More Lao dam deals inked

Villagers stand on the banks of the Mekong in Xayaburi province, Laos, near the building site of a controversial dam. Photograph: International Rivers

Thursday, 25 October 2012
David Boyle and Shane Worrell

Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydropower plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furore over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam.

The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making up the Xe-Namnoy plant on two tributaries of the Se Kong River, which flows into the Mekong from the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos – just some 100 kilometres from Cambodia.

Because of this close proximity, communities on the Cambodian-Lao border would feel particularly acute downstream affects; however, since no impact assessments of the project had been made public, this was hard to measure, conservation group International Rivers warned yesterday. 

Sang Lee, an employee from the architectural department of South Korean firm SK Engineering & Construction, which has been contracted to build the dams, confirmed yesterday that project details were now being ironed out ahead of construction. 

“As far as I know, they’re trying to arrange finances, and at this stage, they are working on technical documents,” he said. “I’m not so sure about when construction will start.”

Lee asked for further questions to be emailed so they could be answered by someone handling the project. A response was not immediately received.

Tania Lee, Lao program coordinator at International Rivers, said the plant would have potentially severe but unclear impacts on hydrological flow, fishing and food security.

“The major lack of any information is a huge problem, because we don’t know if the environmental impact assessment has been done or a social impact assessment has done,” she said. 

The Laos government’s failure to publicly release such assessments violates the country’s own laws regulating development projects, yet despite this, an international lender was considering granting a loan for the project, she added. 

In total, Lee said, Laos planned to build more than 70 dams on various tributaries of the Mekong and was now constructing eight dams on the Xe Kaman and Xe Kong rivers dams with about 15 planned for the Sekong River Basin and seven on the Nam Ou river in the north. 

The Xe-Namnoy plant will generate an estimated 400 megawatts of electricity from water flowing from a height of 630 metres, according to the website of the firm Team Group, which is providing consulting services for the project.  

As is the case with Xayaburi, Laos is planning on selling significant amounts of the power generated by the dam – 90 per cent – to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Team Group’s website states. 

EGAT, which has resisted pressure from conservation groups to cancel its power purchase agreement for the 1,285 megawatt Xayaburi dam because of the predicted environmental havoc it will wreak, did not respond to inquires from the Post yesterday. 

An SK Construction spokesman estimated Laos would earn about $30 million annually from fees and taxes, Agence France Presse has reported.   

South Korean state-run firm Korean Western Power will operate the dam until 2045, when control will be handed over to Laos, according to AFP.

Officials at the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment could not be reached and Mao Hak, Cambodia’s director of river work at the Ministry of Water Resources, declined to comment, because he was not aware of the project.

---

To contact the reporters on this story: David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com
Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com

Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102559403/National-news/more-lao-dam-deals-inked.html

Battle for the Mekong Heats Up

Laos’s Xayaburi dam project faces opposition throughout the region over its ecological impact.

• Mekong Battle Delayed
• The Battle Over the Mekong
• Murder on the Mekong
• Laos’s Chinese Gamble
• America’s Pacific Air-Sea Battle Vision

The Mekong, a precious jewel of Southeast Asia, has become a critical battleground between hydropower dam projects and the survival of the world’s greatest freshwater fisheries.

The future of this 4,880 km (3032 miles) long river may well be decided by what happens to the Xayaburi mega-dam project in Laos, the first of a cascade of 11 dam projects on the lower Mekong.

Ame Trandem from the NGO International Rivers explained that, “The Mekong River is the lifeblood of Southeast Asia, feeding and employing millions of people. To move forward with the Xayaburi Dam would be reckless and irresponsible, as the dam would fatally impact the river's ecosystem and fisheries.”

In spite of repeated reports that the Xayaburi dam project had been suspended pending further scientific studies, a recent visit to the dam-site has suggested that the Lao government has not bowed to international pressure. As a World Wildlife Fund analysis recently warned, “Construction work is marching ahead at the Xayaburi dam site in northern Laos and risks making a mockery of the decision last December by Mekong countries to delay building the dam on the Mekong mainstream.”

