Another damned dam
After a decade-long break from financing large dams, the World Bank began supporting a controversial new hydropower project in Laos two years ago. Billed as a ‘model’ project, the Nam Theun 2 Dam was designed to incorporate recommendations from the World Commission on Dams, which released a definitive report on the environmental, economic and social effects of large dams in 2000. But now, reports the Worldwatch Institute, both the project’s managers and advocates from the International Rivers Network (IRN) say Nam Theun 2 has fallen short of these goals.
The $1.25 billion project, backed by the Asian Development Bank as well as the World Bank, is halfway through its four-year development plan. Two-thirds of the 1,240 families that will be flooded out by the dam have been moved to a new village, but IRN has found that plans to provide for affected Laotians are unravelling. Implementation of a ‘Livelihood and Asset Restoration Pilot Programme’ has only been initiated in 21 villages – or less than 10 per cent of the downstream villages that will be affected when operations begin in 2009. ‘As a result, villagers are becoming guinea pigs in a vast and risky resettlement process,’ IRN’s study concludes.
IRN estimates that some 40 to 80 million people around the world have been displaced by dams, while millions more are affected by the loss of fisheries, decreased water quality and other downstream impacts. On a global scale, rotting vegetation in flooded reservoir areas may account for some four per cent of human-induced climate change.
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
