20 Oct 2016

The Lao Brewery Co. may produce the country’s most popular beer, but the company is out of favor in the village neighboring its brewery in Vientiane, where residents there blame it for polluting the air and water.

“There is a bad smell, and we cannot use the water in the marsh and canal because it is dirty,” a resident of the Salakham village told RFA’s Lao Service.

“Polluted water from the Lao brewery flows into Salakham marsh, and now people cannot catch fish there like they did in the past,” added the resident who spoke on condition of anonymity…

The company, which is jointly owned by the Lao government and the brewing giant Carlsberg, claims a 99 percent share of the Lao beer market. BeerLao, the nation’s most popular beer, is among the products it manufactures in its brewery in Vientiane’ Hatsayfong district…