Fifty hectares of rice field owned by 49 families of Chim Village of Luang Prabang province will be affected by flooding once construction is complete on the Nam Ngum 5 Hydropower Project in 2011.
This was announced at a national workshop on the environmental and social impact assessment, environmental management plan and social action plan of the Nam Ngum 5 Hydropower Project, in Thalat, Vientiane province on November 21.
More than 80 participants, from environmental and government organisations, project representatives, local authorities and representatives from villages to be affected in Xieng Khuang and Luang Prabang provinces, attended the workshop.
“We've been looking into the environmental and social impacts around the area of the hydropower project since 2005, and we've found that Chim village in Phoukhoun district will be the only village to be affected by flooding during the rainy season as a result of the dam being built,” said the head of the Environmental and Social Education team of Dongxai company, Professor Dr Sengdeuane Vayakone.
However, he also confirmed that these villagers would still be able to plant and harvest dry season crops without any trouble.
He said the 120 MW-capacity dam would be located in Phoukhoun district of Luang Prabang province, while a powerhouse would be built in Phoukhoud district of Xieng Khuang province; the dam would receive water from the Ting, Soud and Phat rivers.
He maintained that it would not be necessary to relocate any villagers for the project, but there would need to be more basic infrastructure in the area, such as bridges and roads to allow more people to move between villages.
“The project will greatly benefit locals by creating jobs, supplying water for farming and as a tourism site, not to mention the increased access to electricity in the northern provinces ,” he said.
“All projects involving the development and construction of hydropower dams will have problems involving the impacts of catchment areas, fisheries, village resettlements, and the change in living conditions, among others,” said the Director General of the Environment Department of the Water Resources and Environment Administration, Dr Viengsavanh Douang-savanh.
However, she said, the government had been paying attention to implementing laws and regulations to ensure that the environment and people's livelihoods were not adversely affected, and that there were sustainable solutions to these problems, such as adequate resettlement and compensation policies, and extensive studies to evaluate environmental and social impacts.
She said environmental impact evaluations were necessary to ensure projects would lead to sustainable development and would not destroy the environment.
“As you know, hydropower development is a priority for creating national revenue. Laos has the potential, using its natural and water resources to generate as much as 23,000 MW of electricity,” she said.
The coordi nator of the hydropower construction project and representative of Electricite du Laos, Mr Bounphong Khetdasack, confirmed that the Chinese company Sinhohydro would be carrying out constructions on the dam, at a cost of US$200 million; the company has been granted a 25-year concession over the area, and the Lao government will hold a 15 percent share.
The project is now building a road to access the dam site, and construction on the dam will begin next year, with the aim of being finished by 2011, he said.
“After the construction is complete, more people in the northern provinces will have access to electricity. However, there still won't be enough power to meet local demands because of the increasing development of industrial factories,” he said.
“We have already prepared to give compensation to impacted areas, worth around US$160,000 from our first evaluations, but we will check again to evaluate the final amount needed for compensation,” said the Managing Assistant of the Nam Ngum 5 Hydropower Project, Ms Chanmalay Boupphavong.
By Panyasith Thammavongsa (Latest Update November 23, 2007)
That is the only option that would help Laos get out from the "name of poor country". What Lao government needs to do is to make sure that projects would lead to sustainable development and would not destroy the environment or would less affect to the environment.
Compensation is also crucial. If people see the compensation is reasonable and understand the need of building the hydropower dam, no doubt they will be satistified and respect Lao government. One should understand the philosophy that nobody would want to be the loser, although sometimes we cannot avoid that situation. Yes, I do understand that our government goal is to make people happy, but if the people cannot see things reasonable your good wills would be useless.
Human right body is needed in Laos as the ASEAN charter stated
In a way, if the voices of people living near by the projects can be heard would be better for our government. That would make sure that everything goes on right track. Let them speak freely whether they are happy with the solutions which are solved by local authorities, government authorities in charged with that projects and investors. This would only makes things more transparent.
Lessons have shown that some our government authorities were lazy to work hard and just assumed everything would have been fine, but the reality was not that delicious for local people. Our government authorities sometimes love to make "flower" reports, just as for job done and forget about trouble of affected people. This we saw clearly in the past when we forced people to do the "Sahakon". Farmers really did not want to do but had to do as they were forced by local authorities who did not know anything about "Sahakon", just got jobs done. As a result, People living in the provinces where the local authorities worked well, are poorer than people who did not do "Sahakon". That was why "Sahakon" was failed in Laos. Our authorities did not like to listen to our people as they rushed for getting job done. That’s the issue. I don't know now thing have changed or not.
Sometimes, the investors also know the weakness of our authorities both local and from central. When the investors don't want to pay more money for compensation, then they can resort to pay money to these authority bodies, who never refuse to accept. The flower reports would be made, no doubt. Everything is fine for the projects, but affected people can chose only to suffer as they have no right to object. On top of that, some authority bodies after receiving money from the investors probably love to tell people like "this is a government policy, like it or not you have to respect and do". If like this our ordinary people would definitely hate Lao government, although our government always has a good will to all Lao people.
Let them speak out is only way to do for Lao government. Listening to people is the way to know what the problem is and how to solve it rather than sitting in the office and writing "flower" reports, which would only lead to having more problems. If we can make our people happy, thing would go really well, no doubt.
No wonder, in other countries there are human right bodies that help ordinary people and government as well. Government can know the real situation and stop corruption. People are happy with the solution and respect and definitely love government.
Here of course, I talk in terms of if these human right bodies are patriotic, not serving foreign countries policy. This is a real challenge for Laos. Nevertheless, I hope there would be only the good human right bodies. Many people want to help our government to make better life for Lao people and stop corruption of the bad authorities.
thank you TSP, you`ve said what many of us would like to express, laos lost a lot of time by cooperatives settlement that lead people to starvation...the local responsible officials were to be blamed for their flowerish reports... les fils de P ! ils ont mene ces pauvres gens a la pauvrete qu`ils n`ont jamais vu de leur vie !
Yes, if our country has its own human right body, our country's reputation would only improve. No one would be able blame us that we don't respect right of our people. These bodies will defend government policy. They can help our government to explain all issues to other nations. Western nations get used to listen not only government view, but also non-government views.
Look China as example, its human right bodies really help China to cope with any critics. What is I am impressed about China, their leaders never refuse to follow the Western suggestion, but they can argue or persuade the Westerners to follow them also. Their leaders always say they need cooperation, but confrontation.
