U.S. Supports Delay of Laos Dam Project due to Environmental Impacts

The United States on April 26 welcomed a delay in construction of Laos’s Xayaburi dam project and hoped that ASEAN nations could work out an environmentally sound solution, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
“The U.S. government welcomes the recognition by riparian states of the need to consider fully the potential economic, environmental and social impacts of $3.5-billion hydropower dam development,” the statement said.
“We also encourage the countries to continue working together to realize their shared vision of an economically prosperous, socially just and environmentally sound Mekong River basin,” it attributed.
U.S. Senator Jim Webb, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia, has pressed for an active U.S. role against construction of the dam which he argued would have “devastating” consequences for the region.
Earlier, the four-country committee of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam decided to hold a ministerial level meeting in Nov to further discuss the issue after failing to reach an agreement on the proposed dam which environmentalists warned it could have a disastrous impact on downstream countries, including disrupting fish migrations in the lower Mekong River and affecting livelihoods of millions of people.
If built, it will likely make alluvial in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region to fall from 26 million tons to seven million tons a year, reduce fish species and affect biodiversity of the Mekong River.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and 263 international non-governmental organizations have also joined the Vietnamese call for a 10-year moratorium and full impact assessments.
The Xayaburi project, which is one of 11 dams proposed to be built on the lower Mekong River, is expected to have 810 meters in length and 32 meters in height and will be capable of generating 1260 megawatts of electricity, mainly for export to Thailand. (vietnamnet.vn April 29, Vnexpress.net April 28)