Laos Increases Electricity Costs Despite Producing More Electricity
State-run power companies in Laos are raising electricity prices, putting a squeeze on businesses suffering from the coronavirus pandemic shutdown and angering customers who say they deserve cheaper power after a decades-long hydroelectric dam building boom, sources in the country told RFA.
The government of Laos has widely touted to the public its controversial economic strategy to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” by building dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries and selling the generated electricity to neighboring countries.
But the people believe that the price of electricity within Laos should decrease as the country produces more power each year.
“We don’t understand why it is so expensive. It’s like, the more dams we build, the more we produce electricity, and somehow we still end up paying more,” a Vientiane homeowner told RFA’s Lao Service.
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
