http://www.nwanews.com/adg/national/162658/

OUDOMSOUK, Laos — There are few places in Southeast Asia more remote than this forested plateau in southern Laos, but over the decades, history seems to have chosen it as a battleground.

During the Vietnam War, it was busy with the movement of Vietnamese troops heading down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and it became one of the most heavily bombed places on earth.

These days it thunders to the dynamite of dam builders and the roar of construction equipment, some of it widening and paving parts of the wartime trail just inside the border with Vietnam.

For more than a decade, long before construction began last year, the project has been the focus of a different kind of battle, which reflects the region’s economic transformation since the war.

It is under vigorous attack from opponents concerned about the destructive effects of dams, both on the balance of nature and on the surrounding population.

Now that it is well under way, critics say a number of important questions about those effects remain unanswered. About 6, 000 people will be displaced on the Nakai Plateau, which will be partly flooded, and the livelihoods of at least 100, 000 more will be affected downstream.

Those numbers are small compared with an estimated 1 million people who have been displaced by the Three Gorges Dam, which has just begun operations in China.

The dam in Laos, called the Nam Theun 2, has become a test case, the first major dam backed by the World Bank after a self-imposed moratorium in the mid-1990 s because of the concern over the environmental and human impact of big dams. Together with its partner in the project, the Asian Development Bank, it is trying hard to prove that it can meet the social and environmental standards set by its critics.

“If they fail, they will have an identity crisis and will have to rethink their development model,” said Jean Foerster, social and environmental director for the Nam Theun 2 Power Co., which is carrying out the project.

When it is completed four years from now, the dam, on a tributary of the Mekong River, will address two pressing needs. It will feed electricity to energyhungry Thailand, its far more developed neighbor to the west, and it will instantly become a major source of cash for Laos, one of the poorest countries in Asia.

For the first 25 years of operation, until the dam is turned over entirely to local control, the government will earn an estimated $ 2 billion.

“The sustainable development of hydropower is one of the few options the country has for long-term growth and for further reducing poverty,” said Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, when the two banks agreed to finance the project last year.

Some critics question even those basic goals, saying Thailand could find other, less disruptive, sources of power and warning that the Laotian government cannot be counted on to use its windfall as promised, for social and economic development.

Supporters say no other dam project has taken such pains to mitigate potential destructive effects. Hundreds of studies have been carried out over the years, examining everything from annual flood patterns to hardy forms of grass for grazing.

“We have recorded all the people having one banana tree,” said Bernard Tribollet, chief executive officer of the Nam Theun 2 Power Co., describing the thoroughness of the research.

Even if the project falls short of its goals, the developers say, it is a better option than the more destructive, full-throttle approach of countries like China, India and Vietnam. They say that if they were not damming the Nam Theun River, one of those countries might well be doing it in their place with little regard for the environment or population.

For a project of that magnitude, though, experimentation, uncertainty and trial-and-error appear to be playing a significant role.

The livelihoods of displaced villagers, the effects on downstream rivers, the protection of wildlife and the role of the government are all, despite the years of study, still works in progress.

“The main issues we are concerned about are the social impact, the environmental impact and then the overall costs and benefits for the people of Laos and the ability of the government of Laos to manage a project as complex and risky as Nam Theun 2,” said Aviva Imhof, campaigns director of the International Rivers Network, a private monitoring group that opposes dams. “Construction is proceeding on deadline,” she said after a two-week visit to the area. “But the social and environmental measures are lagging.”

As bridges, diversion channels and a huge power station take shape, new villages are being built away from the flood zone, and the slash-and-burn farmers who must move into less fertile areas are being taught how to grow cabbage, how to sell it, how to diversify their crops and how to handle the money they earn. It is a huge challenge in social and economic engineering, said Foerster, the social and environmental director. “They have to adapt to new livelihoods in a smaller area,” he said. “It’s not something we can do immediately. It’s too much of a jump from their current lifestyle.” He added: “Relocating a village is not only relocating houses and digging wells. That’s the easy part. Then you have to think about schools, agriculture, forestry, cattle-raising. With this project you can address almost all the parameters of the country.”

Even if those issues are resolved, Imhof said, “You can’t pretend that this project is not in Laos” — a country of just 6 million people that has never encountered an enterprise of that scope.

The builders’ biggest gamble is their partnership with a government that has a reputation for deep corruption and that lacks expertise to handle many of the financial and social aspects of the project.

The developers acknowledge that uncertainty as well.

“The beginning part is we have to trust the government to want to do the right thing,” said WooChong Um, principal operations specialist for the Asian Development Bank. “That’s why we are in there, to help them do what they should do. There’s a capacity issue involved. There’s a huge degree of uncertainty.”

As the project seeks to soften the impacts on the people, the wildlife, the rivers and the surrounding landscape, he said: “It’s really about choices. It’s really about risks.”

If the Nam Theun 2 project succeeds in meeting these challenges, he said, “it will send a huge signal to other countries that this kind of project is workable.”

thanks for posting

sad isn't it? the real losers in this are the people living near the mekong and the whole environment itself. for what? to feed thailand's need for energy and money for a government that probably put it in their pockets.

$2 billion dollars? that's a whole lot of money, but i wonder where this money will go ..

Yep! Really is sad but you know its just that whole natural order thing, strongest win but its sad also because most of the time human dont want to take the time to be compassionate or find other ways that help the whole region. Oh well, if I had a say, I would change things but well have to see how all the people at the top and anyone with say so in the economy respond.

Maybe an estiamted $2billion over 25 years? That's not a very good rate of return on investments, is it?



Power for energy hungry Thailand? Ooops, all this just means Thailand may go to war to take control of the dam should the government of Lao wants to change the tariff later on... reminds me of how Singapore and Malaysia fights over the water supply issue all the time..




This is juz hiliarious, they are counting the impact right down to the number of banana trees??? Are these French environmental expats over-sensitive in their social/environmental studies? Are these Laotian hilltribe folks such delicate flowers?



Whose goals? Laotians or some World Bank technical expert's?




I reckon this should not be a public development project by the World Bank. It's juz gonna turn into a white elephant otherwise. A treaty between the Mekong basin countries should be concluded and construction funding shd come via financing syndicated by the ADB from bankers based in the Mekong basin countries rather than the World Bank and its western financial institutions and lending clubs.

I can't bear to see Lao and its 6 million in habitants being in hock for billions to the World Bank for eons to come.