Making of a dam

laos will build a 680- mw hydroelectric dam across the Nam Theun, tributary of the mighty Mekong river. About 450 sq km of land in the Nakai plateau - 40 per cent of the area - will be flooded and between 800-1,000 families will have to be resettled. Located some 250 km south of Vikentiane, the Nam Theun dam is a build-own-operate-transfer project to be developed by the Laotian government in collaboration with several foreign companies. The Laotian government will assume full ownership of the dam after 25 years. Laos has urged the international community to lend its support to this us $ 1.5-billion project. "The project will be implemented with great care being given to environmental and social impacts," said Khammone Phonekeo, vice minister of the ministry of industry and handicraft.Most of the electricity generated will be exported to Thailand, from ad 2004. Thailand currently imports 195 mw of electricity from Laos - 150 mw from the Nam Ngum dam and 45 mw from the Xeset dam.