In December 2011 the four-member nations of the Mekong River Commission – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam –agreed that no dams should be built until further scientific studies of the negative impacts on all the riparian countries had been completed.

Scientists have warned that if the 11 dams are built it could bring on an ecological disaster that harms many of the 877 Mekong fish species. Furthermore, it is the uninhibited flow of the Mekong through the heart of Southeast Asia and the river’s bountiful natural resources that guarantees 65 million people’s food security.

Although Cambodia and Vietnam are determined to stop the dam, everything indicates that the Thai developer Ch. Karnchang and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) are equally determined to build it. In this context, a failure to resolve the dam issue could also trigger a major diplomatic row among the Mekong nations, undermining the credibility of the MRC and disrupting international cooperation along the region’s most important waterway.

“The Xayaburi Dam will trigger an ecological crisis of tremendous proportions. We urge the Prime Ministers of Laos and Thailand to show leadership by cancelling this project,” Shalmali Guttal of Focus on the Global South, a member of the 263 coalition of NGOs from 51 nations said in a statement condemning the damn.

In response to this opposition, Lao Foreign Minister, Thongloun Sisoulithmade announced during last month’s ASEAN FM summit that his country was suspending work on the Xayaburi dam until further studies on its impact could be done. Although opponents of the dam welcomed Vientiane’s announcement, they soon were disappointed.

Soon after the Lao government’s announcements, a number of diplomats, MRC officials, experts, and donors visited Laos to see the site. After the visit some MRC observers then asserted that, “the project is in an advanced preparation stage with exploratory excavation in and around the river completed.”

Similarly, International Rivers concluded in their own unofficial investigation of the dam-site in June, that, “the dredging and widening of river has already taken place.”

Meanwhile back in Bangkok, Ch.Karnchang, the Thai developer of the US$3.8 billion project, said the dam was going ahead with no delays in the original timetable.

Initial construction has evidently started, however. Has the Laotian government then reneged on its international commitments? 

Deputy Minister for Energy and Mines Viraphonh Viravonghas denied any violation of the MRC agreements. Instead he contended that all the construction done so far falls under the rubric of “preparatory work,” noting that the construction “does not involve permanent structures” and instead is mostly about building makeshift housing for construction workers.

Source:  August 02, 2012 by Tom Fawthrop

http://thediplomat.com/2012/08/02/battle-for-the-mekong-heats-up/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+the-diplomat+%28The+Diplomat+RSS%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Laos vows to address Mekong dam fears

Laos has pledged to stall construction of a controversial multi-billion dollar dam on the Mekong river until all its neighbours' environmental concerns have been answered, state media said Friday.

A Laotian fisherman casts his net in the Mekong river in May 2012. Laos has pledged to stall construction of a controversial multi-billion dollar dam on the Mekong river until all its neighbours' environmental concerns have been answered, state media said Friday.

The $3.8 billion hydroelectric project at Xayaburi, led by Thai group CH Karnchang, has sharply divided the four Mekong nations -- Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand -- who rely on the river system for fish and irrigation.

"The Xayaburi project will develop one of the most transparent and modern dams in the world," Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Viraphonh Viravong told state-run Vientiane Times.

He promised that construction would not start until all the concerns of neighboring countries have been resolved.

The minister said changes to the project will address the two major issues -- fish migration and sediment flow -- by including a passage to allow 85 percent of fish to travel along the river and a "flushing system" to prevent sediment build up.

The mooted 1,260 megawatt dam, the first of 11 on the key waterway, has become a symbol of the potential risks of hydropower projects in the region and the Mekong nations have tussled over its varying impact.

Communist Laos, one the most world's under-developed nations, believes the dam will help it become "the battery of Southeast Asia" by selling electricity to its richer neighbours.

