A better approach

History suggests Michael Sainsbury missed the most important contextual elements in his story (“Laos in transition”, April 1-7). While he rightly focuses on the environmentally damaging construction of large hydroelectric dams, he neglects to report that this dam construction was robustly encouraged and financed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank – Western institutions – for the past two decades. About 70 per cent of all hydroelectricity generated on Laotian rivers is bought by Thailand. Exporting hydroelectricity is one of very few ways Laos can earn hard currency. Australia played an inglorious military role helping Richard Nixon and United States forces bomb Laos “back to the stone age” during the “secret war” of 1958 to 1973. As a result Laos is, per capita, the most-bombed country in human history. It is one of the poorest countries in South-east Asia. Australia financed the first bridge across the Mekong linking Vientiane with Thailand, which helped Laos emerge from post-war isolation, but has done little else to repair what we helped to destroy. In contrast, New Zealand, France and Japan finance programs to remove the millions of unexploded American bombs that still litter the country. We could and should be helping Laos to create new development opportunities that would reduce its dependence on China and Thailand. Minimising the ecological consequences of Mekong dam construction – reducing the cold water shock effect, incorporating fish ladders et cetera – via our foreign aid program would be more helpful than sniping from the sidelines.

– Henry Pepper, The Laos Friendship

Society, Melbourne, Vic