Information about NT2 hydropower project in Laos: A Library of Babel? It depends on your point of view

In “The Library of Babel,” Borges talks about the infinite nature of information and knowledge, because of its endless combinations. The information the Nam Theun 2 (NT2), the hydropower project in Laos which aims to generate revenues for poverty reduction following principles of social and environmental sustainability, offers a lot of angles—but thankfully, not infinite—from which to see the same piece of information over time.

So in this post I’d like to remind you of some key sources of information, like these websites:

1. The NT2 project website under the auspices of the World Bank.
2. The Government of Lao PDR Department of Energy and Promotion Development site
3. The Nam Theun Power Company (NTPC) website
4. The projects portal of the Asian Development Bank website
5. Some site related to various types of interested parties like International Rivers, Wildlife Conservation Society, Vientiane Times, The Bangkok Post, The Nation, and Al-Jazeera.
    

There’s a lot of information here, some current and some about the project in earlier stages.

I also recommend these useful documents:

• The Concession Agreement in both its summary version (pdf) to the public and the Schedule 4 (pdf)
• The Social Development Plan, which includes the Resettlement Action Plan
• The Project Appraisal Document (PAD), a World Bank document which was made available after negotiations concluded. This PAD also contains the Government Letter of Implementation (GLIP) which establishes the Government of Lao PDR’s commitment to NT2 as well as the Revenue Management Agreements (Annex 1 of the PAD)
• The Independent Advisory Assessments made public including those of the Panel of Experts and the International Advisory Group
• The many economic studies done prior to the appraisal of the project
• The updates to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank Board of Directors
• The Cumulative Impacts Analysis requested from the International Financial Institutions to the Government of Lao PDR
• The views of some stakeholders' groups expressed through letters and consecutive responses
• The wildlife and aquatic habitat initial surveys.
   

Even this list is incomplete, but it gives you some idea of the complexity of this project, and many different angles from which to look at it.