Reconstruction of the livelihood of resettlers from the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project in Laos

Abstract

The Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydropower project displaced 6738 people from 17 villages and 1298 households. This research focuses on four resettlement villages. Household interviews were conducted to learn more about variations in living conditions, traditions and culture in the villages that were relocated independently compared to villages in which relocation had merged older villages together. The case study suggests that most resettlers wanted to remain exclusively with their own village members. However, it was impossible for every village to have its own resettlement location given the scarcity of the land and resources in the resettlement areas. As a result, some villages were merged with other villages in the newly developed resettlement villages. On a different note, the NT2 project provided superior compensation for the resettlers when compared with other similar projects in Laos. However, the NT2 project had insufficient land resources to satisfy the agricultural needs of the resettlers and thus created a situation where the livelihood of the villages will not be sustainable when the project concludes its support for the resettlers.

Keywords:

• dam
• hydropower
• Laos
• Nam Theun River
• resettlement

Acknowledgements

The authors are profoundly grateful to 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).