In a valley northeast of Vientiane, about 1,000 people eke out a living. They have no electricity in the region, which centres on the village of Long Tieng, once known as the main CIA base when the country was at war. This is an important point. Right now, powerful government officials in Vientiane and important bureaucrats and businessmen in Thailand and foreign countries are making the final plans on how the area will make and sell electricity. The ever-increasing power plans are an important part of Lao economic planning. The question is whether the decisions are being made in the interest of the people of Laos. Thailand has long been a customer of the Laos electricity company, under many governments and two contrasting political decisions. Capitalist or communist, the Lao government always has kept the power flowing to Thai electricity lines. During times when political relations hit low points _ even during the ill-considered border wars of 20 years ago _ the lights never went out. Lao-provided electricity has long been a necessity to the Thai power grid.
Until a generation ago, Thai electricity purchases were a win-win situation. Laos, blessed with many rivers for hydro-electric projects, produced more power than the country could consume. Thailand bought the excess. But the growth of Thailand's economy put heavy pressure on the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to come up with a lot of electricity, quickly. Egat turned to Laos. That country, behind Thailand in economic development, was convinced to increase the dams to step up the electricity output. In Thailand, this is huge business. Just for example, Thailand purchases 5.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity from the massive Nam Theun 2 dam project alone, and the contract covers 25 years.
Bargaining over electricity prices sometimes gets fierce, but in general Laos has no complaints about the price or payment terms. However, the multiplication of dam projects in Laos has raised severe questions. Since the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and foreign government loans often pay for the dams, the questions are serious. Many believe that the Lao government is not taking any notice of the problems of local people affected by the dams. Tens of thousands have been flooded out, along with their culture.
More importantly, there are serious and credible charges that the Lao government has used the dam projects for more sinister purposes. Its mistreatment of Hmong people is well documented. The arrest in America last week of anti-communist Hmong icon Vang Pao has renewed the charges that the Vientiane administration continues to punish the Hmong for the wartime activities.
One thing that is clear is that the rural people of Laos, especially the hilltribes, receive little or no benefit from the government's internationally backed power projects.
Last week, the World Bank handed $18.5 million to Cambodia and $15 million to Laos to build a power transmission line to carry electricity to Cambodia. The power is to come from the Nam Theun hydro-electric project. This is one of the world's most controversial dams, a $1.5-billion programme that is to produce 1,070 megawatts of power, and has generated even more political heat. Environmentalists and human rights activists have apparently lost their battle to save virgin forests and 6,200 villagers are to be flooded out.
Meanwhile, Egat, still unable to meet the country's electricity needs domestically, has moved ahead with a programme to purchase power from China. There is the usual fighting over prices, but China is willing to go ahead with the sale within a decade, according to Beijing reports. One or two satang per kilowatt-hour is supposed to go to residents in the area of the power plants, but so far there has been no announcement on just how this paltry fund will be applied.
Doing business with dictators requires special care. In such a situation, Egat and Thai authorities must take extra care to assure that the power they are purchasing is clean for the environment, and the affected people.
