Pak Lay and Luang Prabang dam Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Who benefits?

Pak Lay and Luang Prabang dam Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Who benefits?

By Pianporn Deetes and Gary Lee As media attention focused on the dissolution of the parliament to prepare for the upcoming national election, news that a Power Purchase Agreement with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) was signed for the Pak Lay dam slipped by without making much of a ripple. Gulf Energy, a Thai…

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Free-flowing Salween River needs protection

Free-flowing Salween River needs protection

Originally posted in the Bangkok Post By Pianporn (Pai) Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers This morning at Sob Moei — the confluence of the Moei and the Salween rivers on the Thailand-Myanmar border — indigenous peoples and their supporters are attending a spiritual ceremony to express their collective stance to protect…

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BCG Economy and Apec: Just empty rhetoric?

BCG Economy and Apec: Just empty rhetoric?

Originally published in the Bangkok Post By Pai Deetes The Apec Leaders’ Summit in Bangkok this week includes an agreement to work toward the “Bangkok Goals” on Bio-economy, Circular Economy and Green (BCG) Economy beyond national borders. Many have raised have raised the question of whether the Thai government, as host to the summit, genuinely…

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Geopolitics are not accounting for local communities

Geopolitics are not accounting for local communities

Originally published in Centre on Asia and Globalisation Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s newsletter Guest Column by Pianporn Deetes is Regional Campaigns Director, Southeast Asia Program at International Rivers Whatever the geopolitics of hydropower brings to the Mekong River, the people living alongside it must have a greater say in its future development….

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Court dismissal of Xayaburi dam lawsuit highlights the need to strengthen accountability of cross-border investments

Court dismissal of Xayaburi dam lawsuit highlights the need to strengthen accountability of cross-border investments

By Phairin Sohsai and Gary Lee On 17 August, the Thai Supreme Administrative Court ruled to dismiss a lawsuit, filed by 37 Thai villagers against five Thai state agencies for their role in approving the Xayaburi hydropower dam’s Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Filed 10 years ago, the Xayaburi lawsuit was the first community-filed lawsuit related…

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Mekong environmental leader Niwat Roykaew wins prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize

Mekong environmental leader Niwat Roykaew wins prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize

By Pai Deetes, Regional Campaigns and Communications Director, Southeast Asia Program Today, Niwat Roykaew of Chiang Khong Conservation Group is a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, for a momentous win for the Mekong River where the Thai Cabinet formally called for the cancellation of the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, known as the Mekong…

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Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project

Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project

By International Rivers originally published in The People’s Map of Global China Nam Ou River, Lao People’s Democratic Republic The Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project comprises seven dams, with a combined generating capacity of 1.27 GW. The cascade includes two phases. Phase One has been fully operational since October 2016 and Phase Two since…

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International Hydropower Association’s Greenwashing of Nam Theun 2 Dam’s Impacts on Indigenous Peoples

International Hydropower Association’s Greenwashing of Nam Theun 2 Dam’s Impacts on Indigenous Peoples

by Bruce Shoemaker and Ian G. Baird A newly released article by the International Hydropower Association (IHA), titled “Laos: Hydropower built in consultation with Indigenous communities” by Eduard Wojczynski, holds up the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydropower project as a positive example of benefit-sharing for Indigenous communities. The article is presented as a case study…

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Today is a ‘Day of Action for Rivers’

Today is a ‘Day of Action for Rivers’

Two decades of indigenous peoples working to keep the Salween River free-flowing By Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers Originally published in the Bangkok Post On a sandy beach by the Salween River on the Thai-Myanmar border in March 2006, boats carrying Karen villagers and other ethnic groups such as Karenni,…

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