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Controversial EDF Dam in Laos Is UNDP's
Anti-Corruption Example, Panel Claims
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
June 25 -- Fighting corruption in
the water sector was the title of a laudable-sounding UN Development
Program panel
discussion on Wednesday. Two of the six speakers were from UNDP,
another was
listed
on the invitation as
Jean-Michel Devernay of the "International Hydropower Association."
Mr. Devernay spoke mostly about the $1.6 billion Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos,
of
which his real employer, Electricite de France, owns 35 percent.
The
connection between transparency and this for-profit investment in a big
dam in
Laos, the electricity from which will be sold almost entirely in
Thailand was
murky. Inner City Press asked Devernay to respond to criticism of the
project,
that impacted people are not being compensated and that decaying or
burned
biomass will dirty the water and causes greenhouse gasses.
That is a problem, Devernay acknowledged.
But, he claimed, there was a lot of public outreach by the Laotian
government.
Another
audience member, just back from surveying Laos for a water NGO,
reported that the
lack of public participation in Laos rendered dubious Devernay's
claims. Inner
City Press asked about people who have yet to receive any compensation.
Devernay wrote this off to "timing" issues, and praised the project and
EDF for having a
"respected" Panel of Experts. This Panel, however, recently reported on
quality of life that "a further decline is likely if the dam
shuts because the
settlers will be unable to cultivate draw-down areas for rice during
the rainy
season this year. Buffaloes are dying of disease and there are cases of
starvation at many villages and a drop in employment opportunities
associated
with the construction of the project."
This is transparency?
Dam on Theun River, compensation and decaying
biomass not shown
Even
the sponsorship
of the event was murky. While it was promoted with the four panel logo
of UNDP,
when one tried to register online
from UNDP's website, one was whisked to the site
of the U.S. Committee for the
UNDP, an organization which UNDP disowned connections to (when
it was exposed the the military
contractor Lockheed Martin has a seat on the UNDP-USA board).
There
was muttering
as the event ended that UNDP's own standardless engagement with Laos
might
explain some of the above. We'll see -- we will continue to follow
these
issues.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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