Thailand has agreed to buy most of the electricity generated by the project, but Cambodia and Vietnam fear the dam could decimate their farming and fishing industries.

Environmentalists say the dam would be disastrous for the 60 million people who depend on the river for transportation, food and economy.

They fear Mekong fish species will become endangered as vital nutrients are trapped and dozens of species are prevented from swimming upstream to mating grounds.

Campaign group International Rivers said the Thai firm had already "undertaken significant resettlement and construction activities", despite calls from the four-nation Mekong River Commission to halt work until further impact studies have been carried out.

Laos rejects the accusations and has invited neighbouring governments to visit the project site.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/301327/laos-vows-to-address-mekong-dam-fears

Laos protests innocence as Mekong concerns snowball

Date: 

 July 10, 2012

By: 

 CleanBiz Staff

Tags: 

• Cambodia
• Ch Karnchang
• Eric Baran
• More Tags...

The deputy energy minister of Laos denies his country has ignored agreements with neighboring countries over the building of the controversial USD3.5 billion Xayaburi hydropower dam on the Mekong River.

The project – and others planned for the Mekong and its tributaries – has come under fire from activists, people living along the river and some neighboring countries because of what they saw as an inadequate environmental impact assessment.

Late last month the NGO, International Rivers, published an investigative report saying that Thai construction firm Ch Karnchang Pcl, the main developer of the 1,260 megawatt dam, was continuing with work on the project despite a Laos agreement last December to suspend it.

The deputy minister, Viraphonh Viravong, argues the government had kept its promise, although he admits geological sub-surface surveying was being carried out in the Mekong valley.

"We plan to invite development partners and Mekong River Commission member countries to visit the project site so they can see the actual development for themselves," he told the Vientiane Times daily. "The Xayaburi project will develop one of the most transparent and modern dams in the world."

Another study published in January warned that if 78 hydropower dams scheduled for construction along tributaries of the Mekong River go ahead, they will permanently block critical fish migration routes, with "catastrophic" implications for the world's biggest inland fishery. The authors, writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that their paper was the first strategic analysis of these tributary dams.

Around 60 million people in China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam live along the banks of the Mekong and tributaries and many rely on fish for their livelihoods and food.

The authors made a detailed study of 27 dams where construction is planned between 2015 and 2030, to better understand implications for fish biodiversity, food security and hydropower in the Mekong River Basin. They found that the facilities would stop fish from migrating "between the river's downstream floodplains and upstream tributaries".

Co-author Eric Baran, a scientist at the WorldFish Center in Cambodia, said the lower part of the Mekong basin produces nearly 770,000 tons of fish per year – as much as the combined freshwater catch of Europe and South America.

He said the "ambitious development agendas" of countries in the Mekong region, which include plans for rapid dam construction, could threaten the food security and livelihoods of 70 per cent of the basin's residents.

Xayaburi and other planned projects to dam the mainstream of the Mekong are subject to review by the Mekong River Commission, an advisory body founded by the four lower Mekong countries in 1995 to promote sustainable development along the river.

Plans to dam the Mekong's tributaries, however, are not currently subject to multilateral scruitiny. While most of the planned tributary dams will be built in Laos, the authors of the study say effects on fish biodiversity and availability would also be felt in Cambodia and Vietnam.

In addition, the Lower Se San 2, a controversial dam planned for a tributary in Cambodia, would have "highly detrimental" impacts on fish productivity, and could increase to 85 the number of endangered of fish species in the basin system — up from 9 during the last count in 2000 — and similarly increase the number of critically endangered species to 6, up from 1 in 2000.

Photo Credit: 

 

Nature

 

Source: http://www.cleanbiz.asia/story/laos-protests-innocence-mekong-concerns-snowball?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+all-stories+%28CleanBiz+Asia+-+All+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Resettled Laotians Have Power Supply

2012-06-19

The World Bank refutes a report that said that some of the villagers who were settled to make way for the Nam Theun 2 project have no electricity.

