Save the Mekong coalition urges cancellation of Lao dam project

Dec 6, 2011
DPA

Bangkok - Opponents of the 3.8-billion-dollar Xayaburi dam on Tuesday urged the Mekong River Commission to cancel the project at their meeting this week, to ensure healthy fisheries for the region and avoid cross-border conflict.

Save the Mekong, a coalition of 39 civil society groups and non-government organizations, sent a letter to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Council on the eve of their three-day meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, at which the fate of the dam is to be decided.

The letter coincided with an advertisement campaign launched by the group in newspapers in Thailand and Cambodia that called on the prime ministers of those countries and of Laos and Vietnam to oppose the controversial hydropower project.

'Our message is simple: Protecting the Mekong River is vital to ensuring healthy fisheries, abundant agriculture, and supporting the livelihoods and food security of millions of people in the region,' said Chhith Sam Ath, a spokesman for the non-profit Forum on Cambodia.

'As the first hydropower dam proposed for the Mekong River's mainstream, the dam's devastating impacts to river's ecosystem, fisheries, and river-based livelihoods is likely to lead to serious cross-border conflict,' he said.

The MRC Council, with government representatives from the four riparian countries of the Mekong River, is to decide on Thursday whether to approve the dam project or seek further delays.

At a meeting in November 2010 the council called on Laos to provide a more detailed study of the environmental impact of the dam.

The Lao government has expressed confidence that they have now fulfilled all the council's requirements and intend to proceed with the project.

Although the council can oppose projects on the Mekong, it is not empowered to prohibit Laos from proceeding.

'Laos will make sure that this dam will not impact countries in the lower Mekong River Basin,' Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Viraphon Viravong said Monday in an interview with the Vientiane Times.

'We will continue to convince MRC members before going ahead with construction of the dam,' Viraphon said, adding that Laos would do its best to satisfy all member countries with regard to the project.

Numerous environmental impact studies on the Xayaburi dam have raised concerns about the project's impact on fish migrations in the Mekong River, South-East Asia's longest waterway.