Laos' construction of barrage triggers Mekong crisis
Commission that controls development on the Mekong, a regional lifeline, is powerless to stop work on a massive hydropower scheme
The four-nation Mekong River Commission (MRC) that supposedly co-ordinates activity on Southeast Asian's most important waterway faces a credibility crisis over the refusal by Laos to listen to objections to its controversial Xayaburi dam project.
At a ministerial-level meeting of the commission this week, Cambodia and Vietnam criticised Laos for unilaterally pressing ahead with the dam, the first on the Lower Mekong being built without approval from the MRC.
Critics fear the environmental impact of the dam, which will supply electricity to the MRC's fourth member, Thailand, and question the point of the commission's existence if members do not seek consensus.
Cambodian officials said at the meeting in Luang Prabang that the host nation had wrongly interpreted the 1995 Mekong Treaty, which demands that communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and all stakeholders be consulted prior to any decision on a dam.
Laos unilaterally ended consultation after six months, despite vigorous objections to the dam in the country's north. It is now under construction by a Thai firm and other partners.
The MRC's development partners also issued a statement calling for an extension of consultation: "We believe the participation of civil society should be improved, and that the consultation period of six months is too short."