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| Southeast Asia |
| Future Problems As Communist Laos Wants To Build Mekong Dam |
| 2011-04-21 |
| Plans for the first dam across the lower Mekong River are putting Laos on a collision course with its neighbors and environmentalists who fear livelihoods, fish species and farmland could be destroyed, potentially sparking a food crisis. The impoverished, Communist nation seems determined to defy international pressure and forge ahead with construction of the $3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam, a mostly Thai-led project that experts say could cause untold environmental damage. The four countries that share the lower stretches of the 4,900 km (3,044 mile) Mekong -- Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia -- failed at a meeting Tuesday to reach an agreement on construction of the 1.285-megawatt (MW) dam, the first of 11 planned in the lower Mekong that are expected to generate 8 percent of Southeast Asia's power by 2025. According to a study by the Mekong River Commission, an inter-government agency, the proposed 11 dams would turn 55 percent of the river into reservoirs, resulting in estimated agriculture losses of more than $500 million a year and cutting the average protein intake of Thai and Lao people by 30 percent. China has built four dams on the upper river, closer to its source, but they are equally controversial. Activists say they were responsible for a drought last year that sent lower Mekong water levels to their lowest in half a century. Laos has not responded to the warnings or to scientists' recommendations. Viraphonh Viravong, head of the Lao delegation, said after Tuesday's meeting that it would "consider" accommodating its neighbors concerns, but an extension of the consultation process was no longer practical. The Lao government has hailed Xayaburi as a model for clean, green energy that will stimulate its tiny $6 billion economy and improve the lives of its 5.9 million people, over a quarter of whom live below the poverty line, many without electricity. Its energy-hungry neighbor, Thailand, will buy about 95 percent of the power generated by the dam and three Thai firms have a stake in the project, according to an announcement on Thailand's stock exchange last month. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 Following HOT LINE calls to China, comments from die Hildebeast, threats from Obama in ....7,6,5,4 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-04-21 21:28 |