The Meteorology and Hydrology Department warned people living below part of the Nam Ngum I Hydropower Plant to move their possessions and livestock to higher ground as the plant released more water on Saturday.
The heavy rain in central parts of Laos last week caused the plant's water level to reach a dangerous height.
The danger level is 212.30m but the water level of the river that feeds the power plant reached 213.31m yesterday.
To ensure the safety of the dam, plant managers decided to release 2.4m of water, the department's Weather Forecasting and Aeronautical Division Deputy Head Mr Vandy Douangmala told Vientiane Times yesterday.
The water level on the lower part of the Nam Ngum River rose quickly after the plant released the water.
People and some crops in low-lying areas may be impacted by flooding, especially Thoulakhom and Viengkham districts in Vientiane province and Xaythany and Pakngum districts in Vientiane, he said.
He predicted that the water levels would drop again in the next few days.
The Meteorology and Hydrology Department is proposing to the power plant management committee that they only release 2m of water at a time to avoid flooding, Mr Vandy said.
According to a report from the hydrology sector, the last time the Nam Ngum I Hydropower Plant released water was in 2008 when the river's level reached dangerous levels. In 1996, the plant took similar action for safety reasons, he explained.
Hydropower is the main source of electricity in Laos and a vital source of export earnings.
By 2004, the export of hydropower-generated electricity accounted for 30 percent of the total export earnings of the country.
The government has adopted at two-pronged power sector development strategy that aims to increase access to electricity for the country's largely rural population and earn foreign exchange from the export of electricity.
Asean Affairs Global Magazine Villagers detained after protest
More than 100 villagers from four provinces were detained and questioned by Phnom Penh officials yesterday morning after they tried to distribute flyers urging the government to protect Prey Lang forest.
Some protestors say they were threatened with arrest and accused of degrading the city’s environment during their bid to preserve the largest lowland forest in Southeast Asia.
The nearly 3,600 -square-kilometre area spreads across six districts in four provinces: Kampong Thom, Kratie, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng.
Communities living around it, primarily Kuy indigenous people, say it is sacred and have warned that it is under threat from illegal logging and economic land concessions.
At 7 a.m. yesterday, 120 or so villagers had gathered at Preah Ong shrine opposite the Royal Palace for what the Cambodia Centre for Human Rights had said in a press release the night before would be a “Long Prayer for Prey Lang”.
After about an hour of prayer, the protestors – many of whom donned hats made of leaves in imitation of the threatened civilization in the blockbuster film Avatar – broke into groups of 10 and travelled to 10 intersections in the city to hand out the flyers.
At some intersections, commune police prevented them from handing out a single one and more than 100 were detained, according to a joint statement from three rights groups: CCHR, Licadho, and Community Legal Education Centre. The three groups said they “condemn [the] mass detention of peaceful activists in Phnom Penh, in which police detained … villagers for distributing flyers”.
Detained villager Young Chin, 26, from Kampong Thom province, said police at Chaktomuk commune office accused those detained of “not asking permission from City Hall and damaging the city’s environment.”
He and the others detained at that office were told to sign forms saying they would not protest again and were also warned that if they did they would be arrested, he said.
A NOI — The first-year implementation of the Government's Directive on the reinforcement and upgrade of the Viet Nam-Laos national marker system was reviewed at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday. Deputy Foreign Minister Ho Xuan Son , permanent member of the National Steering Committee on Land Border Demarcation and Marker Planting and President of the Viet Nam-Laos Border Marker Planting Committee, chaired the meeting.
The National Border Committee of the Foreign Ministry, a standing agency of the National Steering Committee on land borders, presented a report on the implementation of a plan on the reinforcement and upgrade of the Viet Nam-Laos border marker system.
Since the enforcement of Directive No. 631/CT-TTg, the marker programme had been accelerated. Both countries had defined 337 positions and erected 278 markers, according to the report.
Representatives of the Provincial Steering Committees on marker erection, as well as ministries and branches, exchanged experiences and discussed solutions to remove difficulties during the implementation process. They expressed their determination to fulfil the task by the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.
Son called on provincial steering committees and branches to thoroughly grasp the Directive and to speed up the process to complete the plan this year, to make a foundation for completing the task ahead of the deadline in 2012. — VNS
