Proposed hydropower plant in Laos to affect lower Mekong River in Vietnam
Laos is making hectic preparations for the building of one more hydropower dam – Pak Beng – on the Mekong river section which runs through Oudomxay province, despite strong warnings about the influence on the lower course, especially in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta. The Mekong River Commission last week in a meeting in Vientiane said the 6-month pre-consultation process on dam construction had begun, which Laos officially submitted to MRC’s secretariat committee two months ago. At the meeting, the commission came to an agreement that December 20, 2016 was the day to start the pre-consultation process. Thus, the pre-consultation process began one month before the meeting’s announcement. Pak Beng is designed to be located on the mainstream of Mekong in the northern mountainous part of Laos. It would have total capacity of 912 MW and water discharge capacity of 6 million cubic meters per second.
