The Thai company set to build Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam will not
begin construction until a study determines the dam’s environmental effects on
the Mekong River, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Friday.
Yingluck reaffirmed her
commitment to the study, which Mekong River Commission countries Cambodia,
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam agreed in December to undertake before construction
could begin.
“We will study together the scope
of the impact along the Mekong and we will see what the impact is,” Yingluck
said after a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen in Siem Reap.
Vietnam and Cambodia have voiced
concerns over the effects the dam could have on communities downstream,
following recent reports Thai development firm Ch.Karnchang has stepped up
construction.
Hun Sen said he had voiced such
concerns with Yingluck, whose country will receive 95 per cent of the dam’s
electricity.
“Her Excellency, Yingluck, has
affirmed that the dam has not been built,” he said. “We were very happy with
this information and hope this will benefit both the upper and lower Mekong
countries.”
Despite reports in April that
Ch.Karnchang had signed a construction deal dated in March, Laos claims that
only preliminary work has begun on the 1,260 megawatt dam.
Te Navuth, secretary-general of
the Cambodan National Mekong Committee, said yesterday Cambodia’s ambassador in
Vientiane had been invited to inspect the Xayaburi site today and tomorrow.
“But I don’t know [if he will
attend],” he said.
Navuth said Cambodia and Vietnam
would continue drafting a letter to the Lao government asking it to halt work.
Laos Foreign Minister Thongloun
Sisolouth said on Friday preliminary work was on hold.
“The Lao government decided to
postpone it. We have to do further studies,” he said, according to Reuters.
Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia
program director of International Rivers, said it was vital the trans-boundary
impacts were explored.
“The company has never looked at
the impact on Cambodia,” she said, adding the project seriously threatened
Cambodian fish stocks.
Cheang Sokha and Shane Worrell
Business & Investment Opportunities
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