"Lao Authorities Allow Chinese Firm to Plant on Land Promised to Dam Collapse Survivors

A Chinese-backed firm is growing bananas on land promised by the government of Laos as compensation to survivors of a 2018 dam collapse that that has been described as the country's worst flooding in decades....

...The 2,000 hectare plot of compensatory land near Pindong village, Sanamxay district, Attapeu province was cleared...on the understanding that the victims of the disaster would be able to grow crops there during this year's rainy season, but the authorities recently allowed a Chinese investor to plant bananas there.

...Attapeu province Governor Leth Xayaphone said the Chinese firm is using the land to help the survivors.

"The provincial and central government cleared the land for the victims, but the victims don't have the financial resources required to grow their crops because they have been suffering from great losses [because of the flood]," he said.

...[H]e insisted that the authorities did not give the land to the investor. He said they allowed the company to help the villagers grow bananas and to create jobs for survivors of the flood.

When asked about the concern by many of the survivors about the use of harmful chemicals, a common problem that has made banana plantations unpopular in Laos, Xayaphone said that the province would increase inspections and monitor chemical use on the new banana plantation.

...Survivors of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy disaster are concerned that the land they were promised is going to a Chinese developer without their having any say in the matter.