekong River’s main current must comply with MRC regulations so as not to badly affect countries on the lower basin.

In his speech at the plenary session of the 2nd MRC Summit, Dung said the Mekong River has become one of the five largest rivers in the world with the most serious reductions in flows recently.

The annual average flow of the Mekong River at Chieng Sen, the gateway to the Lower Mekong Basin, has been reduced by 10 percent over the past 30 years, he said.

“In Vientiane, Laos, the Mekong River has dried out to the point the people can walk across the river in the dry season.

“Meanwhile, in Thailand, the once calm Chao Phraya River inflicted huge floods of a national disaster level for months in 2011.

“In the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam, salinity intrusion happened for the first time in the areas of Tan Chau and Chau Doc of An Giang Province.”

According to Dung, to address such challenges, national efforts are not enough. Regional cooperation must be strengthened, particularly among the riparian countries, both upper and lower, through multilateral and sub-regional mechanisms such as the MRC, he said.

Last year, Vietnam also called on Laos to honor its pledge to consult with its neighbors before moving forward with the Don Sahong project.
The Vietnam National Mekong Committee sent a letter demanding Laos honor regional cooperation pledged by the countries in the 1995 Mekong Agreement. According to some sources, Cambodian and Thai committees also sent separate letters to Laos.

“We suggest that the proposed project needs to be considered under the prior consultation process,” states Vietnam’s letter.

Under the agreement, regulated by the MRC, a dam developer must notify or consult with member countries before beginning construction.
In October 2013, Laos notified the MRC of its intent to build the 260-megawatt Don Sahong dam, despite calls from foreign donors to consult neighbors that face a risk of depleted fish stocks and damaged livelihoods. Experts have also voiced concerns over the bad impacts of the project on the main current of the river.

Laos planned to start work on the project later this year.

The dam, to be developed by Malaysia’s Mega First Corporation Bhd, is the second of 11 dams planned by Laos along its stretch of the 4,900 km (3,044 mile) Mekong.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand have repeatedly voiced concerns about Laos failing to honor a consultation agreement on a bigger project, the US$3.5 billion, 1,260 megawatt Xayaburi dam for which it held a groundbreaking ceremony in late 2012.

Lao media reported April 3 that the project was 23 percent finished and is expected to be operational in 2019.

Like us on Facebook and scroll down to share your comment

Thanh Nien News

Ho Chi Minh City: Mekong Summit Struggles to Halt Devastating Dams

 

Mekong Summit Struggles to Halt Devastating Dams

Laos remains determined to move forward with dam construction that threatens the environment and food security.

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/mekong-summit-struggles-to-halt-devastating-dams/

By Tom Fawthrop

April 09, 2014

….A Dire Threat To Vietnam – March 30 2014

With its extraordinary diversity, the mighty Mekong has long enchanted explorers and travellers. Not only do its currents carry life-giving sediment and nutrients, its waters have provided a living for countless generations.

But for how much longer? How much time is left before the Mekong changes forever? A massive dam-building program is unfolding that will unleash a cascade of 11 dams that will forever lock the river into a series of silent and stagnant reservoirs behind hydraulic walls.

In a clash between a Lao government trying to sell electricity to its energy-hungry neighbors and earn hard currency, and the need to protect and preserve the river’s ecological riches and fisheries, conservation and food security is clearly losing. Construction on the Xayaburi Dam, the first on the Lower Mekong, got underway in 2012. Construction on a second dam, the Don Sahong, will start at the end of 2014. Work is moving forward faster than the completion of scientific studies needed to provide the evidence of “significant harm.”

This year is likely to be particularly critical for the future of Southeast Asia’s most important river, which originates from the Tibetan plateau and passes through six countries as it meanders its way to the delta in Vietnam.

The stakes are high. The endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin may be doomed if the dams go ahead according to the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The WWF is equally concerned about the threat to fisheries and the food security of more than 60 million people living in four Mekong countries.

Not surprisingly, then, activists were hopeful that the second Mekong River Commission (MRC) summit would put the issue of dam construction at the top of its agenda. “It is critical that the dangers of mainstream dam building take center stage,” said Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia Program Director for International Rivers. With the summit wrapping up on the weekend, they have been left disappointed.

Certainly, the MRC summit offered a façade of celebratory unity, with three prime ministers of the four member states – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam – in attendance. Behind this, though, lurked a distinct sense of MRC malaise, a lack of leadership and a papering over the deep divisions over dam-building.

