Vientiane Times, September 27, 2014

Khone Phapheng, Champasak, Laos

Thai consular officials visit the Don Sahong hydropower site in southern Laos, joining project staff and Champasak provincial officials to tour the site.

Two representatives from the Thai consulate visited the field office of the Don Sahong Project near Khone Phapheng on Friday 26^th September. The visit was part of the MRC Procedure for Prior Consultation into the Don Sahong Project, which commenced in July 2014 and is expected to last 6 months.

This was the third site visit by representatives of the MRC riparian countries. The Project had hosted previous visits by delegations from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and the MRC development partners in November 2013 and March 2014.

Mr Boonrong Pongstiensak, Thai Consul General based in Savannakhet explained that the purpose of the visit was a fact finding mission, to learn more about the to the Don Sahong Hydropower project, especially work to create new fish passages that will compensate for the loss of the Hou Sahong as a fish migration pathway.

The Thai officials were interested to learn about the fish passage design and to see the fish monitoring methods the Project has developed to measure the effectiveness of channel modifications.