Russian Firm Steps Up Dam Deal

6 February 2013
Radio Free Asia
Economy and commerce / Energy / Environment and natural resources / Generation and distribution facilities / Hydropower dams / Investment / Renewable energy production / Rivers and lakes / Water resources
Attapeu provinces / Cambodia / Dams / EGAT / Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) / hydropower / Hydropower dams / International Rivers / Laos / Laos’s Ministry of Energy and Mines / Mekong river / Mekong River tributaries / Nam Kong 1 / Regional Oil / Russia / Russia’s Regional Oil / Sekong / Sekong 4 / Sekong 5 / Sekong river / Thailand / transboundary impact

Laos has stepped up plans for three hydropower dams on Mekong River tributaries, updating an eight-year-old deal with a Russian investor to build the projects for U.S. $1.5 billion. Lao authorities signed a project development agreement with Russia’s Regional Oil for the Sekong 4, Sekong 5, and Nam Kong 1 projects in southern Laos on Friday, solidifying plans in the works since previous deals signed in 2005. … But it [Laos] has come under fire for plowing ahead on the Xayaburi dam, the first dam across the main stem of the Mekong River, without first getting regional consensus from downstream neighbors concerned about the project’s transboundary impact. … The Sekong 4 and 5 will be built on the Sekong River, an important tributary for the Mekong, and the Nam Kong 1 will dam waters flowing into the Sekong. Global green group International Rivers has said the effects of the two Sekong dams will be felt as far as the mainstream Mekong in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. …

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/hydropower-02062013151208.html