Picture of the Week – 26.6.15 – The Nam Ou
By Tessa Bunney on 26 June 2015When I first visited the 200 year old Laoseng ethnic minority village of Ban Watai back in 2013, a few months after arriving in Laos, I took the local bus to Hatsa and a small boat along the Nam Ou river to the village, I was just passing through on my way to the Akha village of Chakhampa. Now the river is blocked by the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 6.
Not long after, the village cleared the forest and moved everything to a temporary location away from the river to make way for the water when the dam is completed.
This week I drove to Ban Watai along a new road. The Laoseng are fishermen, they have always lived along rivers, they have never had a road before.
In a few months time they will make their final move to a specially constructed village along with 3 other Laoseng villages.
