The Don Sahong Dam in Laos: Political Ecology, Infrastructure, and the Changing Spatialities of Impacts on Fish and People

The Don Sahong Hydropower Project (DSHPP), located in the Khone Falls area of Khong District, Champasak Province, southern Laos, near the border with Cambodia, has been amongst the most controversial hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin. Despite considerable regional and international opposition, the dam was finally constructed, becoming commercially operational in 2020. In 2011, I expressed serious concerns about the project’s potential impacts on long-distance migratory fish and associated fisheries, especially fish that migrate from Cambodia and Vietnam up the Mekong River to Laos and Thailand. However, my concerns have somewhat changed along with the circumstances, although they continue to focus on dam impacts on migratory fish. I am now particularly concerned about the indirect impacts of the DSHPP on the fishing livelihoods in the Khone Falls area, and the impacts of the dam on fish larvae and fish passing through the dam’s turbines when migrating downstream. Using a political ecology approach, this paper considers how infrastructure, in this case a large hydropower dam located on the Mekong River, has altered the spatialities associated with the project in particular ways.

老挝的东沙洪大坝：政治生态、基础设施以及对鱼和人影响的空间性的变化

关键词：湄公河、老挝、鱼类、水力发电、环境影响、基础设施

东沙洪水电工程（DSHPP）位于老挝南部占巴塞省孔恩瀑布地区，靠近柬埔寨边境，是湄公河流域最具争议的水电大坝之一。尽管遭遇该地区和国际方面的强烈反对，大坝最终还是建成了，并在2020年投入商业运行。2011年，我对此项目对长途洄游的鱼类以及相关渔业，特别是从柬埔寨和越南沿湄公河向上洄游到老挝和泰国的鱼类的潜在影响表示关切。然而尽管我仍继续集中关注大坝对洄游鱼类的影响， 我的注意力已经随情况变化而有所不同。我现在特别关切的是DSHPP 对库恩瀑布地区渔业生计的间接影响，以及大坝对鱼类幼虫和经过大坝涡轮向下游洄游的鱼类的影响。本文利用政治生态学方法，考查了基础设施——在本案例中即位于湄公河上的大型水电站—怎样以特定的方式改变了与此工程相关的空间性。

Translated by Li Guo