Decision on first Mekong dam delayed
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) agreed yesterday to delay a decision on Laos’ proposal to build the first hydropower dam on the Lower Mekong River in order to allow Japan to conduct further environmental impact studies on the dam project. Although Cambodian officials welcomed the outcome, downstream countries Cambodia and Vietnam – the strongest opponents of the controversial Xayaburi dam – were unable to get Laos to suspend the project for an extensive period of time. MRC Council negotiations between the water and environment ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand took several hours, and a decision finally came out in the early evening. “The council meeting has agreed… to prepare the request for assistance from Japan to support [and] conduct further studies on the impact of any development project on the Mekong River,” Te Navuth, secretary-general of the Cambodian National Mekong Committee, told reporters…
