Farmers urge World Bank to drop Lao dam

By Other News Sources on March 14, 2005 • ( Leave a comment )

Radio Free Asia

March 14, 2005

Conservationists have blasted the World Bank for failing to complete a
wildlife assessment of the Nakai plateau watershed, site of the
proposed dam, and for tying conservation funds to the project.

Bangkok: One-hundred environmental activists and villagers have
burned an effigy of World Bank President James Wolfensohn in the Thai
capital, demanding that the bank scrap a controversial hydro-electric
dam project in neighboring Laos.

“We are very concerned that the World
Bank is now giving active support to another large dam project, Nam
Theun 2, which, if built, will have countless negative impacts on both
Laos and Thailand,” a group of Thai farmers from the sites of other
much-criticized Bank- funded dams in Thailand said in a statement. The
Pak Mun Dam and Lam Takhong irrigation scheme, two World Bank projects
in northeast Thailand near Laos, devastated thriving fishing industries
and left thousands of families without support, the farmers said. “We
know from experience . . . that the World Bank will finance projects
and then avoid responsibility for the environmental problems they
create.” Aviva Imhof, a U.S.-based activist from the International
Rivers Network environmentalist group, charged that the project “is
going to produce nothing but hardship for the affected people.”

Wildlife could suffer

After nearly a decade of discussions and project preparation work, the
World Bank this year begun its appraisal process for the so- called Nam
Theun 2 dam. Thai conservationist groups have blasted the bank for
failing to complete a wildlife assessment of the Nakai plateau
watershed, site of the proposed dam, and for tying conservation funds
to the project. The project is a venture between the government of Laos
and the Nam Theun 2 Power Co., which comprises EDFI, the global arm of
French state-owned Electricite de France, which holds a 35 percent
stake. “This project has been extensively studied for its social and
environmental impacts,” said Illangovan Patchamuthu, the World Bank’s
environmental affairs coordinator.

Construction could start soon

He said it includes plans for improving the welfare of those affected.
Construction of the Nam Theun 2 dam is set to begin if the World Bank’s
board of directors approves it next month. The protesters claimed it
will ruin the lives of about 6,000 Laotian villagers who will be
uprooted. The dam would generate a large amount of electricity, 95
percent of which will be exported to Thailand, earning Laos a projected
U.S. $200 million in annual revenue for 25 years.

Decision in May at latest

Vientiane says the income is needed to bring the country out of
poverty. The Bank announced in January it would move to appraise the
project; in which private investors claim to have invested U.S.$40
million already. “At this stage it would take a surprise or something
unexpected to derail it,” Peter Stephens, World Bank chief external
officer for East Asia and the Pacific, told RFA. A decision is widely
expected by May at the latest, although Stephens said the Bank would
take as long as it needed to make the appraisal. The project is
expected to displace around 6,200 indigenous people and affect more
than 100,000 villagers who depend on the Xe Bang Fai River for their
livelihood, according to research by NGOs.