The Laotian prime minister lobbied Monday for a massive dam in his country, urging Southeast Asian leaders to support the long-delayed project, aimed at alleviating poverty but slammed by critics who say it will destroy forest homes of rural Laotians and elephants, reports the World Bank press review Monday.
Prime Minister Bounnhang Vorachith told leaders in an opening speech to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit that the host – Laos – is a landlocked country with few resources. The government bills the 1,3 billion US dollar plans to build the Nam Theun 2 hydroelectric dam as the centerpiece of efforts to raise living standards of the countrys 5,7 million people, among the worlds poorest.
The project has been held up for years amid criticism from international environmental groups and social groups. They say the reservoir, created by the 48-meter-high dam across the Nam Theun River, would flood a 450-square-kilometer forest area.
Nevertheless, Thailand signed a contract earlier this year to buy 90 percent of the electricity produced by the dam for 25 years, providing 200 million dollar in annual revenues – about half of which would go to Laos communist government.
The World Bank must decide by May 2005 whether it will provide a guarantee protecting international investors – who would provide 70 percent of the funding – against the risk of investing in a communist country notorious for corruption and a weak legal system.
Meanwhile, Malaysian infrastructure group Gamuda has signed an agreement with the Laotian government Sunday to develop a two-billion-ringgit (526 million dollar) hydropower dam project.
Gamuda holds a 50 percent stake in the Nam Theun I hydroelectric power project in the northeastern province of Bolikhamxay, the Laotian government 20 percent and a Thai power company the remaining 30 percent.
The project comprises a dam and an adjacent power station with a capacity of 450 megawatts on the lower end of the Nam Theun river. A transmission line will be built to a delivery point at the border with Thailand, officials said.
The project will be developed concurrently with another dam, the giant Nam Theun II and its 450-square-kilometre reservoir to be built some 250 kilometers southeast of Vientiane on the Nam Theun river.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
