PUBLISHED: 15 Jul 2024 at 05: 09
In order to avoid causing financial and regional costs, environmentalists and residents of the Mekong Basin are asking the government to not abide by a commitment to purchase electricity from the Pak Beng Hydropower Dam in Laos.
The energy secretary Pirapan Salirathavibhaga and excellent minister Srettha Thavisin both received an opened letter with the names in an open letter.
Thongsuk Inthawong, a former chief of Bann Huai Luek in Chiang Rai’s Wiang Kaen area, Niwat Roikaew, a conservationist and Rak Chiang Khong, a civic society organization with the Network of Thai Mekong People, signed the letter.
The prime minister’s visit to Chiang Rai yesterday included the submission of the email to the authorities.
Mr. Srettha was scheduled to visit the Mekong River bank’s Chiang Saen region and attend a meeting on irrigation to increase water availability.
The Mekong River Commission met at a meeting to discuss the progress being made with the construction of the Pak Beng hydropower dam project on the Mekong River in Oudomxai state of Laos, which is located about 70 kilometers from the Thai-Laos borders in Chiang Rai’s Wieng Kaen area.
The dam, able to produce 920 megawatts of electricity, hopes to sell 95 % of its supply to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand ( Egat ).
The proposed dam’s cross-border effects are being studied, the Egat receiving the results, according to the letter.
Four communities have been held to inform citizens who expressed concerns about the risks posed by the bridge about the Pak Beng job.
Their main issues were with the dam’s water backing off, which could overwhelm homes and land in the river communities in the districts of Wiang Kaen, Chiang Khong, and Chiang Saen.
The bridge, according to the letter, could prevent fish from migrating in the Mekong River and damage the native fishing business. Additionally, it said that the dam’s water level manipulation could threaten farmers ‘ ability to grow and cultivate freshwater algae, a beloved cash crop in the three districts.
More importantly, the letter said, liquid released by the bridge was overflowing some islands on Thai country in the valley. This may amount to a regional decline, it said.
Additionally, the letter highlighted the pond project’s shortcomings and lack of necessity.
It claimed that an environmental study that was cited as favoring the task was based on outdated data and had resulted in a subpar analysis of the dam’s effects.
People were also not informed about the waters flow, which stands to change them, it said.
According to the letter, they were not told how high the water would increase and what losses they would experience in terms of their way of life and farming work.
The government claimed that the planned power obtain was unnecessary because there is more than enough power in reserve.
” ]We ca n’t ] call the project a clean energy]project ] because it is bound to come at the expense of livelihoods, economic well-being and the culture of people living along the Mekong River”.