Theun-Hinboun: Expanding Failure

An assessment of the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project’s compliance with Equator Principles and Lao law

The Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project – a dam and diversion project under construction in Central Laos – violates the Equator Principles and Lao law, according to this report. Expanding Failure documents how Lao villagers are being sold down the river in a hydro deal that will displace thousands of people from their homes and land, and deprive thousands more of access to fertile rice fields, riverbank vegetable gardens, grazing lands, forests and fisheries. The dam project undermines local communities’ rights to access food.

The project is being financed by three international banks – ANZ (Australia), BNP Paribas (France) and KBC (Belgium) – that have adopted the Equator Principles, a set of social and environmental guidelines for private banks. The report appeals to the three banks to investigate the project and immediately bring it into compliance with their own policies and Lao law.

• Download the report, Expanding Failure: An assessment of the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Expansion Project's compliance with Equator Principles and Lao law
• Read the press release that accompanies the report.
  
• Read a 2007 report, Ruined Rivers, Damaged Lives, which exposes the mounting social and environmental toll of the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project in the decade since it was completed.
• Read the reviews of the project's Resettlement Action Plan and Environmental Impact Assessment conducted in 2008.