displace and relocate 10,000 inhabitants of 26 villages

It will be built near the former capital Luang Prabang, a UNESCO heritage site. It is an area with seismic risk. The successive dams for the production of energy make the course of the Mekong completely artificial. It benefits foreign energy buyers more than the local population.

Vientiane () – The construction of a new dam will force the eviction of 10,000 inhabitants of 26 villages, who will be relocated to new settlements in other areas, provided with better health and education services, but with greater difficulties in terms of employment and cohesion. Social.

The operation is also significant on a symbolic level, because the plant will be built near Luang Prabang, the former capital that is a UNESCO world heritage site. Those responsible for the new lock, the largest in the country with 1,460 megawatts of electricity production capacity, are the Vietnamese PetroVietnam Power and the Thai CK Power.

But the complex will be located in a seismic zone. If a strong earthquake occurs when it is completed and operational in 2027, it could endanger the city that symbolizes the religious and historical identity of Laos, along with its 60,000 inhabitants.

More immediate attention requires the fact that the dam represents a new threat to the Mekong, in whose course and that of its tributaries in Laotian territory there are already about eighty dams for energy production.

The structure will be located a few tens of kilometers downstream from an already planned plant in Pak Baeng, and upstream from the Xayaburi plant, which was completed in 2019 and is currently the largest in operation. When the project is finished, in an important part of its upper course the river will be reduced to a series of immense communicating vessels that will make its course completely artificial. It will serve to meet the energy needs of neighboring countries, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and China, but also of others that are much further away, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Despite the potential for exploitation of its waters and other natural resources, the “battery of Asia”, a country of 236,800 square kilometers inhabited by 7.3 million people, is far from enjoying general prosperity.

Although the implementation of energy projects brings some benefits to the local population thanks to the influx of personnel and initiatives related to construction, and also contributes to reducing carbon emissions, in general Laos pays an extremely high cost for such constructions.

After decades of exploitation, the country is not only poorer and more backward than neighboring states, but also the most controlled by foreign interests, through pressure, corruption and a foreign debt that has reached 88% of GDP. In order to continue paying for it, the government even sold control of its electricity network for $600 million to a Chinese company in 2020.