Opening Up Remote Lao Provinces May Curb Opium Growing

Some of Lao PDR’s remoter provinces will be more accessible after a roads project for which the Asian Development Bank December 7th approved a loan of US$25 million. The Rural Access Roads Project will link farming communities to market centers, increase job and income-earning opportunities — and, in so doing, hopefully reduce opium poppy production.

The project will improve life for over 6,000 households, many from ethnic minorities, in 70 villages in some of the country’s most disadvantaged districts, which have high levels of mortality, illiteracy and malnutrition. It will also contribute to the national drug control and opium substitution program.

The project will upgrade 220 km of national and provincial roads and 100 km of feeder roads in the province of Houaphan. The feeder roads have been identified with community assistance under the United Nations (UN) International Drug Control Programme.

The total project cost is US$37.5 million. The ADB loan will come from its concessional Asian Development Fund which means it is repayable over 32 years, including a grace period of 8 years. The interest rate will be one percent per annum during the grace period and 1.5 percent per annum thereafter. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for International Development Fund (OPEC Fund) has agreed to provide cofinancing of US$5 million.

The executing agency will be the Ministry of Communication, Transport, Post and Construction, with the Department of Roads responsible for overall coordination. The project is due for completion by end October 2004. [ADB press release]

CARE Reports on Lao Floods

Data from the National Disaster Management Office and the Ministry of Agriculture on the extent of the flood damage nationally as of September 22nd was 15 people killed, 80,000 hectares flooded, 63,000 hectares of rice paddy damaged and almost one million people affected.

Floodwaters built up slowly in most areas allowing families to move their livestock to higher ground. Even within the most affected districts of Khammouane Province, the most affected province, the ovewhelming majority of affected families remain in their homes with rice stores, livestock and other assets largely unaffected. The World Food Program, the National Disaster Management Office, the Danish Red Cross and NGOs operational in other areas of the country agree that at this stage we are witnessing the start of a slow-onset emergency. Most households currently have food reserves for the next 1–2 months.

However, the extent of crop damage to the country is going to be considerable and extensive, with hundreds of villages likely to experience a 90%+ crop loss. A high proportion of villages visited during a CARE rapid assessment in Khammouane have lost their entire wet season crop, with many others expecting losses upwards of 70%. Irrigation infrastructure, required for the dry season crop has also been severely damaged in many areas. Further the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that some 3,000 tons of rice seed will be required nationally to enable the dry season crop to be cultivated.

US Provides Flood Assistance and New Dam

Susan Sutton, acting Deputy Chief of Mission to Laos, presented a check for $25,000 to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare on November 18th to assist relief efforts in provinces affected by floods in September. The funds from USAID’s Foreign Disaster Assistance Office supplement $99,500 for emergency rice seed for flood affected farmers in Khammouane and Savannakhet provinces. CARE with US Embassy support is distributing 200 tons of rice seed to 4,000 families.

Charge d’Affaires Karen Stewart, handed over the Namsat microhydropower dam and irrigation system in Vieng Thong district, Huaphan Province on October 23. It was built under the Lao-American Integrated Development Project (LAIDP) to provide opportunities for people to move from slash and burn cultivation and opium growing to other forms of cultivation.

The $ 2,000,000 project began in 1998, to generate 250KW of electricity in a previously unpowered area and irrigate 180 hectares of rice fields during the dry season. It is part of the $17,000,000 LAIDP which also involves road construction. In the words of Province Governor Chur Ching Vang the project has helped many families to, “grow other crops and breed animals for the market. Previously there were more than 1,000 families involved in opium growing, but by 1999 there were only 400.” [from stories in the Vientiane Times of October 27-30 and November 24-27]