A Change of Guard

សូមស្តាប់វិទ្យុសង្គ្រោះជាតិ Please read more Khmer news and listen to CNRP Radio at National Rescue Party. សូមស្តាប់វីទ្យុខ្មែរប៉ុស្តិ៍/Khmer Post Radio.
Follow Khmerization on Facebook/តាមដានខ្មែរូបនីយកម្មតាម Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/khmerization.khmerican

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Thai government to be sued over dam

Amidst all the wrangling and soundbites over the South China Sea disputes and the scramble for ownership over the resource rich Spratly islands, the Asean [or at least nearly half of its members] appear to be finding something akin to unspoken consensus in their refusal to grant priority and urgency to averting the regional, social-ecological catastrophe destined to impact millions of lives living downstream of the widely criticised Xayaburi dam, including Laotians themselves. Countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, already experiencing severe ecological stress in recent decades due to political instability, rapid population growth, mismanagement of natural assets, clearing of primary forests for commercial timber or to make way for cash crops and rice cultivation, over-fishing, pollution and degradation of fishing grounds [such as the phenomenon of 'floating villages' along parts of the Mekong and in many areas of the Tonle Sap lake] are poised to be hardest hit by the dam's construction and completion - School of Vice [Image: AsiaNews.it]
Phnom Penh Post, 24 Jul 2012

David Boyle

A coalition of Thai conservation and community groups is planning to sue its government over the controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos.


Conservationists allege Thai firm Ch.Karnchang has begun building the dam at the behest of Thailand and in violation of international obligations to secure agreement from affected downstream countries. 





In addition to violating a 1995 agreement between the four lower Mekong countries – Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam – to study downstream impacts before building a dam, the groups alleged the Thai government has breached its own constitution. 

Teerapong Pomun from Living Group Siam said the coalition would sue the government and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), which has a power-purchasing agreement with Laos, on August 7. 

“The first thing that the Thai government failed to do by the Thai constitution was to give the information to the public before doing any activity that will impact environmental health and the community,” he said. 

EGAT did not respond to inquiries yesterday, while Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment officials did not comment. 

Laos claims the project will not go ahead until downstream impacts are studied. 

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdee said he was not aware of details of a lawsuit but welcomed assurances from Laos that further environmental impact studies were being commissioned. 

“We have always stressed the importance about conducting this project in a transparent manner,” he said. 
Meanwhile, Pöyry, the company behind a much-criticised study into the project, said yesterday an arm of its company the World Bank has placed on a list of “non-responsible vendors” is not linked to Xayaburi.
“This matter and respective subsidiary company have nothing whatsoever to do with [Xayaburi],” spokeswoman Anne Viitala said.



To contact the reporter on this story: David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No dam! In Maekong River it will create more hardship for millions people that use river for their ecomic like fishing for their likelihood stretch from Thailand,Laos,kampuchea,Vietnam these countries depending on the river for making a living.Dam only benefit a small percentage of population whose can afford to use electricity that generation from this dam.It has no benefit for those poor siamese ,Laosians,Khmers,Yuons,four countries affect by this dam.So,no dam please...

Ykp

Anonymous said...

Laos and Thailand should consider developing the alternative
source of renewable energy from wind and sun instead which
are more friendlier and caused no harm to ecological system.
Even though they tend to produce smaller quantity of energy
per site compare to the dam,but if spreading them evenly
in the region,there will be no need to construct high
voltage line which caused energy loss so much during
the transmission.They will serve the rural area more
proficiently whereas dam will serve only the conglomerated
big industrial site.

K _ _ _