Can Tho (VNA) –Many scientists have asked the Vietnamese Government to propose Laos to suspendits Pak Beng hydropower project to wait for thorough assessment of theproject’s possible impacts on areas in the lower Mekong River.

They made the request at a seminar held by theVietnam National Mekong Committee in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on May12. The event aimed to consult experts in Vietnam’s southern localities aboutLaos’s Pak Beng hydropower project on the mainstream Mekong River.

The project is located in Pak Beng district ofthe Lao province of Oudomxay. It is the first of the 11 hydropower dams plannedto be built on the mainstream Mekong River, including nine in Laos and two inCambodia.

Minister of Natural Resources and EnvironmentTran Hong Ha, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee,said located at the end of the Mekong River, Vietnam is keeping a close watchon hydropower projects on the mainstream of the river. It is deeply concernedabout their impacts on the environment, socio-economic situation andlivelihoods of 20 million residents in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.

Accumulated impacts, resulted by the increase ofwater use in the upper river and climate change, reached their peak in theMekong Delta with drought and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2016,along with serious land erosion and subsidence in numerous places, especiallyalong the Vam Nao River in Cho Moi district, An Giang province, in late April,he added.

Prof. and Dr Nguyen Ngoc Tran, former ViceChairman of the National Assembly’s Committee for External Affairs, said theprovided report on the Pak Beng hydropower project’s impacts only took intoaccount statistics of six years – a too short period of time to make atrustworthy assessment of the project’s impacts.

He said this project will negatively influencethe Mekong Delta a lot, asking Laos to suspend the construction of this dam tomake another report giving more comprehensive evaluation of the project’simpacts.

Notably, the Pak Beng project is situated in anearthquake prone area, Tran said, noting that many earthquakes with 6-7magnitudes were recorded in areas near Pak Beng from 1935 to 2011. Earthquakewill influence the dam’s safety, but this problem hasn’t been included in theprovided report.

Echoing the view, Dr Vu Ngoc Long from theSouthern Institute of Ecology said the current report on the project lacks reliabledata and an evaluation of cross-border impacts.

MA Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent researcheron the Mekong Delta, attributed land erosion in the Mekong Delta mostly to ashortage of mud and sand. Meanwhile, the Pak Beng project’s biggest impact ison alluvium and sand sources, and it is just one of the 11 planned dams on themainstream Mekong River.-VNA