(THAKHO, Lao PDR) — Don Sahong Power Company (DSPC) has completed its latest annual dry season work to improve upstream fish migration pathways across the Khone Falls. The Company has been making improvements to natural channels every dry season since 2011.

The current work, completed in April 2014, was designed to complement previous channel improvements within the Hou Xang Pheuak.

Dr Peter Hawkins, environmental manager for the Don Sahong Project, explained the objective of the channel modification program is to ensure that existing channels like Hou Xang Pheuak can provide alternate pathways for fish that would otherwise be blocked from migrating upstream by the proposed barrage across the Sahong channel.

As many as 40 workers from nearby villages were employed in March and April on the work, which is only possible for a short time each year when river levels are low enough for safe access to the channels. The workers used portable rock-breaking drills and other manual tools to confine the mechanical damage to specific rock obstructions within the channel.

Garry Thorncraft, the fisheries biologist who is designing the channel improvements for the Don Sahong Hydropower Project, said: ???There is always some uncertainty, but in my expert opinion, the development of new pathways in the Xang Pheuak and restoration of pathways in the Sadam channel, will be sufficient to replace loss of upstream dry season passage caused by the Don Sahong barrage???.