By Pai Deetes, Phairin Sohsai and Tanya Lee Roberts-Davis
On December 17th, Thailand’s Office of National Water Resources (ONWR), in its role as the secretariat of Thai National Mekong Commission (TNMC), announced that it intends to proceed with the implementation of the Prior Consultation (PC) process for the proposed Sanakham Hydropower Project in accordance with the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) of the 1995 Mekong Agreement. This alarming decision will ultimately end up paving the way for the development of another dam on the mainstream Mekong River, despite widespread concerns being raised by the Thai public and high-level bodies such as the Thai Government Ombudsman as well as the National Human Rights Commission.
TNMC will convene four public information forums about the Sanakham Dam for residents living in the eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River over the course of the coming weeks. These forums are also supposed to serve as a time when residents can express their perspectives about the dam, and are scheduled as follows: December 24th in Chiang Khan, December 26th in Nakhon Phanom, January 9th in Ubon Ratchathani, and January 15th in Bueng Kan. Given the short lead-up prior to these discussions and the lack of up-to-date information publicly available about the project, it appears this process is being rushed ahead, with little regard for the needs of local residents to be able to make arrangements to attend the forums, let alone prepare and develop informed opinions about the project specifics.
According to Chanarong Wongla, a member of the Chiang Khan Conservation Group and Local Fisheries Group in Chiang Khan, ONWR officials contacted him with an invitation to join an ‘information forum’ about the Sanakham Dam, providing no mention of the PNPCA process underway. From his perspective, “Chiang Khan communities are being asked to come to this forum, but have no way to prepare – information has not been disclosed, and no documents have been sent for us to read in advance. We can only conclude that it will be similar to the PNPCA forums on the Xayaburi Dam and other dams in the past, where regardless of the concerns we raise, the project developers move forward. Most importantly, for the Sanakham Dam project, the Ombudsman and the National Human Rights Commission have already provided a clear basis for a more precautionary approach recognizing the serious impacts on local people and ecosystems. We are very confused that the agencies asked us to join the forum at this time. We would like to remind them about the information in the Ombudsman’s report, which clearly states that there is still a serious lack of information on the transboundary impacts of the project and that clear commitments of accountability are required from both the developers and government agencies in Thailand”.
As Phairin Sohsai, Southeast Asia Program Campaign Coordinator at International Rivers asserts, “The ONWR is recklessly rushing to organize the PNPCA process on the Sanakham Hydropower Dam in Thailand – it is the end of the year and they are notifying the public only a week in advance. Key project documents, including Environmental and Social Impact Assessments remain in English only. To begin with, before moving ahead with the PNPCA process in Thailand, the ONWR should publicly disclose updated information from the developers and Lao government about the project’s environmental and social impacts with a full translation into Thai language. Despite recommendations from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and the Ombudsman, the ONWR does not appear to be prepared to engage in processes which would actually take into account concerns of residents who will be directly affected by the project, let alone broad based civil society groups representing the perspectives of Thai people across the country. Instead, the agency seems set on providing a rubber stamp for yet another Mekong hydropower dam. Concerningly, the PNPCA of one more Mekong mainstream dam, the Phu Ngoy Hydropower Project may follow soon after, within this coming year. It is imperative for the ONWR to postpone the Sanakham Dam PNPCA process with due consideration and respect for our rights as outlined in our constitution and the specific legal regulations on the conduct of public hearings.”
Background Information on the Proposed Sanakham Hydropower Project
If built, the proposed Sanakham Hydropower Project would be located on the Mekong River near the Thai-Lao international border, 1.5 km from Chiang Khan district, Loei Province. With a planned total capacity of 684 Megawatts, the proposed dam would be 56.6 meters high and nearly 1 km long, across the river. China Datang Overseas Investment and Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development PCL are jointly developing the project, with most of the electricity slated for export to Thailand. The construction cost is expected to amount to over USD 2 billion. According to data available on the Mekong River Commission’s website on the Sanakham Hydropower Project, an estimated 62,530 people will be directly impacted by this project, while millions will be affected downstream in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. In 2020, the MRC announced that the project would undergo the PNPCA process. Over the past four years, government officials from Thailand’s National Mekong Commission have raised critical questions about the impacts of the project, citing the need for comprehensive technical studies on environmental, social, cumulative and transboundary impacts and rejecting initial technical reviews provided by the developer. The snap decision last week to schedule expedited public information sessions for the Sanakham Dam therefore marks a distinct shift in the government’s approach to the project. Meanwhile, community and civil society groups in Thailand have consistently called for the proposed dam to be cancelled altogether, asserting that the transboundary impacts on communities upstream and downstream as well to the Mekong River ecosystem pose far too great a risk.
Significantly, in 2023, the Thai Government Ombudsman issued strong recommendations to the Prime Minister’s Office and other governmental bodies following a thorough investigation of potential impacts of the Sanakham Dam. These recommendations pointed out the serious harms done which cannot be simply remediated by one-time compensation payments to directly affected populations, the range of unknown consequences to local fisheries, riverbank erosion as well as severe water level fluctuations and sediment flows, the likelihood of inundation of lands used by residents of affected communities, the lack of any emergency plans to respond in case of operational failure or accidents, and that other options for procuring energy, particularly from solar should be explored.
More recently, in early October 2024, Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) sent a letter to the Prime Minister expressing serious concerns about the plans for more hydropower projects to be built on the mainstream of the Mekong River near the Thai-Lao territorial border— including the proposed Sanakham Dam, as well as Pak Chom, Ban Kum and Phu Ngoy Dams, all of which are planned to be constructed in Laos but are expected to export electricity to Thailand. Crucially, the NHRC findings and recommendations provided to the government echo critical concerns raised persistently by civil society and community based groups in Thailand as well as across the Mekong region – with particular attention to the lack of adequate considerations for the long-term transboundary impacts on communities and the riverine ecologies.
As no power purchase agreement has been signed yet for the Sanakham Dam – nor for the Phu Ngoy, Pak Chom or Ban Kum Dams – and there is no logical need for this massive hydropower build-out – given both Thailand’s significant excess electricity reserve as well as the range of available lower impact, lower cost renewable energy options – it is still not too late for project plans to be withdrawn.