Govt urged to delay Sanakham dam consultation
‘Not enough info’ on downstream impact
Activists are calling on the government to delay the public hearing process on the controversial Sanakham hydropower project in Laos, citing a lack of sufficient information from the project’s developer.
The call comes amid growing concern that the government is rushing into the local consultation process that is required for the project to continue despite its possible impact on provinces which border the Mekong River.
As the project will restrict the flow of the river downstream of the dam, Laos must ensure the Sanakham hydropower project passes the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) as outlined by the Mekong River Commission (MRC).
Part of the process requires its developer to take into account input gathered through public hearings organised in downstream communities that will be affected by the dam. In Thailand, the process is overseen by the Thai National Mekong Committee, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong.
The committee recently instructed the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) to organise public hearings on the matter, the first of which is scheduled to take place on Dec 24 in Loei’s Chiang Khan district.
Pianporn Deetes, campaign director of International Rivers Southeast Asia programme, urged the government to not rush into the process, saying there is insufficient information given by the project’s developers that could be explained to the public, especially on the dam’s transboundary impacts.
Citing a suggestion made by the Office of the Ombudsman, Ms Pianporn said the entire PNPCA process should only begin when the project’s developer has provided all the required information to the local committees tasked with organising the public hearings.
Ms Pianporn urged the Thai committee and the MRC secretariat to press the developers for more information on the project, especially its claim about the dam’s “not significant transboundary impact”.
The secretariat had asked for more information in the past, but the developer never responded to the request, she said, before saying the government’s keenness to proceed with the public hearings surprised many academics and activists.
According to information published on MRC’s website, the Sanakham dam will be built between Xayaburi and Vientiane provinces in Laos. It is the sixth proposed dam on the lower Mekong River and the fifth in the cascade of dams on the river.
The project site lies about 25 kilometres upstream of Sanakham district in Vientiane province, about 155km from Vientiane, and about 84km downstream of the Pak Lay project. The site is also about 2km from the Thai-Lao border in Loei.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2923451/govt-urged-to-delay-dam-consultation
