Xylem Inc, the water company whose equipment cleared New York tunnels after Hurricane Sandy in the US, won a customized-pumps contract for a controversial Mekong River hydropower dam under construction that will help provide electricity to 4 million people in Laos and Thailand.
Villagers hold fish-shaped signs and placards at Administrative Court in Bangkok June 24. A Thai court accepted a lawsuit against state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and four other state bodies for agreeing to buy electricity from a $3.5 billion hydropower dam being built in neighbouring Laos. The Xayaburi dam, which will be the first on the main stream of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, is at the heart of landlocked Laos's ambitions to supply power to the region, with Thailand set to buy around 95% of the electricity generated. Activists say the project threatens the livelihood of tens of millions who depend on the river's resources. (Bangkok Post photo)
Flygt pumps for the $3.5 billion Xayaburi run-of-river hydro project will allow fish migration through and around the dam between the upper and lower Mekong for about 200 species to aid in spawning and to mitigate ecological impacts, the Rye Brook, New York-based Xylem said in a statement.
Construction on the Laos dam - whose design includes fish-passing facilities - began two years ago, with operations expected to start in 2019. The pump contract is worth almost $20 million, Xylem said.
Laos's 11 Mekong dam projects have raised concern about disturbance of fish migration as well as the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of fishermen. Laos went ahead with the much bigger Xayaburi dam despite opposition from Vietnam and Cambodia. Xayaburi is now almost 40 percent finished.