Lao Authorities Allow Chinese Firm to Plant on Land Promised to Dam Collapse Survivors
A Chinese-backed firm is growing bananas on land promised by the government of Laos as compensation to survivors of a 2018 dam collapse that that has been described as the country’s worst flooding in decades, RFA’s Lao Service has learned.
The disaster occurred last July, when a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project collapsed following heavy rains, inundating 12 villages and killing at least 40 people in Laos’ southern Champassak and Attapeu provinces, and leaving many more missing.
The 2,000 hectare plot of compensatory land near Pindong village, Sanamxay district, Attapeu province was cleared by authorities three months ago on the understanding that the victims of the disaster would be able to grow crops there during this year’s rainy season, but the authorities recently allowed a Chinese investor to plant bananas there.
RFA’s Lao Service
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/laos-bananas-on-survivor-land-05292019154355.html
