New Dam Planned in Same District as 2018 Laos’ Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam Disaster
A new dam is readied to increase in southern Laos, in the district where 2 years ago a significant dam collapse created a flooding that was defined as the nation’s worst in years.
On July 23, 2018, water put over a saddle dam in Attapeu district’s Sanamxay district at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower task adhering to hefty rainfalls, swamping 12 towns and also eliminating at the very least 40 individuals in Attapeu and also bordering Champassak district.
Now the South Sekong A Dam task is in the drawing board and also will certainly start building and construction later on this year in Sanamxay.
“The company brought in some heavy equipment and a technical team has also been there,” an Attapeu main informed RFA’s Lao Service Friday.
“There will be no relocation of the villagers because this dam can be closed and opened. When it has too much water it will release it according to its technical design,” the authorities stated.
He included that the usefulness research and also ecological influence evaluation (EIA) of the 86 megawatt dam were finished in 2015 which the dam will certainly lie in the Maknao town location and also influence an overall of 5 towns: Maknao, Hadxaysung, Namkong, Hadxayyao and alsoMitsumphanh Negotiations on settlement for influenced citizens are presently underway.
Based on the EIA record, the 5 towns consist of concerning 300 family members that will certainly shed greater than 3,000 hectares (greater than 7400 acres) of their land to the task, however they will certainly not be moved.
A citizen that will certainly be influenced by the task informed RFA he was worried.
“The dam will certainly flooding our houses and also towns. Now when it rainfalls, water currently immerses our town. [With the new dam] we will certainly drift away like dead logs,” the citizen stated.
Also on Thursday, a rep of the district stated at a power conference that the programmer of the South Sekong A Dam is doing its ideal to reduce the effect on the neighborhood and also the atmosphere.
The depictive clarified that that the dam can not flooding towns since it is a run-of-river dam, implying it does not keep back any kind of water, rather producing electrical energy by using the river’s all-natural circulation. This is various from conventional dams which hold water back to develop a big tank that floodings land that would certainly or else be completely dry.
The agent additionally stated the dam would certainly not influence the survivors of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoi collapse, since they are presently living in momentary real estate on greater ground.
The South Sekong A Dam is a joint task of the Lao federal government and also InnoGreen Engineering Company, a Vietnamese company.
Laos has actually developed loads of hydropower dams on the Mekong and also its tributaries in its mission to come to be “the battery of Southeast Asia,” exporting the electrical energy they produce to various other nations in the area, and also is preparing to develop ratings a lot more dams in the years in advance.
Though the Lao federal government sees power generation as a method to enhance the nation’s economic climate, the tasks are questionable as a result of their ecological influence, variation of citizens, and also suspicious economic setups.
Reported by RFA’s LaoService Translated by MaxAvary Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Source: https://theunionjournal.com/new-dam-planned-in-same-district-as-xe-pian-xe-namnoi-collapse-in-southern-laos/
