South-East Asia Destination

By: Scoref

Xeset 3 Hydropower Pakxe, Lao, PDR, Resettlement Account Action Plan:

Dated - 20 May 2009  

Xeset 3 Hydropower was surveyed in 1999 by Nor Consultants. In todays context i.e. in last 10 years many people have settled closer to the river. Now this project is affecting the life forms of hundred of people for which EDL must take care and prepare a resettlement plan. Not only the settlement, people has done heavy coffee plantation on both the banks of the river resulting into high yield of coffee production. Due to this project more than 60,000 plants will be submerged into water affecting the earning of the localities. As waters rise, resident and visiting wildlife, including birds, will need to find new habitats and territories.

EDL should not only plan the resettlement action plan but they should consider fully grown coffee plants which eventually be submerged in water. EDL must plan a five million USD towards resettlement action plan and coffee tree transplantation.

 

Effects of Hydro Power being neglected by the planners:

Dated - 28 March 2009

Traditionally, downstream impacts have been under-studied and overlooked by dam planners, as well by the authors of many Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Social Assessments (SAs) for projects that finance dam construction (often because these assessments did not take a basin-wide approach). Adverse social and environmental downstream consequences tend to combine (particularly in those rivers – such as the XESET, LAO PDR – which flow through wide and gentle valleys, as opposed to canyon-shaped river courses). In such areas, agriculture has been historically based on the recurrence of natural and limited annual floods, and the local cultivators have adapted their agricultural and settlement patterns to this recurrence: they learned to “absorb” the flood into their agricultural strategics, practicing what is often called recessional agriculture or wetlands agriculture. Damming the annual limited floods and the flow of rich nutrients deeply disrupts recessional agriculture.

 

Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Lao, PDR:

Dated - 10 Feb 2009 ( Excerpt from report submitted to Government in 2004)

long-term impacts on aquatic habitats and fish biodiversity in the project area will be felt. In the Nam Theun headwaters (in the NNT NPA), impacts are unlikely if the area is properly and successfully managed. However, species that migrate between the headwaters and the middle and lower Nam Theun will be affected. The impoundment of 195 km of the Nam Theun and creation of the Nakai reservoir with few distinct habitats, plus the changes in water quality in the reservoir  will displace many species that cannot adapt to the new conditions.

On the Nakai plateau, all forests, savannah, grasslands, and wetlands within a 450 km2 area (40% of the plateau) will be inundated and vegetation will be lost. Of this land cover, 57% is considered disturbed habitat. In the remaining area, 50% of forests are in relatively good

condition. No endangered or endemic tree species are, however, expected to be lost and from a provincial and national perspective, the impact of lost forest species and habitats is not considered significant. As waters rise, resident and visiting wildlife, including birds, will need to find new habitats and territories. A large number of islands will form on the western end of the Nakai reservoir and some animals might find refuge on these islands. However, these habitats will not be large enough to accommodate all animals. Some animals, including some mammals and reptiles, might become stranded and so vulnerable to hunting. The seasonal migration of large mammals, such as elephants, from the NNT NPA to the Phou Hin Poun NPA will be disturbed by the presence of the reservoir, resulting in potential conflicts between animals and the local human population.