The livelihood reconstruction of resettlers from the Nam Ngum 1 hydropower project in Laos

Abstract

The Nam Ngum 1 hydropower project took place in the early 1970s and displaced about 23 villages and 570 households. This research focuses on two resettlement villages: Pakcheng and Phonhang. A comparison is made concerning the livelihood conditions of these two villages, resettled in 1968 and 1977, respectively. The methodology involved consultation meetings in each village and one-on-one interviews of 100 households (50 households per village). This case study has determined that in terms of family income for these two villages, Pakcheng is significantly more affluent than Phonhang. This is probably because Pakcheng is located along a main road and has far better facilities and irrigation systems.

Keywords:

• dam
• hydropower
• Laos
• Nam Ngum River
• resettlement

Acknowledgements

The authors are profoundly grateful to Professor Mikiyasu Nakayama, Professor Masahiko Kunishima, Professor Ryo Fujikura and Dr Hajime Koizumi for their guidance and intellectual support. The authors would like to acknowledge with sincere appreciation that this research was partially funded by the fund of the Mitsui & Co., Ltd, Environmental Fund. This study was also partly supported by KAKENHI (24310189).