LAOS: Doubts Hound World Bank-backed Dam as Its Turbines Start Up http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50789

It has been just over a week since the turbines came to life at Laos’ largest hydropower project, but questions are already dogging this World Bank showpiece that marks the financial institution's return to the business of big dams. A leading environmental group has accused the Bank of failing to meet its obligations to help affected communities in the landlocked South-east Asian nation before the Nam Theun Two (NT2) project started supplying electricity to neighbouring Thailand on Mar. 15. 

"Laos’ largest and most controversial hydropower project, Nam Theun 2, began full operation last week in violation of legal obligations to provide compensation and livelihood restoration to affected communities," declared International Rivers, a global environmental organisation based in the U.S. city of Berkeley, in a statement this week. 

"The irrigation system to help 6,200 resettled families in the uplands is not complete," Ikuko Matsumoto, Laos programme director for International Rivers, said in an interview. "The soil is poor and the resettled farmers cannot grow their rice like they did before, when living close to the river." "This is a violation of the legal commitments made in the project’s compliance agreement," she added. "There was an agreed time line that was legally binding to help the villages affected by the reservoir and the dam." Also affected are some 120,000 people living downstream from the reservoir, where the fish have died and vegetable gardens have "been flooded", she added.