Lawsuit 'to derail Mekong dam plans' | Bangkok Post: breakingnews

Lawsuit 'to derail Mekong dam plans'

Published: 7 Aug 2012 at 14.45
Online news:

A group of Thai villagers on Tuesday moved to block a state-run company from buying electricity generated by a hydropower dam in Laos in a bid to halt a US$3.6 billion project on the Mekong River that is opposed by downstream countries.

The 37 villagers filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court on Tuesday seeking the cancellation of an agreement for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to buy almost all the power from the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi dam. Major shareholders in Xayaburi Power Co, the dam's opereator, include Ch Karnchang Plc (CK), PTT Plc and Electricity Generating Plc (EGCO).

"Egat signed a contract without the process of consulting or giving information to stakeholders," said Teerapong Pomun, a member of Living River Siam, one of the groups that assisted the villagers. "The dam's construction in Laos will cause an impact in Thailand, and Thai authorities have not taken any action required by the constitution to study the impact."

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blob123
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Discussion 2 : 08 Aug 2012 at 07.472
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I think they should better decentralize the whole power grid and generation, because the problem looks more on organizing. E.g. we have every day power break down in Phuket, sometimes about 5-10 glitches of a couple of seconds and sometimes one or two hours. This is because of bad lines and bad organizing. It can be clearly seen at the south end of the island at promthep, there is a wind turbine but since this was built its idling, it never run and this for years. If they would use the natural resources (wind + sun) this could generate plenty of electricity. The problem is this would need some decentralizing but this power company in Bangkok wont give away something to locals because locals would get a share of the "power cake" and Bangkok wants all of it. This is in general one of the biggest problems in the country, everything is centralized in Bangkok, that cant work but brings money into the pocket of the relevant people in Bangkok etc.
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nowayout
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Discussion 1 : 07 Aug 2012 at 19.591
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Here come the country wide blackouts.
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