AFP

The reservoir of the Nam Theun 2 in a handout photo from the power company, Oct. 23, 2010.

All the villagers who were resettled to make way for Nam Theun 2, Laos’s largest hydroelectric dam, have received electricity supply, the World bank said Monday, rejecting a report that some of those villagers did not receive power.

"[E]very resettlement village on the Nakai plateau, and every household in those villages, has an electricity connection and improved water supply, as part of a comprehensive compensation package to people affected by inundation of the reservoir," World Bank spokeswoman Meriem Gray said in a statement from Laos.

She was commenting on a RFA report dated June 14, which has since been retracted, that some of the 6,300 people in 15 villages resettled since 2005 to make room for the dam had no electricity supply.

The 1,070-megawatt Nam Theun 2 dam on a tributary of the Mekong River in Khammouane province has been producing electricity since March 2010.  The dam diverts water from the Nam Theun River to the Xe Bang Fai River.

The U.S. $1.25 billion project, financed by international institutions including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, was launched as 6,300 people living in the assigned reservoir area on the Nakai Plateau were resettled.

"The project’s commitment to resettled communities extends beyond compensating them for the move, and includes helping villagers to develop significantly better livelihoods and living standards than they had before the project," Gray said.

She said that there was a small number of families who "voluntarily chose not to relocate to the resettlement villages but rather to receive cash compensation and to choose by themselves where they would relocate."

"These families were provided significant cash compensation."

Gray explained that Nam Theun 2 does not exacerbate any natural floods in the Xe Bang Fai downstream area as it ceases power production when the river reaches a certain predefined level.

In August last year, it ceased power generation for several weeks when the level was reached.

Poverty reduction

Nam Theun 2 will generate around U.S. $2 billion in government revenues for poverty reduction and environmental protection through the sale of electricity to Thailand and into the Lao grid, the bank said.

But International Rivers, an environmental group, said more than 110,000 people who depend on the Xe Bang Fai and Nam Theun rivers for their livelihoods have been directly affected by the project, due to destruction of fisheries, the flooding of riverbank gardens, and water quality problems.

It claimed that people on the Nakai Plateau still have no source of sustainable livelihood, threatening their food security. 

A key selling point of the project was the funds it would provide for protection of the globally significant Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, the largest protected area in Laos and one of the most important areas for biodiversity in Southeast Asia.

Yet, according to International Rivers, the reservoir has opened up an access to the area, exacerbating logging and poaching and threatening its ecological integrity.

But the World Bank said the Nam Theun 2 project has put in place a comprehensive downstream program that benefits more people than are affected by the dam and that food security has "significantly improved" for resettled people on the plateau compared to life before the project. 

The Nam Theun 2 is also providing more than U.S. $1 million per year for the full 25-year concession period to improve the management and protection of the Nakai-Nam Theun National Protected Area, which includes the dam watershed. "This makes it the largest and best financed protected area in the country," it said.

As of the beginning of this year, Laos had 14 operational hydropower dams, 10 under construction, and 56 proposed or in planning stages, according to an online government report.

Among these is the controversial Xayaburi dam, which would be the first on the mainstream Lower Mekong. Green groups say the dam could have a major impact on the regional environment and threaten Southeast Asia’s food security.

Reported by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Rachel Vandenbrink.

Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/dam-06192012171526.html 

Xayaburi study questioned

A road leading to the proposed dam site in Xayaburi province, Laos, was constructed last year. Photograph: Bangkok post

A study the Lao government has used to claim the Xayaburi dam would be harmless if redesigned has been criticised for not addressing concerns about the project’s effect on fish in the Lower Mekong river.

Lao Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Viraponh Viravong was reported as saying last week that a redesigned Xayaburi dam in northern Laos would allow a steady flow of sediment downsteam, thus allaying environmental concerns.

