Deadly race to harness the Mekong
Disaster unlikely to stop Laos’ energy push
Sand tretching from its headwaters in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau to its endpoint in the delta marshes of Vietnam, the mighty Mekong River is one of the world’s great ecosystems.
For Laos, it represents so much more: the energy source behind a hydro-power buildout and decades of potential economic growth.
Now the landlocked nation’s dream of becoming the “battery of Asia” fuelled by scores of hydropower projects has suffered a catastrophic setback, following the collapse of a dam connected to a US$1 billion project backed by its Communist government as well as Thai and South Korean companies.
Rescuers are searching for scores of villagers left missing after the collapse flooded the surrounding countryside and killed at least 24 people. Thousands of people lost their homes.
The breakneck race to harness the Mekong and its tributaries for hydroelectric power has been under way for years and reflects Southeast Asia’s insatiable energy demand, projected last year by the International Energy Agency to expand by about 66 per cent by 2040. Chinese investors are bankrolling huge projects in the region, particularly in Laos, Cambodia and Burma.
With the dam failure, following another incident last autumn, questions have arisen about whether the Laos Government led by Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and President Bounnhang Vorachith can safely manage the wave of investments coming into the country from international firms. There may be little incentive for a oneparty state like Laos to slam on the brakes. Its bet on hydro-power comes down to economic survival: It delivers nearly all of Laos’ electricity consumption and sales of surplus power are a crucial source of export earnings.
For China, bankrolling the Mekong region’s hydro-power projects improves its energy security and delivers added geopolitical leverage over Southeast Asia. That has raised concerns from Vietnam that China could block water flows downstream.
Environmental groups worry about whether project engineers and construction companies have adequately prepared for climate change and the torrential rains of recent years. There’s also concern about a growing vulnerability to fisheries and rice production in Laos and Cambodia from the hydroelectric power boom and dam networks.
“The dam collapse shows that the current policy of developing hydropower for export, and the rapid escalation of dam construction, needs to be re-examined,” said Maureen Harris of International Rivers. She said there were major concerns expressed about the ability of the Laos Government to handle infrastructure projects of this scale.
“It’s that lack of capacity inside Laos that has led to an open-door policy to private sector investors from outside the country who have clearly failed to follow proper standards and that raises serious concerns about other projects going forward.”