The US government is directly cautioning the Laotian government
following Monday's announcement that the latter will move forward with
contentious construction plans for a massive hydroelectric dam on the Mekong
River.
"The extent and severity of
impacts from the Xayaburi dam on an ecosystem that provides food security and
livelihoods for millions are still unknown," warned the US State
Department on Tuesday. "We are concerned that construction is proceeding
before impact studies have been completed."
The US$3.5 billion Xayaburi dam
has long been opposed by environmentalists, downstream communities and legal
scholars, while the World Bank recently announced sanctions against a
Finnish company that approved a
disputed environmental assessment in favor of the project.
A major 2011 report by the
pan-regional Mekong River Commission expressed concern over several areas in
need of further review, and the Laotian government has stated that it would
proceed on the Xayaburi project only once those concerns were ameliorated.
However, at this week's summit of
the inter-regional Asia-Europe Meeting in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, the
government made a surprise announcement that it would be moving forward
immediately, with groundbreaking at the dam site slated for Wednesday.
"We would hope that senior
government officials and heads of state at the Asia-Europe Meeting would
express in the strongest possible terms their objections to the Lao government
proceeding with the project," Aviva Imhof, campaigns director with
International Rivers, an environment watchdog, told IPS.
"In addition, we would hope
that donors to Laos's electricity and infrastructure sectors, such as the Asian
Development Bank and the Japanese government, would reconsider their ongoing
development assistance to a government that refuses to comply with its
international obligations."
Tuesday's statement from the US
State Department was unusually direct, cautioning that the United States'
"own experience has made us acutely aware of the economic, social and
environmental impacts that large infrastructure can have over the
long-term".
While the US does not say that it
opposes the project outright, the State Department highlights that the Mekong
River Commission's members, based in Vientiane, have yet to reach consensus on
whether the project should continue. The government urged its Laotian
counterpart to "uphold its pledge to work with its neighbors in addressing
remaining questions regarding Xayaburi".
The statement comes a year after
a unanimous resolution was passed by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee
"calling for the protection of the Mekong River Basin and for delaying
mainstream dam construction along the river".
First of a 'cascade'
As currently planned, the
Xayaburi project would consist of a 1,260 megawatt hydroelectric installation
northwest of Vientiane. While there are already three operational dams (with
two more under construction) on the narrow northern section of the Mekong that
falls within China, the Xayaburi would be the first such project after the
river enters the plains and becomes the wide, slow-moving waterway that is
central to the lives of tens of millions of Southeast Asians.
Most likely, the dam's
construction would also ease the way for the dozen additional dams that the
Mekong River Commission says are under consideration along the river.
Under regional agreements, none
of these can go forward without consent from the rest of the affected
countries. Yet despite a 2011 decision among those countries that additional
work was necessary before the Xayaburi project should be allowed to proceed,
the Laotian government has quietly continued to oversee extensive and expensive
groundwork.
"Laos said it would
cooperate with neighboring countries, but this was never genuine," Ame
Trandem, Southeast Asia programme director for International Rivers, said
Tuesday. "The international community should not let the Lao government get
away with such a blatant violation of international law."
Trandem is calling on Western
donors as well as the governments of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to take a
"firm stand" against the recent decision.
"The Xayaburi Dam is the
first of a cascade of devastating mainstream dams that will severely undermine
the region's development efforts," she said.
"The food security and jobs
of millions of people in the region are now on the line. None of Vietnam and
Cambodia's environmental and social concerns have been taken seriously. Laos
has never even collected basic information about the ways that people depend on
the river, so how can it say that there will be no impacts?"
Speaking with journalists on
Monday, Viraphonh Viravong, the Laotian deputy minister of energy and mining,
brushed aside such criticism, saying simply that his government had
"addressed most of the concerns". Construction on an initial
diversionary dam should be finished by the middle of next year.
Laos today is a nominally
socialist country ruled by one military-backed party, and it remains one of the
poorest and least developed countries in Asia. Yet its hydroelectric potential
- which the World Bank estimates at 23,000 megawatts, just a tiny percentage of
which has thus far been developed - has long been seen as the country's most
significant opportunity to fund its own development.
For this reason, the longstanding
opposition to the Xayaburi project has undoubtedly frustrated the country's
political leadership. The dam's construction is being bankrolled by a Thai
company, and current plans would have almost all of its 1,260 megawatts be sold
directly to Thailand.
Yet despite the substantial
profits projected for the Laotian government, several studies have highlighted
significant economic and social costs, including hundreds of millions of
dollars in projected lost agricultural and fishery opportunities all the way to
the river's mouth in Vietnam.
Potentially affected communities
have put together several petitions to the governments in Vientiane and
Bangkok, asking that the Xayaburi project be halted. The Mekong River
Commission has gone still farther, suggesting in 2010 that all dam work on the
river be subjected to a moratorium of at least a decade, to allow for greater
study of the potential impact of such work.
In 2011, the Laotian government
hired a Finnish company, the Poyry Group, to ascertain whether the Xayaburi
proposal complied with the Mekong River Commission's requirements. To the
surprise of many observers, the company found that the project was in
compliance and advised the government to continue - though it also suggested
dozens of additional surveys and studies.
In August, the World Bank
announced that it was sanctioning the Poyry Group for impropriety (though not
specifically for its work in Laos). Nonetheless, critics warn that the Laotian
government is now proceeding based almost solely on the problematic Poyry
assessment.
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