“First, we hired … Poyry to do the impact study, but people were not satisfied with that. And now we have hired a French company,” he told Radio Free Asia. “This study … confirms that if the Lao government wants to let the dam be redesigned, there will be no impact on the environment.”

Viraponh Viravong did not name the study’s French authors, but conservation groups said Laos had commissioned Compagnie Nationale du Rhone (CNR) to review Poyry’s 2011 study.

Marc Goichot, sustainable hydropower manager for WWF-Greater Mekong, said CNR failed to address concerns about potential effects on fish in the Lower Mekong.

“WWF’s understanding is that the scope of the CNR review is limited to hydrology, sediment and navigation impact,” he said. “Questions about fish and fisheries raised in response to the Poyry report have not yet been addressed.”

International Rivers Southeast Asia programme director Ame Trandem said the new report was a “meaningless” attempt to woo fellow Mekong River Commission member countries.

“While Poyry sidestepped sci­­ence on the dam’s fishery impacts, the new CNR review deliberately omits the dam’s fishery impacts,” she said. “Until the transboundary impacts of the project are assessed, Laos has no basis for claiming this dam is sustainable.”

The four MRC member states – Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos – agreed in December that the 1,260-megawatt could not proceed until further studies assessed its potential impact.

Japan last month agreed to help fund a study with MRC’s other development partners.

Thai developer Ch.Karnchang said last month that construction had begun on the dam – the first of 11 along the Lower Mekong – on March 15. Laos agreed early this month to suspend construction.

Viraponh Viravong and CNR could not be reached yesterday.

Monday, 21 May 2012 by Shane Worrell
Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052156277/National-news/xayaburi-study-questioned.html

ข้อเท็จจริง เขื่อนไซยะบุรี : ใครคือเจ้าของลำน้ำโขง ?

รพีพัฒน์ อิงคสิทธิ์
มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์

เป็นข่าวครึกโครมไม่นานมานี้เมื่อมีกลุ่มผู้ประท้วงการสร้างเขื่อนไซยะ บุรี ที่รวมตัวหน้าอาคาร ช.การช่าง เพื่อยื่นหนังสือให้หยุดยั้งโครงการดังกล่าว เขื่อนไซยะบุรี ฟังดูอย่างไรก็ไม่น่าจะเป็นเขื่อนในประเทศไทย หลายคนอาจสงสัยว่า แล้วมันเกี่ยวอะไรกับเรา ?
เพราะประเทศไทยเองก็ยังคงมีเรื่องเขื่อน ค้างคา ไม่ว่าจะเป็นแก่งเสือเต้น หรือเขื่อนแม่วงก์ อยู่แล้ว แล้วเราจะไป ‘ชักศึกเข้าบ้าน’ หาเรื่องเดือดร้อนเพิ่มทำไม ซึ่งผู้เขียนจะขอเป็นผู้ชี้แจงถึงข้อเท็จจริง ‘เบื้องหลัง’ โครงการขนาดใหญ่อย่างเขื่อนไซยะบุรีในบทความนี้

