Laos Dam Poses Environmental Dangers to Lower Mekong Basin
May 5, 2017
Plans for the newest hydropower dam on the Mekong River will need dramatically improved environmental safeguards in order to minimize damage to fish and other wildlife in the river basin, researchers say.

Ahead of a regional consultation on the project today in Vientiane, the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission released a draft report on the proposed Pak Beng dam in northern Laos, saying the amount of water that would flow through proposed fish passages are less than a tenth of recommended levels. It also issued a slew of other recommendations.

The passages are needed to help fish—ranging from larval drift to the Mekong giant catfish, the world’s largest freshwater fish—move between the two sides of the massive 912-megawatt dam, says the report set to be presented at the forum.

The dam, “if designed and operated as outlined in the documents submitted, will impact on fish passage, downstream sediment transport, and aquatic habitats,” says an email sent by the commission’s secretariat on Thursday...
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/laos ... in-129139/

International Rivers' Maureen Harris gives an account here on the latest forum of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a regional committee who is supposed to ensure that all countries who will be affected by Mekong dam construction get to have a say, and that social and environmental impact studies are taken into account during construction, mitigating damage as much as possible.
Harris' report indicates that the MRC is having little or no impact on the methods and the extent of Mekong dam construction projects, with China and Laos paying only token lip-service to proposed environmental measures.

Striking a Fair Balance on Mekong Dams
Maureen Harris
Monday, May 1, 2017
With the Pak Beng Prior Consultation, the MRC has touted improved information-sharing and stakeholder engagement, drawing on "lessons learned" from Xayaburi and Don Sahong.

However, despite these changes, it is hard to see how input from the public and concerned citizens of the Mekong in the Pak Beng Prior Consultation will serve any meaningful purpose, including in impact mitigation.

For Pak Beng, the information put forward by the developers for the Prior Consultation process is similarly inadequate to assess environmental and social impacts on the Mekong. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) and supporting documents demonstrate major gaps in baseline data, which is essential in designing mitigation measures targeted to the local context. Much of the data is taken from studies conducted in 2011 and earlier, failing to take account of the projects along the Mekong that are now under construction. That the Prior Consultation process was initiated on the basis of this limited information is in itself questionable.

Further, proposed mitigation measures such as fish passages remain untested in the context of the Mekong River; there is therefore no way of accurately determining their efficacy. Fisheries experts have repeatedly affirmed the risks of employing these measures in the Mekong and stated they are highly unlikely to be effective given the volume and diversity of fish species in the Mekong River.

Independent studies looking at the proposed dams on the Mekong, such as the 2010 MRC-commissioned strategic environmental assessment, warn that the impacts of hydropower projects are cumulative and will be compounded with each new project that is built.

Full article: https://www.internationalrivers.org/res ... post-16478

Cambodians will voice their concern about the effects of the Laotian Pak Beng dam project on the lower Mekong and the Tonle Sap, and the lack of consultation with villagers and NGOs, at a final meeting in Vientiane on Monday.
Photo International Rivers
Villagers Elevate Concerns Over Mekong Dam Construction
June 15, 2017
Ahead of what is expected to be the final public meeting for a massive dam project on the Mekong River on Monday, communities whose livelihoods could be devastated by the construction say they have been inadequately informed and are willing to escalate their opposition, representatives said on Wednesday.

“We have millions of Mekong people, we have millions of Tonle Sap people, and then we have thousands of NGOs,” Tek Vannara, director of NGO Forum, said on the sidelines of a local conference on the dam in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.

Long Sochet, from a fishing community on the Tonle Sap, said the community’s livelihoods could be devastated.
“If all the dams—or especially the Pak Beng dam—have been built, it means our blood will be blocked and our heart will be stopped,” he said. “Our suggestion: No dam.”
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vill ... on-131361/

The last meeting of consultation between the Mekong River countries on the future Pak Beng dam to be built in Laos has concluded with a general consensus, and no protests or demands were registered by the downstream member states where the principle impact will be felt .It has even been decided that the dam construction will proceed without waiting for the results of the latest environmental damage assessment.

Dam’s consultation process concludes
22 June 2017
The consultation process for the controversial proposed Pak Beng dam in Laos concluded on Monday, allowing construction to begin even as local and international civil society groups continued to urge a delay until a forthcoming Mekong River Commission (MRC) environmental assessment is released later this year...
A representative of the MRC secretariat said in an email yesterday that the committee could have extended the consultation process but none was requested by any of its member states.
Site of the proposed Pak Beng dam on the Mekong river, northern Laos. Photo International Rivers.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/d ... -concludes

New data on the potential risks involved in hydroelectric dam construction on the Mekong indicates damage for the Cambodian food economy; the biggest impact will be on Cambodia's fish resources and rice fields.

Cambodia’s fisheries at risk due to hydropower development on Mekong, MRC warns
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon | Publication date 20 December 2017 |

- Hydropower development will likely deal a serious economic blow to Cambodia, with dire outlooks for its fisheries and rice outputs predicted even under best-case scenarios, according to key findings from the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

Researchers and policymakers representing the MRC’s member states convened in Vientiane, Laos, late last week to discuss findings due to be published in January as part of a massive five-year study on the sustainable management of the Mekong River system, including impacts from hydropower development. Commonly known as the Council Study, the report was commissioned by Prime Minister HE as well as the leaders of Laos, Vietnam and Thailand in 2011.

In emailed comments, the MRC said that changes in the Mekong’s flow due to dam construction will introduce “negative effects on riparian ecosystems, sustainability and food security associated with fish production” for Cambodia.

Scenarios modelling full hydropower development predict a reduction in lake and floodplain fisheries production of up to 70 percent across the Mekong basin. What’s more, projected annual GDP losses for the Kingdom are on the scale of $3 billion to $5 billion under the Council Study’s development scenarios for 2020 and 2040.

According to Nao Thuok, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the government is currently operating on projections of a 16 to 30 percent drop in fish biomass, though he declined to comment on the new data...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/c ... -mrc-warns