Nam Theun 2 Trip Report and Project Update - BankTrack

International Rivers NetworkFish from the Xe Bang Fai, caught by a hinterlands' villager. Photo by Shannon Lawrence, IRN.XE BANG FAI DOWNSTREAM PROGRAMThe Xe Bang Fai river will receive large amounts of additional water from the Nakai Plateau reservoirafter it passes through the power station and the downstream channel. 6 More than 120,000 people 7 inthe Xe Bang Fai area will be negatively impacted by the Nam Theun 2 project. NTPC says 8 it is planningfor the worst-case scenario along the Xe Bang Fai, which means 85% fish losses, increased high frequencyfloods in the Xe Bang Fai and its tributaries, erosion of riverbanks and loss of riverbank gardens, major waterquality problems, and transportation difficulties for downstream villages.IRN visited 10 villages in the lower, middle and upperXe Bang Fai, six of which are part of NTPC’sDownstream Livelihood and Asset Restoration pilotprogram. As detailed in the 2001 independent study,The People and their River, villagers’ lives are intimatelyintertwined with the Xe Bang Fai and its wet and dryseason cycles.Most villagers with whom IRN spoke said that XeBang Fai fish and aquatic products are a critical sourceof food and income, despite the fact that fish catcheshad declined in recent years. A woman in Ban BouengXe explained, “We depend very much on fish. We go topaddy fields during the day and come back to fish everyevening.” In Vernsananh, villagers said they dependmostly on fish, snails, small crabs and vegetables fromthe river as their main source of food and income.Villagers have learned to anticipate the Xe Bang Fai’sflood cycles, moving their small livestock and otherassets to higher ground when possible. But Ban DongKa Sinh villagers said their buffalo still die after eatingthe grass that has been submerged under floodwaters.The main flood-related concern of Xe Bang Fai villagersis their wet season paddy. Villagers told IRN11