Loss of faith along the Ou river
I sat alongside the Ou river listening to the waves lap against the half-submerged Lat Tha Hae temple in Luang Prabang province, northern Laos. Grandpa Un paused from sweeping his riverside yard and spoke to me in a strong voice. “I was born here,” the ethnic Lue elder said. “My parents came from the old Lat Tha Hae village, deep in the forest. After the [Vietnam] war, we were resettled to this place along the river. Our temple is over 70 years old. I remember being ordained as a novice here when I was 13 years old. I’m very hurt to see it flooded.”
The Nam Ou 1 hydropower dam was inaugurated in November 2019. It flooded the section of the Ou river – known locally as the Nam Ou – that flows past the ethnic Lue and Khmu villages of Lat Tha Hae, Pak Jaek and Huay Lo, about 40km upstream from the city of Luang Prabang. With a total capacity of 180 megawatts, Nam Ou 1 is the last in a seven-dam cascade being built on the Ou by China’s Sinohydro Corporation. The project is a joint venture with the Lao state electricity corporation, Électricité du Laos (EDL), which holds a 15% stake in the project. All electricity generated by the Nam Ou dams will be sold to EDL.
Ton Ka
