Controversial mega-dam takes shape in Laos

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

NAKAI PLATEAU, Laos (AFP) — Monsoon rains have always shaped life in this remote corner of Laos, where villagers traditionally work rice paddies and find food in mist-shrouded mountain jungles.

But this wet season, the tropical downpours herald radical change for the people living in this part of one of Asia's poorest countries -- the massive run-off will soon be harnessed to fill the country's largest dam.

The Nam Theun 2, a World Bank-backed, 1.45-billion-dollar hydropower project on the drawing board for more than a decade, has long been dogged by controversy over its impact on local residents and the environment.

For more than two years now bulldozers and trucks have criss-crossed the plateau near the Vietnamese border, and 8,000 workers have cleared...