Thailand NGO seeks halt to Mekong dam project in Laos, as threat to Asean’s most vital waterway grows

Laos has seen a dam-building boom in recent decades - funded in part by neighbours China, Malaysia and Thailand - as it looks to cash in on energy resources

But ecological concerns, and the impact on local communities, have campaigners calling for a rethink on funding for the Luang Prabang dam project

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The Luang Prabang dam project on the Mekong in Laos. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:30pm, 19 Feb 2021Updated: 7:03pm, 19 Feb 2021

A civic group in Thailand is petitioning the country’s financial institutions to withhold construction loans for the Luang Prabang dam project along the Mekong River in Laos amid warnings about the negative environmental risks the dams pose and the potential for the displacement of families on the river and loss of livelihoods.

The NGO Fair Finance Thailand earlier this month called on a number of financial institutions, including the central bank, to withhold loans until a feasibility study is done on what risk-mitigation measures have been taken for the project, which began construction last year, as well as on its “trans-boundary impact”.

“There is no necessity for Thailand to purchase electricity from the project,” the group said in a statement last week. “Thailand’s financial institutions will face risks concerning the environment, society, geopolitics and finance should they decide to support the project.”

The Luang Prabang dam project is the latest Thailand-funded hydropower project in Laos and is being developed by Thai developer CH Karnchang, the company behind the Xayaburi dam, which is also in Laos and started operating in late 2019. Partners in the project include state-run Luang Prabang Power and PetroVietnam Power, a Hanoi-based company, said Phairin Sohsai, a campaigner for the NGO International Rivers, which is allied with Fair Finance Thailand.

The Luang Prabang dam, which is modelled after the Xayaburi dam, would only exacerbate the negative effects such dams are having on the Mekong, Phairin said.

“An ecological effect produced by the Xayaburi dam … is that the river sediments have been captured to the point that the Mekong has turned clear blue,” she said. The river usually runs brown, a sign that it is healthy and carrying nurturing sediments down the length of the river to the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

“Thai provinces along the Mekong have also experienced severe drought as a result of lower water levels” caused by the numerous dams upstream that hold back the river’s flow, she said.