Myanmar and Laos plan downstream Mekong’s biggest dam yet

At the remote, mountainous frontier where the mighty Mekong carves the border between Myanmar and Laos, planners have sketched the outline of a mega dam. It would be the largest hydropower project ever built on the river’s mainstream outside China, but analysts suspect the study into it may matter more than the dam itself. A 34-month joint feasibility study for the 2,790-megawatt project was agreed on July 4 during Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s state visit to Vientiane. Officials from both countries called the plan an “important symbol of Myanmar–Laos friendship”, saying it promised to strengthen energy security and support renewable energy goals across the wider region. Brian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington, said the dam announcement had come “as a total surprise” and called it “part of Myanmar’s new push to look like a legitimate government”. “For now, the dam is even less than a blueprint,” he said, describing announcing new infrastructure projects and improving diplomatic ties with neighbours as attempts to project legitimacy. Myanmar has been ruled by a military-backed government since 2021, when the army seized power in a coup that ousted a democratically elected government. A general election concluded earlier this year was widely derided as a sham due to the jailing of political opponents, use of coercion and exclusion of millions of voters. In recent months, the government has sought to improve diplomatic and economic ties primarily with neighbouring China and India, as well as Thailand and Laos. Eyler said the dam would sit somewhere above the so-called Golden Triangle, along a restive and secluded stretch of border between Eastern Shan state in Myanmar and Luang Namtha and Bokeo provinces in Laos. Even without formal blueprints, engineers were able to estimate the power generation capacity of a project at that site, which is likely how planners arrived at the 2,790MW figure, he said. “No other dam on the Mekong mainstream in Laos, Thailand or Cambodia is that large,” Eyler said, adding that Chinese cargo boats would benefit from the large reservoir the dam would create, no longer having to navigate the treacherous canyons that form the Laos-Myanmar border. Power without purpose? External financing and construction expertise would be required for either country to build a project of this scale, said Philip Hirsch, an emeritus professor at the University of Sydney specialising in Southeast Asian environmental politics, adding that “given its location, China would be the most likely source”. Hirsch said the estimated power output suggested a dam height of up to 200 metres (656 feet), which would block fish movement entirely and flood riverine communities via the resulting reservoir. It would also further restrict sediment transport, already dwindling from a dozen Chinese dams further upstream, stripping the river of vital nutrients, accelerating riverbank erosion and hastening the shrinking of the Mekong Delta itself, hundreds of kilometres downstream in Vietnam. Laos scarcely needs the power. Known as the “battery of Southeast Asia”, the country already produces far more electricity than it consumes, exporting more than US$2 billion worth last year alone, primarily to Thailand, Vietnam and China, according to official figures. “The better alternative is not to build any further dams on the Mekong mainstream,” Hirsch said, warning that “adding yet more hydropower to the grid” would undercut the financial viability of existing dams. Displacement from the dam itself was likely to be limited since few people lived directly along the affected stretch of river, Eyler said, but the reservoir would still reach back and submerge villages along its tributaries. “Fishing villages in Laos and Thailand are suffering enough from having their fisheries wiped out from dams,” he said. “This new dam will only exacerbate the problem.” Migratory fish already struggle to reach spawning grounds cut off by the Mekong’s existing dams, which also create erratic fluctuations in water levels – often unnaturally high during dry seasons yet parched during monsoons. This project should not proceed Pianporn Deetes, Rivers and Rights “This project should not proceed,” said Pianporn Deetes, executive director of Rivers and Rights, a Thailand-based organisation dedicated to defending transboundary rivers including the Mekong. “Its far-reaching social and environmental impacts, together with its implications for regional security and stability, far outweigh its potential benefits.” Though a feasibility study might sound harmless at first, Pianporn warned that this was the first step towards construction, especially when two governments were working together. “This is why transparency and meaningful public participation are essential from the outset,” she said, adding that civil society and local communities in both Myanmar and Laos were highly unlikely to be given the opportunity to voice their concerns. Rather than pursue a dam at the expense of the millions who depend on the river, Deetes said the region should prioritise more equitable energy options.

Myanmar and Laos plan downstream Mekong’s biggest dam yet

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A joint study for a 2,790MW hydropower project is more political stunt than power plan, critics say

A joint study for a 2,790MW hydropower project is more political stunt than power plan, critics say