LEAD: Mekong River ministers meet to decide fate of Lao dam

Dec 7, 2011, 13:14 GMT

Bangkok - A closed-door meeting of Mekong River countries kicked off Wednesday to decide the fate of a dam planned in northern Laos that critics said threatens the livelihoods of millions of people dependant on the river.

The Mekong River Commission council was scheduled to announce Thursday whether a consensus was reached on the dam at its meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, among the four nations lying along the lower section of South-East Asia's longest waterway.

Under a 1995 agreement, the four countries must consult on all dam projects on the Mekong and reach a consensus before proceeding.

Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam had asked Laos in April to delay the Xayaburi project until a proper environmental impact study could be conducted, especially on the river's fisheries and sediment flow.

'If Laos decides to go forward on a unilateral basis, it will break the 1995 Mekong Agreement,' said Ame Trandem, South-East Asia programme director for International Rivers, an environmental group.

To placate the concerns of its neighbours, Laos commissioned an evaluation of the hydropower project by the Swiss consulting firm Poyry Energy AG in May.

The firm issued a positive assessment of the project, but International Rivers said it glossed over the project's possible ecological impact on downstream countries.

'Laos commissioned Poyry to see if they had complied with the 1995 Mekong Agreement, but they didn't look at the trans-border impact the dam would have,' Trandem said.

The Xayaburi dam contractor, Thailand Ch Karnchang PCL, had only conducted its environmental impact study on an area within a 10-kilometre radius of the dam, she said.

The project has reportedly split the Mekong countries into two camps with Laos and Thailand supporting the project while Cambodia and Vietnam oppose it.

Thailand is to buy 95 per cent of the 1,285 megawatts of power the dam is expected to generate beginning in 2019.

'Laos has the right to construct the dam as it is located inside Lao territory,' Thai Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsukhe told the Bangkok Post last week. 'We will not oppose the project, but if there are any environmental impacts, the Lao government must take responsibility.'

Environmental groups, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, warned that the dam's impact study failed to measure the dam's effects on fish migration that could affect the food supply of millions of people dependent on the 4,880-kilometre river.

Vietnam is also worried that the Xayaburi dam would disrupt the flow of sediment to its rice-growing southern delta region, through which the Mekong flows into the sea.

The Xayaburi project is one of 11 dams proposed on the lower Mekong River, seven of which would be in Laos, two in Cambodia and two on the river where it is shared by Laos and Thailand.

China has already built four hydropower dams in Yunnan province on the upper Mekong, projects that have also been criticized by environmental groups and downstream governments.