Hydropower dams

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) Wednesday defended its decision to wait nearly seven weeks before officially notifying the public that Laos began a preliminary procedure for the construction of a large dam that would be its fifth on the Mekong river.The Lao government informed the ...

A new dam planned for construction on the Mekong River in Laos is causing great concern for environmental NGOs from Thailand, who say Laos’ fifth big dam on the river will have adverse effects on fish and people in the region.The Luangprabang hydropower project would ...

A major hydropower plant built in Laos has started commercial operation.With two power stations, the Nam Ngiep 1 plant generates about 1.6 billion kilowatt-hours of energy per year, Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Co said on Friday.Nam Ngiep 1 Power Co, the operator of the ...

Heavy monsoonal rains in northeastern Laos ripped through a small one-megawatt hydropower dam in Xieng Khouang province’s Pek district earlier this week, causing extensive damage and flooding rice fields and property, local residents said Wednesday.“Because of heavy rainfall and too much water, the dam couldn’t ...

(KPL) The outflow of water from the Jinghong hydropower station in China’s Yunnan province will decrease by about 25-45 per cent over five days, according to an official notification from China’s Ministry of Water Resources being copied to the Mekong River Commission Secretariat on Monday.In ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Government officials have dismissed social media reports that the Xayaboury dam is slowing the flow of water to downstream sections of the Mekong.The dam is built on the run-of-river model, which does not require water to be stored, the Director General of ...

Both the government of Laos and the builders of the Xayaburi dam are dismissing allegations that damming of the Mekong River, for the trial run of electricity generators, is one of the reasons for the sharp drop of water levels in the downstream stretches of ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The Xayaboury hydropower plant yesterday began a trial operation of its fifth generator, setting the first run-of-river dam in the lower Mekong basin on track to begin commercial operation at the end of this year.A senior official at the Xayaboury Energy and ...

Around 1,400 people in Laos are finding it difficult to support themselves three months after relocating for a local dam construction project. Some even return to their old villages to tend rice fields during the country’s planting season.The Chinese-backed Nam Ou 4 dam is one ...

A new Mekong river dam in Laos’ Luang Prabang province will displace up to 465 families this month, the latest in the continuing trend of hydropower projects forcing villagers to relocate all over the country.Residents of 10 villages in Luang Prabang’s Chomphet district must be ...