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DAM-L LS: Critique Theun Hinboun Mitigation and Compensation Program (fwd)



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subject: LS: Critique Theun Hinboun Mitigation and Compensation Program
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The following is the executive summary of a new report prepared for IRN 
reviewing the recently released Theun Hinboun Mitigation and Compensation 
Program and providing an update on the Theun Hinboun campaign. If you would 
like the full report, email aviva@irn.org, or download from our web site in 
about a week's time (www.irn.org). The report of the THPC's fisheries 
consultant, Mr. Terry Warren, will also be available on the IRN web site in 
about a week. This report has been witheld by the ADB and the THPC because 
they do not agree with its findings.


Theun-Hinboun Update: A Review of the Theun-Hinboun Power Company's 
Mitigation and Compensation Program

By Bruce Shoemaker

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In September, 2000 the Theun-Hinboun Power Company (THPC) released its 
Mitigation and Compensation Program (MCP) Report.   The MCP was prepared as 
part of the company’s obligations under its loan and concession agreements 
with the Asian Development Bank and Government of Laos (GoL) and followed 
almost three years of mounting evidence of serious livelihood impacts 
occurring to local citizens in the project area.  This briefing paper was 
commissioned by International Rivers Network in order to provide an update 
on the situation at Theun-Hinboun and to review and provide some analysis 
of the THPC’s proposed Mitigation and Compensation Program.  Some 
references are made to the recently released findings of the World 
Commission on Dams and their applicability to Theun-Hinboun.

The Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project has been plagued with controversy from 
its inception due to concerns over its poor decision-making process, 
inadequate EIA, conflicts of interest, and potential for severe 
environmental and socio-economic impacts.  Shortly after the closure of the 
dam in early 1998, villagers began suffering increasingly severe impacts to 
their livelihoods from the project.  These impacts have included the loss 
of fisheries, flooded vegetable gardens, loss of drinking water supply, 
lowered water tables, impaired boat and pedestrian access to surrounding 
areas, inundated agricultural lands, bank erosion, and the loss of fishing 
equipment.  This has created great hardships for thousands of local 
peoplereducing their food security, cash income, and overall quality of 
life.  The THPC and the ADB initially refused to acknowledge these 
impacts.  But by late 1998, following overwhelming evidence from both 
outside sources and the THPC’s and ADB’s own consultants, the ADB publicly 
acknowledged for the first time that local people were being seriously 
harmed by the project.  The provision of timely and adequate compensation 
to all affected villagers was promised by the ADB.

Unfortunately, what followed was a series of delays, poor process, and 
apparent stalling by the THPC.  A survey of the impact zone, which was to 
begin immediately, was delayed.  When it did occur it was of such poor 
quality that it was of limited use.  By August 1999, villagers were 
frustrated and angry with the project's performance and lack of progress on 
compensation.  A November, 1999 ADB mission admitted the survey had been of 
little use, the THPC was failing to meet expectations regarding 
compensation measures, and that local people were suffering serious 
impacts.  Finally, the THPC released its Mitigation and Compensation 
Program report in September, 2000.

The MCP Report outlines a ten-year $2.74 - $4.65 million program, to be 
implemented by the restructured Environmental Management Division (EMD) of 
the THPC.   The report outlines the environmental and social impactsand 
proposed mitigation and compensation measuresfor the lower Kading River 
area, the “Headpond” area, and the downstream Hai/Hinboun rivers.  In the 
report the THPC acknowledges a somewhat more realistic estimate of the 
extent of the project’s environmental and socio-economic impacts, providing 
estimates of impacts to fisheries, water supply, gardens, and boat and 
walking access for thousands of households.  Severe damage to fish 
migration routes and aquatic and riverbank/island habitats and wild fish 
populations along the Kading River (in the Nam Kading National Biodiversity 
Conservation Area) is also acknowledged.

While some positive measures have been initiated, there are many serious 
concerns with the MCP.  These include:

