Vietnam Utility Dares Mekong Devastation
Inertia and the inherent tone-deafness of an authoritarian regime have set Vietnam on a course toward economic and political disaster. It is not too late, however, for the ruling party’s top leaders, the Politburo, to disavow support for state-owned PetroVietnam’s plans to build a huge dam on the Mekong River.
If it is built, the US$2.3 billion Luang Prabang hydropower dam won’t be the first dam on the Mekong mainstream in Laos. That dubious distinction goes to a dam built further upstream at Xayaburi by a Thai consortium. And three other dams, all financed and constructed by Chinese firms, would likely be put into service before the project led by a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, PV Power.
The dam foreseen at Luang Prabang will be a uniquely Vietnamese political disaster, however, because, barring 11th hour reconsideration, it will be the Vietnamese regime that allows this project to go forward.
David Brown
