Sustainable Hydropower Master Plan for the Xe Kong Basin Lao PDR

The Master Plan was developed by the Natural Heritage Institute (NHI) and a team of international experts in full collaboration with the Government of Lao PDR (GoL). The purpose was to assist the GoL in implementing its Policy on Sustainable Hydropower Development that was decreed by the Prime Minister on January 12, 2015. The Master Plan has the potential to meet the country’s energy goals and preserve the last intact remnant of the most productive freshwater fishery in the world, second only to the Amazon in terms of biodiversity, with some 1200 aquatic species identified. In the Xe Kong, a tributary of the Mekong, up to 81 migratory species of fish and the livelihoods of millions are under threat from Lao’s hydropower development plans, including 7 large dams that are proposed for the mainstem of the Xe Kong.

Submitted to the GoL in early February 2018, the Master Plan was endorsed by the Prime Minister of Lao through an official directive to the relevant line ministries to adopt and implement the findings and recommendations of NHI’s Master Plan as the basis for further hydropower development for the entire nation. It is not often that a head of state so explicitly directs the implementation of recommendations from a foreign NGO on a course of development for sectors as sensitive and controversial as water and power.

This record includes a document summarizes the process behind and the key findings of the Master Plan. All volumes of the Master Plan, including the implementation strategy, can be downloaded from the resource section.