| Xayaburi Dam | |
|---|---|
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| Country | Laos |
| Location | Xayaburi |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Proposed |
| Opening date | 2019 (expected) |
| Construction cost | $3.5 billion |
| Owner(s) | Ch. Karnchang Public Company |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Height | 32 m (105 ft) |
| Length | 810 m (2,660 ft) |
| Impounds | Mekong |
| Spillway capacity | 3,980 m3/s (141,000 cu ft/s) |
| Reservoir | |
| Capacity | 0.225 km3 (182,000 acre·ft) |
| Catchment area | 272,000 km2 (105,000 sq mi) |
| Surface area | 49 km2 (19 sq mi) |
| Power station | |
| Hydraulic head | 32.6 m (107 ft) |
| Maximum capacity | 1,260 MW |
| As of 6 February 2011 | |
The Xayaburi Dam is a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Lower Mekong River approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of Xayaburi town in Northern Laos.
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On 4 May 2007, the Lao government signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand's Ch. Karnchang Public Company for the development of this hydropower project. The formal project development agreement followed in November 2008, and a feasibility study was conducted that same year by Swiss-based AF Colenco and Thai TEAM consultants. The environmental impact assessment report was submitted in February 2010. In July 2010, a memorandum of understanding for power purchase was signed between the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the Lao government.[1]
According to the 1995 Mekong Agreement, the project is subject to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation, and Agreement. Under this agreement, the host country for the project should notify the governments of the other signatories, namely Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The process was initiated in September 2010. It is the first project initiated through a regional decision-making process.[1][2]
On 19 April 2011, the MRC Joint Committee announced that the MRC countries could not reach a consensus on how to proceed with the project, and agreed that a decision on the prior consultation process be tabled for consideration at the ministerial level. However, in June 2011, the Laos Government gave the Thai developer Ch Karnchang the go-ahead to resume work on the Xayaburi Dam, informing the company that the Mekong River Commission's decision-making process was completed.[3] Prashanth Parameswaran, a former researcher at the Project 2049 Institute, who is conducting research on dam projects in Southeast Asia, warned: "Laos' actions not only represent a breach of trust, but threaten to undermine already fledgling efforts at regional cooperation in an ecosystem that supports the livelihoods of tens of millions of people."[4]
The Xayaburi dam has been proposed in a site located 350 kilometres (220 mi) upstream of Vientiane and 770 kilometres (480 mi) downstream of Jinhong, the last dam of the Chinese cascade of seven dams, including 4 existing dams and 3 planned ones. In terms of mean energy supply, it would be the third largest project among those considered for development on the mainstem in the Lower Mekong Basin.
The Xayaburi Dam would be 830 metres (2,720 ft) wide and the dam structure would be 49 metres (161 ft) high with 32 metres (105 ft) of water head.[1][5][6] It would create a reservoir with a catchment area of 272,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi), and surface area of 49 square kilometres (19 sq mi).[5] The reservoir will reach 30 metres (98 ft) in depth and stretching between 60 and 90 kilometres (37 and 56 mi). It would feature a navigation lock and two fish passes.
The capacity of the hydroelectric plant will be 1,260 megawatts, with a total annual energy production of 7,406 GWh.[1][5] Around 95% of produced electricity would be exported to Thailand through a planned 200-kilometre (120 mi) long transmission line from the Xayaburi Dam to the Loei Province in Thailand. If the final investment decision is made, the dam's construction would take eight years and it would cost approximately US$3.5 billion.[1] It is expected to become operational by 2019.[7]
There are doubts that the dam will function in the long term because its reservoir may be filled with silt.[4]
The leading developer of this project is the Thailand's Ch. Karnchang Public Company. Other potential investors include the Lao government, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company, and EGAT International Company.[1]
According to International Rivers, around 2,100 people would be resettled, and more than 202,000 people living in the dam's area would suffer impacts due to the loss of agricultural land and riverbank gardens, an end to gold panning in the river, and worsened access to the forest resources. The Xayaburi dam will also have a significant effect on the biodiversity of the river ecosystem, and the fisheries within the larger Mekong river basin.[1][2] According to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, the Xayaburi dam would drive the already critically endangered Mekong Giant Catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) to extinction.[8]
Because the Mekong is a unique and particularly complex ecosystem that hosts the most productive inland fisheries in the world, the stakes are high for the construction of such a dam. According to a study conducted by WWF and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and coordinated by the WorldFish Center, there are 229 fish species whose spawning and migratory patterns would be affected by a mainstream dam. This change in fish biodiversity and abundance would greatly affect the tens of millions of people in the Greater Mekong Subregion who depend on the river for their food and livelihood. According to Phnom-Penh based WorldFish Center, this damage to fisheries "cannot be mitigated by fish passes and reservoirs".[9]
A Strategic Environmental Assessment commissioned by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) recommends a 10-year deferral of all Mekong mainstream dams in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, and calls for further studies.[6] According to a MRC spokeswoman construction of the Xayaburi dam "will result in irreversible environmental impacts".[9] The MRC warns that if Xayaburi and subsequent schemes went ahead, it would "fundamentally undermine the abundance, productivity and diversity of the Mekong fish resources".[10]
Milton Osborne, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy who has written widely on the Mekong, warns: "The future scenario is of the Mekong ceasing to be a bounteous source of fish and guarantor of agricultural richness, with the great river below China becoming little more than a series of unproductive lakes."[11]
Fish are a staple of the diet in Laos and Cambodia, with around 80 per cent of the Cambodian population's annual protein intake coming from fish caught in the Mekong River system, with no alternative source to replace them. Dams would also restrict the flow of water over agricultural areas linked to the river.[11]
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