เขื่อนไซยะบุรี..ใคร ? ได้ประโยชน์

โครงการเขื่อนบนแม่น้ำโขง จาก stimson.org

เขื่อนไซยะบุรีเป็นเขื่อนที่มีความจุ 225 ล้านลบ.ม. โดยจะก่อสร้างในแขวงไซยะบุรี ประเทศลาว และอำเภอที่โดนผลกระทบเป็นอำเภอแรกของประเทศไทยคือ อ.เชียงคาน จ.เลย ซึ่งเขื่อนไซยะบุรีถือเป็นเขื่อนแรกในโครงการสร้างเขื่อนพลังงานไฟฟ้าเหนือ แม่น้ำโขงจำนวน 12 เขื่อน
แต่เนื่องจากผลกระทบทางระบบนิเวศและสิ่งแวดล้อมนั้นยังไม่ชัดเจน จึงทำให้คณะกรรมาธิการแม่น้ำโขง ซึ่งประกอบด้วย 4 ประเทศสมาชิก คือ ไทย ลาว กัมพูชา และเวียดนาม มีมติเลื่อนการสร้างเขื่อนไซยะบุรีออกไปก่อน โดยให้บริษัทจากประเทศญี่ปุ่นเข้ามาศึกษาผลกระทบให้ชัดเจน โดยมีกรอบระยะเวลา 10 ปี
เรื่องราวน่าจะจบด้วยดีเพียงเท่านี้ ซึ่งตามข้อตกลง โครงการควรถูกเลื่อนออกไปเพื่อศึกษาผลกระทบ แต่ไม่นานมานี้ บริษัท ช.การช่าง (ลาว) จำกัด ซึ่งเป็นบริษัทย่อยของ บริษัท ช.การช่าง จำกัด (มหาชน) กลับไปเซ็นต์สัญญา มูลค่าสัญญาประมาณ 51,824.64 ล้านบาทกับ บริษัทไซยะบุรีพาวเวอร์ (ลาว) เมื่อวันที่ 17 เม.ย.55 ที่ผ่านมา และเดินหน้าก่อสร้างเขื่อนโดยไม่ใส่ใจมติที่ประชุมคณะกรรมาธิการแม่น้ำโขง (Mekong River Commission: MRC)
โดยผู้ให้สินเชื่อการก่อสร้างดังกล่าวก็คือธนาคารกรุงไทย (KTB) ธนาคารกสิกรไทย (KBANK) ธนาคารไทยพาณิชย์ (SCB) และ ธนาคารกรุงเทพ (BBL) ซึ่งกิจการเหล่านี้ต่างซื้อขายอยู่ในตลาดหลักทรัพย์แห่งประเทศไทยทั้งสิ้น ยิ่งไปกว่านั้น กระแสไฟฟ้าจำนวน 1,260 MW ที่ผลิตได้จากเขื่อนไซยะบุรี การไฟฟ้าฝ่ายผลิตแห่งประเทศไทยก็ได้ทำการเซ็นต์สัญญาซื้อพลังงานราว 95% ที่ผลิตได้จากเขื่อนดังกล่าวไปเรียยบร้อยแล้ว

ผู้เขียนจึงไม่แปลกใจเลยที่เครือข่ายภาคประชาชน 8 จังหวัดลุ่มน้ำโขง จะออกมาประท้วงและแสดงความไม่พอใจ เนื่องจากประเทศไทยเองก็เป็นผู้มีส่วนได้เสียระดับยักษ์กับเขื่อนไซยะบุรี และแน่นอนว่า ผู้มีส่วนได้เสียเหล่านั้นไม่ได้หมายถึงภาคประชาชน แต่เป็นภาคธุรกิจแทบทั้งหมด
ในขณะที่ทางประเทศลาว ก็ออกมากล่าวว่า คณะกรรมาธิการแม่น้ำโขงหรือ MRC นั้นมีหน้าที่เพียง ‘ให้ข้อมูล’ ในการสร้างเขื่อน แต่การตัดสินใจทั้งหมดนั้น อยู่ที่ประเทศลาวเอง ทั้งๆที่ได้มีการตกลงร่วมกันในความตกลงว่าด้วยการร่วมมือเพื่อการพัฒนาลุ่ม แม่น้ำโขงแบบยั่งยืน
ความตกลงดังกล่าวกำหนดให้มีระเบียบปฏิบัติเรื่องการแจ้ง การปรึกษาหารือล่วงหน้าและข้อตกลง (Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement: PNPCA) โดยประเทศสมาชิกจะต้องแจ้งต่อคณะกรรมาธิการแม่น้ำโขง ในกรณีที่ประเทศสมาชิกมีโครงการพัฒนาสิ่งก่อสร้างขนาดใหญ่ใดๆ บนแม่น้ำโขงสายหลักหรือแม่น้ำสาขา
การกระทำดังกล่าวทั้งจากประเทศลาว และนักธุรกิจในไทย ย่อมสร้างคำถามให้กับหลายคนว่า ‘ใครคือเจ้าของลำน้ำโขง’

