Project Description

Climate Change Impact Assessment of the Proposed Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project

About: The Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project is a hydropower generation facility planned for a location in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) within the lower Nam Ngiep Catchment approximately 145 kilometres (km) northeast of Vientiane and approximately 50 km north of Pakxan. The Nam Ngiep is a tributary to the Mekong River, joining the Mekong immediately upstream of Pakxan. Primary components of the Project are a concrete gravity dam, storage reservoir, main power station and re-regulation power station, and power regulation and transmission facilities.

The Project is designed as a hydropower facility, and the main dam and reservoir are not designed for flood control. The overall objective of the study was to assess the climate risk of the proposed Nam Ngiep Hydropower 1 Project (NNP1) in Lao PDR, and to identify measures to increase its climate resilience.

The first of its kind on a hydropower facility in Lao PDR and the Mekong, the study (i) assessed the impacts of climate variability and projected climate change on key parameters of the Project, including infrastructure, future runoff, sedimentation, dam safety, over-topping of concrete dam and earth-fill, and energy production; (ii) estimated the potential costs of these impacts; and (iii) presented the results of the assessment to the Borrower, ADB and other relevant stakeholders on the implications of the impacts of climate change on the project.