The Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project comprises seven dams, with a combined generating capacity of 1.27 GW. The cascade includes two phases. Phase One has been fully operational since October 2016 and Phase Two since September 2021. The project is owned and operated by PowerChina Resources under a build–operate–transfer (BOT) contract. Although the development pre-dates the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is now presented by PowerChina as a key BRI project. The dams have impacted the sensitive ecology and biodiversity of the Nam Ou River Basin, on which thousands of people depend for their livelihoods. Thousands of people were displaced—mostly ethnic-minority and Indigenous peoples.

Project Impacts

• Livelihoods: The dams will have significant impacts on the food sources, livelihoods, and cultures of local populations, including ethnic-minority and Indigenous peoples. Aquatic plant and animal species—such as freshwater prawns, riverweed, amphibians, and reptiles—feature prominently in local economies, livelihoods, and diets within the basin, but have not been documented through systematic studies.
• Environment and Biodiversity: A Cumulative Impact Assessment commissioned by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) predicts the projects will have a severe impact on biodiversity in the Nam Ou River Basin—in particular, for fish species, due to loss of connectivity, and conversion of the river ecosystem from free-flowing to a series of reservoirs. The Nam Ou River Cascade is also contributing to the wider impacts of hydropower development within the Lower Mekong River Basin, including alteration of water flows and blocking of sediment flows downstream, with serious impacts on ‘overall river morphology, aquatic habitats and productivity right through the whole river system’.
• Land: The Nam Ou River Cascade project has displaced thousands of villagers to resettlement sites and reduced their access to fisheries and the natural resources important for their livelihoods. In interviews conducted at the cascade by International Rivers with PowerChina Resources, the company said the project had caused the relocation of approximately 9,748 people from 127 villages. This has also undermined the existing livelihoods of tens of thousands more villagers within the basin according to cumulative impact assessment reports.
• Ethnic-Minority and Indigenous Peoples: Most of those affected within the Nam Ou River Basin are ethnic-minority and Indigenous peoples. The Nam Ou River and its tributaries have historically sustained local cultures and ways of life, including traditional practices, belief systems, and identities. Indigenous and other local communities were not afforded their right to free, prior, and informed consent to the project. The project’s environmental impact assessment and other information were not made publicly available.
• Socioeconomic: According to the Cumulative Impact Assessment, impacts on the river’s ecosystem are expected to have corresponding social and economic effects due to the loss of agricultural and forest land, reduction in fish catches, increases in demand for and prices of fish and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and pressure on wildlife. Livelihood sources have been destroyed or significantly reduced due to dam construction, without adequate compensation or acknowledgement of their loss. The river also supplies the water essential for the daily and agricultural needs of local populations.