Bangkok Post. April 8, 2003.

MEKONG NAVIGATION
Cabinet likely to freeze plan to blast Khon Phi Luang rapids
Boundary, ecological problems feared

Kultida Samabuddhi

Cabinet is likely to suspend a plan to blast the Khon Phi Luang rapids in
Chiang Rai province under the Mekong Navigation Improvement project to avoid
further complications in the Thai-Lao border demarcation.

Relevant agencies will discuss at today's cabinet meeting whether to delay
the project as proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.

Gen Chavalit had suggested that the project be put on hold until the two
countries could settle their differences on the water boundary.

A military source said if the rock blasting continued, Thailand might lose
part of its water boundary because of changes in the course of the river.

Initiated by the Chinese government in 1992, the project aims to improve
international trade links by enabling passage for larger cargo ships. China,
Burma, Laos and Thailand signed an agreement in June 2001 to widen the
navigation channel of the 5,594km-long river.

Under the project's first phase, around 11 reefs would be cleared, nine in
Laos, one near the Sino-Burmese border, and the Khon Phi Luang rapids in
Thailand's Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong districts.

A Marine Department official, who declined to be named, yesterday said a
Chinese-owned company was to have started blasting Khon Phi Luang to widen
and deepen the channel on April 15, but had to hold off the plan because of
the unsettled water boundary between Thailand and Laos.

He also quoted a Chinese official as saying that the Chinese government,
which donated around 250 million baht for the work, would be unhappy if the
job could not be completed by the end of April.

``The most dangerous reefs and shoals have already been cleared by Chinese
workers. The last one cleared under the first phase was on the Burmese-Lao
border, around 40km north of Khon Phi Luang,'' said the official.

Another 51 reefs would be blasted in the second phase so upto 500-tonne
vessels could travel straight from China's Yunnan province to Luang Prabang
in Laos.

Meanwhile, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Praphat Panyachartrak
yesterday said the ministry would set up a team of environmental experts to
look into the project's environmental implications.

The project could cause a great deal of damage to the Mekong river's
ecology, said Mr Praphat.

Chainarong Sretchua, director of the Chiang Mai-based Southeast Asia Rivers
Networks, backed the call to put the project on hold, saying that its
suspension would also allow concerned agencies to conduct a well-rounded
environmental impact assessment study.

``Environmental issues are as important as border issues. Mr Praphat should
take action against the project,'' said Mr Chainarong.

He claimed that Khon Phi Luang was Thailand's last spawning ground of one of
the world's largest and most famous freshwater fish, the Mekong giant
catfish or pla buek.

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