"Thailand under pressure to act against the Sanakham dam project", 25 September 2020

[...]

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) officially began a six-month prior consultation phase for the China-backed Sanakham dam on 30 July. Thai activists find themselves fighting against the hydropower project which is set to be built in Laos [...].

The 684MW project is to be developed by a subsidiary of Datang International Power Generation, a state-owned Chinese power company, and is slated for completion in 2028. With seven planned Mekong mainstream dam projects in Laos, excluding the already operational Xayaburi dam, Sanakham is the sixth Lower Mekong dam to undergo prior consultation.

[...]

Like Xayaburi, the Sanakham dam would supply power to Thailand, but groups are pressuring the MRC to move the dam’s location as well as requesting that Thailand refuse to buy power from it so that the project is less feasible financially.

[...]

“Sanakham dam should not be built. Community and civil society are taking actions at national and regional levels to stop the project, highlighting how it’s unnecessary, risky and expensive,” says Gary Lee of International Rivers in Thailand, adding that Loei province, is already suffering from the Xayaburi dam. “Impacts include rapid fluctuations in water levels, disruption of sediment and vital nutrients, which in turn have had major impacts on the aquatic resources important to communities’ livelihoods and income.”

[...]

The prior consultation process has proven contentious, with critics saying it is toothless and that the discussions regarding hydropower projects are framed around mitigation rather than whether the project should go forward.

[...]

“The MRC has conducted or commissioned multiple studies, which highlight that large-scale dams on the Mekong mainstream and tributaries seriously threaten the Mekong’s ecology, economy and food security, with poor households the most impacted,” says Gary Lee. “However, the projects have proceeded, downplaying or ignoring the wealth of scientific evidence.”

[...]