Deal #8345

...while the government recognizes 160 ethnic subgroups within 49 ethnic groups within Laos, all ethnic groups have the same status, and the concept of indigenous peoples is not recognized by the government.

PowerChina Resources administered 30 questionnaires to participants at a consultation in 2010 to determine the villagers’ acceptance and understanding of the project. The survey results indicated that the majority of villagers were in favor of the project because they thought it would bring them electricity and higher standards of living. However, medium-impact villages were not consulted and conflicting information were provided to them.

According to the plan for the Nam Ou River project, 28 immigrant villages have been built for resettlement of more than 2,300 households, involving more than 12,600 people. Nam Ou 6 alone requires the resettlement of 2,500 people in eight villages while Nam Ou 2 Cascade has the largest resettlement impact and displaced 2,297 households from 25 villages In interviews conducted at the cascade by International Rivers with PowerChina Resources, the company said the project had caused the relocation of approximately 9,748 people from 127 villages. This has also undermined the existing livelihoods of tens of thousands more villagers within the basin according to cumulative impact assessment reports.

Environmental Degradation: The Cumulative Impact Assessment for the Nam Ou Cascade is not publicly available and suggests that the Nam Ou Cascade will significantly alter flows reaching the Mekong confluence, trap 70 percent of sediment which is usually transported into the Mekong River and reduce fish biodiversity by 66%. While CIA is never available publicly, there is a short presentation about the CIA of Nam Ou hydropower cascade available on IFC’s website (the presentation made in 2016). The IFC’s Basin Profile predicts the disappearance of critically endangered and endangered species due to construction of the dams. Other: flooding, community divide “When they closed the dam gates on 21 November, many families brought fishing nets here with high hopes, but only a few caught anything. Today, we can only find small fish,” said Muansy quietly. “When the fish disappeared, the local ferry was abandoned and we began to experience the opposite of the prosperity we had been promised.”

Each household were offered compensation of a house on a 20m x 25m of lot and payment for loss of Mango trees, jack fruit trees, and banana trees.

Each household that were relocated were provided compensation of a house on a 15m x20m lot in the resettlement village and payment for loss of Mango trees, jack fruit trees, and banana trees. There are 3 categories of houses: a family with 1 to 3 members gets the smallest house, a family with 4 to 6 members gets a medium-sized house, and a family with 7 to 10 family members gets a bigger house. It doesn’t matter how big the original house was. Many families have complained about the new houses that the company built for them. No compensation for vegetable garden, lost fishery income, lost tourism income, and lost edible riverweed income. Villagers reported that there was not sufficient support for resettlement and that resolving local grievances comes with complications. In Baan Huam Sang, a resettlement site built to host relocated households from four different villages, villagers reported that their houses were poorly built with low-quality materials, were situated in unsuitable locations, and were often damaged during storms. Villagers in Baan Huam Sang were not provided with farmland and can no longer grow rice and crops.

Other: electricity

Health: Free medical check-ups, health centers Education: The Nam Ou cascade dam project has sponsored 6 Lao students’ education in Wuhan University, China Roads: including bridges Other: Clean water supply, electricity, garbage collectors

International Rivers