Theun - Hinboun

"[Before the dam] I used to be able to earn 100,000 kip from one hour's fishing. Now I must work hard all day for [the plantation company] to earn 20,000 kip."

Fisherman from Ban Nong Boua, along the Hinboun River, 2007.

When the Theun-Hinboun Hydropower Project in Laos was completed in 1998, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) called it a “winner” with “little for the environment lobby to criticize.” But International Rivers soon uncovered a different story. Today, the Theun-Hinboun Power Company (THPC) and the ADB admit that more than 29,000 people in 71 villages – mostly subsistence farmers – have lost fisheries, rice fields, vegetables gardens and fresh drinking water supplies as a result of the dam.

The project diverts water from the Theun to the Hai and Hinboun Rivers (see map), causing serious erosion and flooding in these river basins. Many villagers living along the Hai and Hinboun Rivers have abandoned wet-season rice fields because the floods have made rice cultivation unviable. The flooding has also caused water contamination, livestock deaths and other hardships for villagers living downstream. Alarmingly, water fluctuations have reportedly resulted in the death of several people. But THPC’s mitigation and compensation program started too late and has done too little to address these impacts, ignoring the recommendations of a review the company itself commissioned.

The Theun-Hinboun Power Company is a joint venture between the Government of Laos, Norwegian state-owned company Statkraft and GMS Power of Thailand. Although the project has made villagers poorer, it has generated windfall profits for its shareholders. Located downstream from the Nam Theun 2 Dam, Theun-Hinboun's earnings were boosted by the long delays in Nam Theun 2's implementation. To make up for the reduced water flows caused by Nam Theun 2 and to increase profits, the company is now planning to build a new dam on the Nam Gnouang River, a tributary of the Theun River. The new dam – known as the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project – will displace 4,800 people and effectively double flows down the Hai and Hinboun rivers, causing more flooding, erosion, fisheries losses and resettlement.

International Rivers is working to prevent construction of the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project until all villagers have been adequately compensated for the impacts caused by the Theun-Hinboun project.

LATEST ADDITIONS:

Mekong at Risk: Report Damns Plans to Make Laos the “Battery of Southeast Asia”

Power Surge: The Impacts of Rapid Dam Development in Laos

Letter to private banks on Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project

Video: Shannon Lawrence Discusses Lao Hydropower Projects

Theun-Hinboun Dam Nightmare Revealed: Resettlement Plan and EIA Riddled with Flaws

CONTACT US:

Aviva Imhof
aviva [at] internationalrivers [dot] org
+1 510 848 1155

Shannon Lawrence
shannon [at] internationalrivers [dot] org
+1-202-664-4616