Posted on 30 March 2014
| Bangkok, Thailand – Leading non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) today issued a joint
declaration in opposition to on-going construction
of the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River
mainstem, and called on the Thai government
to cancel the Power Purchase Agreement relating
to the controversial hydropower project.
The declaration, signed
by 40 international and national NGOs and
civil society groups, including International
Rivers and WWF, comes ahead of this week’s
Mekong River Commission (MRC) Summit, attended
by heads of government from the four Lower
Mekong countries. The summit will address
challenges facing the Mekong River Basin
and regional cooperation.
As the first dam to
enter the MRC’s consultation process, the
Xayaburi project is a crucial test case
for 10 other dams proposed for the Lower
Mekong mainstem. The MRC process requires
countries to jointly review projects proposed
for the Mekong mainstem with an aim to reach
consensus on whether they proceed or not.
“Cambodia and Viet Nam
have never approved of the Xayaburi dam.
Nevertheless, Laos is marching ahead with
construction without agreement among its
neighbours,” said Kraisak Choonhavan, leading
environmental activist and former Chairman
of Thailand’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
“The Xayaburi project severely weakens the
legitimacy of the MRC and threatens the
health and productivity of the Mekong River
and Delta, which could leave millions facing
food insecurity. The Mekong Summit is the
critical moment for Cambodia and Viet Nam
to take a strong stance and make their concerns
heard loud and clear before it’s too late.”
According to Pöyry,
the Finnish consulting firm advising Laos
on the dam engineering, a coffer dam - used
to divert the river’s flow away from the
in-river construction site - will be built
in the first quarter of 2015. This will
be the first direct intervention in the
river bed during the dry season, and will
mark the start of major irreversible environmental
impacts.
Thailand main consumer of energy produced
by Xayaburi dam
Thailand is slated to
be the prime consumer of the electricity
produced by the $US3.8 billion Xayaburi
dam, and a syndicate of six Thai banks is
financing the project, despite the acute
environmental and social costs, and the
uncertainties surrounding the financial
return of the project.
“It’s not too late to
stop this disastrous dam before irreversible
harm occurs early next year,” said Dr. Saranarat
Oy Kanjanavanit, Secretary-General of Thailand's
Green World Foundation. “Thailand must act
responsibly and cancel its premature power
purchase agreement until there is regional
consensus on mainstem Mekong dams. And if
the Thai banks reconsider their risk assessments,
and value their international reputation
and financial returns, they’d do well to
pull out of this project.”
One of the world's most damaging dams
In the joint declaration,
the organizations recognise the Xayaburi
project as one of the potentially most damaging
dams currently under construction anywhere
in the world, constituting the greatest
transboundary threat to date to food security,
sustainable development and regional cooperation
in the Lower Mekong, and that the project’s
Environmental Impact Assessment does not
meet any internationally-accepted standards.
Expert reviews of Xayaburi
dam have identified serious gaps in data
and weaknesses with the proposed fish passes
for the mega dam, and confirmed the Xayaburi
project will block part of the sediment
flow, destabilising the river’s ecosystem
upon which farmers, fishers and many other
economic sectors depend.
“Without the results
of the on-going environmental studies, dam
development on the lower Mekong mainstream
is now largely guesswork,” said Ame Trandem,
Southeast Asia Programme Director for International
Rivers. “But Laos expects its neighbours
to take a dangerous leap of faith and trust
that the risks associated with this project
will somehow be resolved while construction
moves ahead. This dubious approach not only
pre-empts the conclusions of the studies,
but clearly contravenes international best
practice.”
The Lower Mekong, one
of the world’s last large untamed stretches
of river, supports nearly 60 million people
with its rich fisheries. In order for migratory
fish to move up and down the river they
would need swim through the dam via the
proposed fish passages.
No proven solutions for mitigating Xayaburi
dam’s impacts
“There are no internationally
accepted, technologically proven solutions
for mitigating the Xayaburi dam’s impacts
on fish migrations and sediment flows,”
said Marc Goichot, Sustainable Hydropower
Lead with WWF-Greater Mekong. “Resting the
future of the Mekong on flawed analysis
could have dire consequences for the livelihoods
of millions of people living in the Mekong
Basin.”
The NGO coalition supports
Viet Nam’s official response to the MRC’s
consultation process on 15 April, 2011 in
which Viet Nam strongly requested “that
the decision on the Xayaburi hydropower
project as well as all other planned hydropower
projects on the Mekong mainstem be deferred
for at least 10 years”, a recommendation
previously stated by the MRC’s 2010 Environmental
Assessment for proposed mainstem dams.
