Myanmar and Laos plan downstream Mekong’s biggest dam yet

At the remote, mountainous frontier where the mighty Mekong carves the border between Myanmar and Laos, planners have sketched the outline of a mega dam.It would be the largest hydropower project ever built on the river’s mainstream outside China, but analysts suspect the study into it may matter more than the dam itself.A 34-month joint feasibility study for the 2,790-megawatt project was agreed on July 4 during Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s state visit to Vientiane.Officials from both countries called the plan an “important symbol of Myanmar–Laos friendship”, saying it promised to strengthen energy security and support renewable energy goals across the wider region.Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing (left) walks with Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith after a memorandum of understanding signing in Vientiane on July 3. Photo: Myanmar’s Presidential Press and Information Bureau/AFPBrian Eyler, director of the Southeast Asia programme at the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington, said the dam announcement had come “as a total surprise” and called it “part of Myanmar’s new push to look like a legitimate government”.