ລາວໂຮມລາວ ເພື່ອປະຊາທິປະໄຕ

NAKHAI PLATEAU and XAYABURI PROVINCE, Laos — In an isolated valley in central Laos where people live mostly in wooden stilt homes accessed by dirt roads, the thick concrete slabs and towering mechanical apparatuses of the Nam Theun 2 dam stand at odds with their surroundings.

Stark though the contrast may be, those behind the project’s development say the dam, which produces 1,070 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than a million homes — is an unequivocal contribution to, rather than imposition on, the communities it displaced along the Nam Theun river, a tributary of the Mekong.