ผลกระทบจากเขื่อนไซยะบุรี ที่ไม่ได้จบแค่ประเทศเดียว

แน่นอนว่าเขื่อนไซยะบุรี ย่อมส่งผลกระทบทั้งในเชิงระบบนิเวศและวัฒนธรรม และหากสังเกตจากที่ตั้งของเขื่อนจะพบว่า ผลกระทบจะกินลำน้ำโขงยาวเรื่อยไปถึงประเทศกัมพูชา ซึ่งจะได้รับผลกระทบมากที่สุด จึงไม่น่าแปลกใจที่ทางคณะกรรมาธิการแม่น้ำโขงมีมติให้ศึกษาข้อมูลเพิ่มเติม
ผู้เขียนได้สืบค้นข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับผลกระทบที่อาจเกิดจากเขื่อนไซยะบุรี และสรุปได้คร่าวๆดังนี้

• การปิดกั้นลำน้ำของเขื่อนไซยะบุรี อาจทำให้พันธุ์ปลาจำนวน 43 สายพันธุ์เสี่ยงต่อการสูญพันธุ์ และยังเป็นเครื่องกีดขวางการอพยพตามธรรมชาติของปลาอีกอย่างน้อย 23 สายพันธุ์

• รายงานคณะกรรมการแม่น้ำโขงแห่งชาติกัมพูชา และ World Fish Center ปี 2550 เปิดเผยว่ามีปลาเพียง 9 สายพันธุ์ในแม่น้ำโขงที่สามารถขยายพันธุ์ได้ในอ่างเก็บน้ำ และมีข้อบ่งชี้ว่าการทำประมงในอ่างเก็บน้ำไม่สามารถทดแทนการทำประมงตาม ธรรมชาติได้

• เขื่อนไซยะบุรีมีความสูงถึง 48 เมตร แต่มีผู้เสนอให้ใช้แนวทางลดผลกระทบเรียกว่า ‘ทางปลาผ่าน’ ซึ่งหมายความว่าปลาจะต้องว่ายน้ำอพยพผ่านทางสันเขื่อนซึ่งมีความสูงเท่าตึก 15 ชั้น

• เขื่อนจะทำให้น้ำท่วมเหนือสันเขื่อน 90 กิโลเมตร ส่งผลให้ประชาชนราว 2,000 คนต้องอพยพ และอีกว่า 200,000 คนที่จะได้รับผลกระทบต่อการดำเนินวิถีชีวิต

• เขื่อนจะปล่อยกระแสน้ำเพื่อผลิตกระแสไฟฟ้าในอัตรา 5,000 ลบ.ม.ต่อวินาที ในขณะที่อัตราการไหลเฉลี่ยของแม่น้ำโขงในหน้าแล้งคือ 1,200 ลบ.ม. ต่อวินาที ซึ่งจะทำให้ระดับน้ำของลำน้ำโขงตอนล่างของเขื่อนเปลี่ยนแปลงราว 3 – 5 เมตรใน 1 วัน

• ประชาชนหลายสิบล้านคนที่ใช้ชีวิตโดยพึ่งพิงลำน้ำโขงอาจต้องเปลี่ยนวิถี ชีวิต และอาจทำให้ผลผลิตทางประมงจากลำน้ำโขงตอนล่างลดลงกว่า 10,000 ตันต่อปี

ที่มา: www.siamintelligence.com/who-is-the-owner-of-saiyaburi-dam/

Cambodia Lodges Dam Protest with Laos

The Xayaburi hydropower project on the Mekong River stirs up controversy among Laos's neighbors.