·	Lack of Accountability to Local Citizens:  Villagers do not appear to 
have had sufficient opportunity to give input into proposed mitigation and 
compensation measures or to formally approve of the MCP plan.  The MCP 
provides no system for affected villagers to hold the THPC accountable for 
its actions.  No allowance is made for independent verification of whether 
the MCP is performing adequately to the satisfaction of local people.  This 
is contrary to recommendations made by the WCD.
·	Failure to establish criteria for evaluating project impacts:  The ADB 
and THPC may still be underestimating project impacts in some areas.  It is 
unclear why the households in the lower Nam Kading watershed are listed as 
only suffering “mild impairment” to their fisheries as outside reports have 
suggested severe impacts are occurring.  The MCP fails to provide detailed 
information on what methodology and criteria it used for evaluating impacts.
·	Misallocation of resources to consultants and officials instead of 
villagers: Approximately three quarters of the “definitive or probable” MCP 
budget will be spent on further studies, assessments, plans, and 
monitoring.  Most of the remainder is for development initiatives of 
uncertain benefit to local people.  Only $137,500for the purchase of water 
pumps for gardensis allocated as direct compensation to villagers.  The 
“contingent” budget may provide additional funding for direct compensation 
but no firm commitments are made.
·	Failure to recognize citizen’s rights to direct compensation for fishery 
losses: The MCP, using a flawed rationale, fails to provide any direct 
financial compensation to villagers who have suffered from lost food 
security and cash income due to the destruction of their fisheries.  The 
MCP proposes to make villagers waitpossibly up to ten more yearsfor unclear 
benefits to materialize from fish ponds and other development initiatives 
in order to make up for the harm inflicted on their livelihoods.  Permanent 
losses require permanent solutions and direct compensation will have to be 
provided.  Compensation must be retroactive to the time of dam closure and 
should continue through the life of the project unless it is proven that 
alternative and sustainable food production and income generating 
opportunities have already been successfully provided to affected villagers 
to their satisfaction.
·	Reliance on Risky Development Initiatives Without Substantiating Claims 
of Future Benefits: The MCP makes claims of future benefits without any 
substantiation or evidence that those benefits will in fact 
materialize.  The MCP proposes aquaculture as the solution to the loss of 
wild fisheries even when the THPC’s own fisheries consultant warns that 
this is a risky strategy not appropriate for the Theun-Hinboun area.
·	MCP proposes to cutoff downstream flow:  The THPC wants to renege on its 
commitment to allow a minimum 5 cumecs of water to flow downstream into the 
Nam Kadingthrough a conservation area and past villages already suffering 
from the impacts of lowered water levels.  The THPC claims revenues gained 
will be used to fund the MCP, but no commitments to expend additional funds 
on compensation beyond what THPC has already committed to do are 
provided.  Eliminating the minimum flow can be expected to further harm the 
ecology of the Nam Kading and would exacerbate all of the negative impacts 
being experienced by villages in the lower Nam Kading basin, creating the 
need for yet more compensation and mitigation.

There are other concerns with the MCP, including contradictory plans 
regarding fish pass construction, the failure to fairly assess 1996 flood 
damage upstream of dam, and the continued problems and misunderstandings at 
Ban Namsanam, the village situated next to the tailrace canal, and other 
villages that were forced to move as a result of the project.

While instituting a just system for compensating affected villagers is a 
long-overdue step for the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project, the flaws and 
inadequacies in the proposed MCP provide cause for concern.  The MCP, as 
proposed, actually represents a step backwards in efforts to gain redress 
and justice for those Lao citizens now suffering impacts from the project 
for almost three full years.  The loss of villager food security and cash 
income through impaired fisheries has not been remedied in any way.  In 
effect, very poor rural villagers continue to subsidize the profits of the 
Theun-Hinboun Power Company. The project is in clear violation of ADB 
lending guidelines which state that local citizens should be left no worse 
off by their projects.

It is time for the donor countries to the ADB, along with the governments 
controlling Nordic Hydropower, to take a much stronger role.  At a minimum, 
they should insist that:

·	A comprehensive program of direct compensation to affected villagers be 
initiated immediately.  This should include reparations for past damage, 
dating from the construction and opening of the project, and ongoing 
compensation.  As recommended by the WCD, compensation should involve 
negotiated agreements with affected villagers and the development of 
systems of accountability through which villagers can hold the THPC 
responsible for project impacts and its performance in remedying them.

·	An independent Environmental Impact Assessment be conducted to study what 
the impacts of the minimum flow in the Nam Kading have been up to this 
point.  This assessment could look at what changes could be expected by 
eliminating the minimum flow, as proposed by THPC, orconverselywhether it 
should in fact be increased.  Any future agreements regarding minimum flow 
should include direct negotiations with affected villagers over the 
management of their river systems.

·	Full funding of all required mitigation and compensation measures be 
providedthrough reorienting the existing MCP budget, from the ample profits 
of the THPC and/or through the ADB and Nordic agencies responsible for the 
promotion and approval of the project in the first place.  While additional 
funding may be needed, this should not be at the expense of further 
socio-economic disruption and environmental destruction in the 
Theun-Hinboun region.

·	A comprehensive and participatory post-project evaluation be 
undertaken.  Such an evaluation would be timely as both the ADB and World 
Bank are looking at supporting new hydropower projects in Laos in the near 
future and it would be in accordance with new WCD recommendations.


December, 2000


  *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
  Aviva Imhof
  South-East Asia Campaigner
  International Rivers Network
  1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
  Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
  Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
  *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*


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