Vietnam, Laos Split Over Mekong Dam
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54697

Critics in Vietnam see red over a 1,260-megawatt hydropower project planned by their smaller, poorer, land-locked neighbour, Laos. They call it an environmental disaster.

Laos, however, wants to be the powerhouse of the region – to sell power to its neighbours and earn enough to help the poor, that is a third of its population of 5.8 million.

The dam in an idyllic hill setting in the north Laos province of Xayaburi (or Sayaboury), will be built by a Thai developer. Thailand is expected to buy 95 percent of its power to fuel its booming economy.

Environmentalists say the Xayaburi dam and 10 more such constructions planned on the Mekong’s mainstream, nine in Laos, make a Faustian bargain.

The dam will "reduce fresh water and silt downstream in Vietnam and devastate fishing among others," stated ‘Tuoi Tre’, the country’s largest circulating paper, published by the Communist Youth Organisation from Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon) in the south.

The potential threat of the 3.5 billion dollar dam in the Mekong delta, Vietnam’s "biggest rice producing and fish farming area", has been highlighted by The Saigon Times too.

Vietnam’s government officials have raised their voice against the 32-metre- tall, 820-metre-wide dam. "If built, Laos’ Xayaburi dam will greatly affect Vietnam’s agriculture production and aquaculture," deputy minister of natural resources and environment Nguyen Thai Lai reportedly said in a meeting of the country’s Mekong River experts.

Such criticism goes against the spirit of a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that binds them in a ‘special relationship’. The treaty followed the communist triumph against the U.S. in the Vietnam War.

I'm new in here, Hope to enjoy this forum.

As someone who has lived for many years downstream from a major dam (Nam Ngum Dam) in Laos, I'd like to point out that critics of dam construction like to highlight only the disadvantages and omit the benefits to those downstream of the dams, i.e. control of disastrous flooding and the cleaner water due to much of the river's silt being trapped in the dam reservoir.

I'm of the opinion that the many dams being built in Laos right now offer far more benefits than disadvantages.

Lucina Cuffari wrote on 4^th Mar, 2011 at 12:44am:


Yes, welcome.

Quote:


Agreed. Laos economy is growing. Government is working on removing UXO from Laos with the help from international community. It'll take time even though the fund is short because of global economic slowdown.