MRC donor nations have expressed concern, calling for decisions on hydropower to be made based on “scientific knowledge regarding trans-boundary impacts on resources and ecosystems.”

Trandem argues that the unilateral decision of the Lao government to build the Xayaburi Dam without MRC approval and push ahead with the Don Sahong Dam are clear examples of disregarding science with a build first and study later mentality. The 1995 Mekong Treaty provides a legal basis for neighboring countries to demand that Laos halt construction if significant harm can be demonstrated.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are calling on the Lao and Thai governments to freeze the dam construction. Vietnam Rivers Network representative Lam Thi Thu Suu told The Diplomat that “although the Xayaburi dam is around 30 percent built, it does not mean we cannot stop it.”

In a move designed to remind Thailand that its investment could run up against serious opposition from Vietnam, and that it appears to run contrary to the spirit of the 1995 Mekong Treaty (Thailand being one of the four signatories), the Vietnam Rivers Network has dispatched a letter to Siam Commercial Bank asking it to cancel its investment in the Xayaburi project. The letter reads, in part, “the bank needs to reconsider their risk assessments, to give more importance to sustainable development, and to the government of Viet Nam, where your bank is currently trying to expand its business.” Similar letters have been sent to other Thai banks involved in Xayaburi

The MRC Role

The Xayaburi dam has become an important test case for the MRC‘s credibility in managing conflict over water resources, based on its special mandate to conduct a six-month regional consultation with all stakeholders under the hitherto unused procedure known as the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement.

MRC can only decide issues by consensus. The four member states were split down the middle with Cambodia and Vietnam strongly opposed to the Xayaburi Dam. With no consensus, but with backing from Thailand, Laos terminated the consultation and went ahead with construction of the dam, without waiting for the additional impact studies everybody agreed were necessary.

Cambodia’s National Mekong chairman Te Navuth commented “It has been very difficult talking with the Lao delegation. They don’t listen to our concerns.”

The MRC secretariat and CEO Hans Gutmann have been criticized for their weakness in implementing the consultation process, and for allowing the Lao government to launch the dam with a host of unresolved issues on trans-boundary impacts.

Gutmann conceded in a speech to the pre-summit conference that the MRC is primarily a talking shop. “We have meetings, meetings, meetings and more meetings. We meet too often and too much, but there is no alternative.” Moreover, the 1995 Treaty lacks sanctions to deal with violations of the Mekong agreement, nor do other member states have any power of veto.

Several donor countries, development partners and NGOs are lobbying for changes in the 1995 Mekong Agreement and for reform of the MRC.

A Dire Threat To Vietnam

“If all the Mekong dams go ahead, the impact will be fully felt in about 15-20 years,” predicts wetlands specialist Nguyen Thien.

The delta accounts for roughly 50 percent of Vietnam’s total food production. Nguyen paints a grim scenario of the future, with the ecosystem devastated by dams and exacerbated by climate change. “The delta will lose its capacity to produce rice for export. Vietnam will probably still be able to feed its own people but will probably not able to export rice to feed anybody else. This will have implications for food buying countries and the price of food will be more expensive for all.”

In Cambodia, the director of fisheries has also sounded the alarm. Nao Thuok considered the threat posed by the dams to Cambodian fisheries, which provides 80 percent of the country’s protein, would be so bad that “For Cambodia this is a national security issue to protect our food security.”

Vietnamese Prime Minster Nguyen Tang Dung told the summit, ”Never has the Mekong River Basin faced so many challenges.” In 2013, a very worried Vietnamese government took the initiative to launch a major scientific study of the hydropower impact on the Mekong, and in particular the delta. The study was supported by both U.S. and Danish research groups.

In a press conference after the summit, Vietnamese Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang urged Laos to stop the dam projects until “the environmental assessments of hydropower plants on the mainstream of the river jointly conducted by the three countries are completed in December 2015.”

However the Lao government insists it will continue with construction of the dams, and will not wait for the outcome of the Vietnam-based research expected in December 2015. It appears unlikely the Lao government, the poorest member of the MRC, will listen to the downstream countries without some kind of financial deal to compensate for the loss of revenue from the dams.

At the summit, Vietnam hinted that a financial deal was being considered, with a senior foreign ministry official telling The Diplomat, “We have discussed with Japan and with the U.S. compensation for Lao for not building dams.”

