Tom Fawthrop
In Chiang Khan, a picturesque Thai tourist town bordering the Mekong River, the new year brought dark forebodings of a hydropower project slated to be installed just 2 kilometers away in neighboring Laos.
Thanusilp Inda, the head of Ban Klang village in Chiang Khan, expressed his anxiety over the future. “The Sanakham dam will be a disaster for ecology and fish, it will cause worse flooding,” he told the Diplomat.
Just before Christmas, the Thai government’s Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR) under the Office of the Prime Minister announced that the Mekong River Commission consultation process would suddenly go ahead, despite warnings from The Thai Human Rights Commission (THRC) to exercise caution.
In a letter sent to Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in November 2024, the THRC advised against any hasty action until a thorough assessment was completed of the transboundary impacts on Thai people and their livelihoods.
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