AFP

Activists protest the construction of the Xayaburi Dam in front of the Lao Embassy in Bangkok, April 18, 2011.

Cambodia has called for an immediate halt to the construction of the Xayaburi dam in an official protest note to Laos, officials said in a statement released Tuesday, as opposition to the hydropower project gained momentum in Thailand.

Lim Kean Hor, Cambodia’s water resources minister and its representative to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental body of four countries that share the river, demanded in a letter to his Lao counterpart Noulinh Sinbandhit that construction on the dam be suspended pending an environmental impact assessment.

“Cambodia’s position is that Laos should halt the dam construction while the environmental impact study is being carried out,” the Cambodian minister said in the April 24 statement, according to Cambodian online newspaper CEN.

He urged Laos to stick to commitments made at an MRC summit  in December, when member countries agreed in principle that further studies were needed on the impact of the dam before it could be built.
The letter comes weeks after Sin Niny, vice-chairman of Cambodia’s Mekong Committee, threatened that Cambodia could file a complaint against Laos in an international court if it allowed the dam —which would be the first mainstream dam on the Lower Mekong—to be built without regional consensus. 

Since the December agreement to suspend construction, the Thai company Ch. Karnchang announced it has signed contracts for the construction of the dam beginning March 15.

Through the MRC, established in 1995, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam have agreed to a protocol for consulting with and notifying each other about use of Mekong resources, but the organization has no binding jurisdiction.

Thai protests
Meanwhile in Thailand, which will buy nearly all the power generated by the hydro-electric project, opposition to the dam has escalated, with representatives from the country’s riparian provinces holding a demonstration outside a MRC conference in Phuket on Tuesday.

About 30 protesters representing members of riparian communities in Thailand’s eight provinces along the Mekong gathered outside the MRC’s Mekong2Rio conference, an international gathering of on transboundary water resources management.

The group’s protest followed larger demonstrations last week outside the Bangkok headquarters of Ch. Karnchang, which will be building the dam, and Thai banks providing loans to finance the project. 
The protesters are concerned that the dam, which would block fish migration on Southeast Asia’s main waterway, could not only impact the lives of millions in the region who rely on the river for their food and their livelihoods, but also pave the way for other hydropower projects on the river.

At least 11 other dams have been proposed on the mainstream Lower Mekong, in addition to five already built on the upper part of the river in China.

The protesters were allowed a brief meeting with the MRC’s chief executive officer Hans Guttman, who told them only preliminary construction had begun around the Xayaburi site and that the commission would consider the concerns of local people, according to Thailand’s The Nation newspaper.

Power study
The day before the protests, representatives from more than 130 civil society groups issued a statement backing a report that proposes an alternative power plan for Thailand that excludes the Xayaburi dam.

The report, produced by Thai energy experts Chuenchom Sangasri Greacen and Chris Greacen, was presented to the country’s Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday and recommends Thailand seek sources of energy with environmental impact less damaging than that of the Xayaburi dam. 

The report, “Power Development Plan (PDP) 2012 and a Framework for Improving Accountability and Performance of Power Sector Planning,” criticizes the country’s plan for investing in energy infrastructure and recommends ways where energy use could be reduced.

“If we can invest in the know-how to manage energy consumption, in sustainable energy, and in production efficiency, not only will the price of electricity be lower,  but we can also avoid … importing energy from high-impact dams such as Xayaburi,” Chuenchom Sangasri Greacen told RFA.

She said that Thailand’s energy planning process is flawed and that the country should invest in efficiency measures and alternative energy instead.

“We have a better alternative,” she said.  “According to energy conservation policy, we should be invest more in the area of producing better electrical devices, or the standard of buildings instead of building new power plant, or building hydroelectric dams that create impacts to environment.”

Reported by RFA’s Khmer and Lao services. Translations by Samean Yun and Somnet Inthapannha. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.


Source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/xayaburi-05012012190456.html