Unless an alternative deal is hatched before the end of the year, 2014 will surely be remembered as a tragic turning point for Southeast Asia’s most important river, and for the slow death of regional fisheries and agriculture.

Laos Dams: Warning over Laos dam construction

Warning over Laos dam construction

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/357034/laos-dam-builders-start-work-without-consulting-locals

• Published: 26/06/2013 at 05:03 PM
• Online news:

Work to construct the yet-to-be-approved Don Sahong hydropower dam project continues to progress, posing a major threat to the livelihoods of families living on the Mekong, despite the fact a consultation into the scheme has not been carried out, it has been warned.

A Daring Fisherman Crosses Khone Falls in Southern Laos, the area in which the Don Sahong hydropower dam project is getting underway, even though the required public consultations are yet to be carried out. (Photo: International Rivers)

Environmental campaign group International Rivers visited the Don Sahong dam site last week in the Khone Falls area of Southern Laos, less than two kilometres upstream from the Laos-Cambodia border.

International Rivers claim that “numerous activities” are underway at the project site, even though the Laos government has not yet initiated the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) required consultation process, set out in the 1995 Mekong Agreement.

Ame Trandem, International Rivers’ Southeast Asia program director, said work to prepare for building the dam’s access roads and bridge has started. The actual construction of the roads and bridge is apparently scheduled to begin next year.

The group also raised concerns that work had begun on the project last September, when locals reported that dam builders had blasted a waterfall near the Don Sahong site.

Last week, villagers told International Rivers that construction on the Don Sahong dam’s bridge and access roads will begin in 2014, Ms Trandem said, adding that the dam’s developer, Malaysia’s Mega First Corporation Berhad, has hired local people to place markers indicating which land will be used for the bridge and roads.

The Don Sahong project is the second of 11 proposed hydropower dam schemes for the Mekong. Work on the first – the Xayaburi dam in Laos – began last year. Much of the electricity generated by the dams will be exported to Thailand.

International law and the Mekong Agreement prohibit one government from starting to implement projects on the river while the other affected governments are still evaluating proposals for any such scheme.

But International Rivers say developers began work at the Xayaburi dam site, signed the power purchase agreement with Thailand, and signed financing agreements with Thai banks, while discussions at the Mekong River Commission were still underway.

“It’s clear that the Don Sahong dam is following the same trajectory that the Xayaburi dam took, in which secrecy and illicit project implementation topples regional cooperation,” Ms Trandem said.  “Sadly, what is happening at Khone Falls is emblematic of the failure of the MRC to address the problems related to the Xayaburi dam.”

“The Xayaburi dam has set a dangerous precedent that undermines future regional cooperation and illustrates the need for urgent reform of the MRC’s prior consultation process before additional projects proceed.”

Activists claim the dams will hurt fisheries, agriculture and food security downstream in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, destroying the livlihoods of people who rely on the river as a source of food and income. No compensation will be provided to fishermen who can no longer use traditional fish traps.

“The Don Sahong dam would be an environmental calamity,” said Ms. Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers’ campaign coordinator for Thailand. “The project is aimed at increasing Mega First Corporation’s profits while exacerbating the already known and very serious impacts of the dam on regional fisheries and biodiversity.

“If built, the Don Sahong dam will inevitably and irreversibly block the only channel in the Khone Falls that fish can migrate upstream and downstream during the dry season, leading to predictably serious impacts on fish catches, species and the livelihoods of millions of people in the region.”

The Don Sahong dam will not only block the only channel in the Khone Falls area that allows for year-round fish migration, but also threatens one of the few remaining habitats of the already endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, she added.

Ms. Kumpin Aksorn from the Thai community organisation Hug Namkhong joined International Rivers on the site visit.

“The Mekong River’s fisheries do not stop at each country’s political boundaries. Projects affecting the river need to be decided on a regional basis,” she said. “The Don Sahong and other mainstream dams are foolhardy and dangerous, as they threaten to fundamentally change the nature of the river and its resources, which serves as the lifeblood for millions of people in the region.

“Before cross-border tensions grow, full public disclosure of the project’s environmental impact assessment is urgently required, as well as meaningful consultations with affected communities and neighboring countries.”

A report by the Mekong River Commission published last year found that the construction of 12 proposed dams in the lower Mekong River would cause serious problems for the two million people living downstream in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, because the dams would stop 55 per cent of the river from flowing freely.

About the author

Writer:

Online Reporters

Position: Online Reporters