INFRASTRUCTURE IN LAOS
Laos remains a country with an underdeveloped infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. It has a basic, but improving, road system, and limited external and internal land-line telecommunications. Electricity is available 75 percent of the country. [Source: Library of Congress]
Journalist Carol Duffy wrote in the New York Times, Laos "suffers from formidable problems: a woefully underdeveloped infrastructure, an inadequate education system and virtually nonexistent health care.
But, Martin Petty of Reuters wrote: “Urban Laos is modernizing fast, with 19 commercial banks and new special economic zones offering tax breaks. The mobile phone sector is thriving, with its five operators boasting a staggering 10 million users among the 6.4 million population, suggesting many customers use several numbers. A $7 billion Chinese-led high-speed railway linking China with Thailand is planned and national carrier Lao Airlines last month expanded its fleet of eight propeller planes with the $91 million purchase of two Airbus A320 airliners. [Source: Martin Petty, Reuters, December 18, 2011]
Still, landlocked Laos is one of South-east Asia's poorest countries. Its strategy for development is based on generating electricity from its rivers and selling the power to its neighbors. Between 1988 and 1996, foreign investors pledged $5 billion, three quarters of which was slated to go to hydroelectric projects to supply Thailand with energy.
Energy in Laos
Laos is dependent on imports for virtually all of its petroleum. Many villages don’t have electricity. Some people have televisions and videos run by car batteries. Blackouts in Vientiane used to be common. On aid worker told the New York Times, "A whole industry has developed where someone comes around and takes the batteries into town to be charged so that everyone can watch all those dumb game shows from Thailand."
A) Electricity - production: 1.553 billion kWh (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 142. B) Electricity - consumption: 2.23 billion kWh (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 137. C) Electricity - exports: 341 million kWh (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 65. D) Electricity - imports: 999 million kWh (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 66. E) Electricity - installed generating capacity: 1.855 million kW (2009 est.), country comparison to the world: 105. [Source: CIA World Factbook ++]
Electricity - from hydroelectric plants: 97.3 percent of total installed capacity (2009 est.), country comparison to the world: 8. Electricity - from fossil fuels: 2.7 percent of total installed capacity (2009 est.) country comparison to the world: 200. ++
A) Crude oil - production: 0 bbl/day (2011 est.), country comparison to the world: 153. B) Crude oil - imports: 0 bbl/day (2009 est.), country comparison to the world: 205. C) Refined petroleum products - consumption: 3,391 bbl/day (2011 est.), country comparison to the world: 178. D) Refined petroleum products - imports: 1,918 bbl/day (2008 est.) country comparison to the world: 180. Pipelines: refined products 540 kilometer (2010). ++
A) Natural gas - production: 0 cu m (2010 est.) country comparison to the world: 151. B) Natural gas - consumption: 0 cu m (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 162. ++
Carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of energy: 1.189 million Mt (2010 est.), country comparison to the world: 164. ++
Energy in Laos in the 1990s
As of 1992, other provincial centers relied primarily on diesel generators, which are run for three to four hours nightly and serve only a fraction of the surrounding population. Most district centers do not have electricity other than small private generators that light the houses of a few dozen subscribers for several hours each evening. Automobile batteries and voltages inverters are used as a means of supplementing the limited hours of power. These devices enable Laotians to watch television and listen to stereo cassette players, even in remote locations. [Source: Library of Congress, 1994 *]
Despite assistance from the International Development Association, the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and other donors to increase rural electrification services, national consumption of electricity increased slowly. The average annual increase between 1970 and 1980 was 14.5 percent — an overall increase of 287 percent- -to 325 million kilowatt-hours. After 1980 the growth of consumption slowed greatly, to an average annual rate of just 1.5 percent, reaching 365 million kilowatt-hours in 1988. Per capita consumption was just 93.6 kilowatt-hours, one of the lowest rates in the region. *
According to the World Bank, energy consumption grew at an average annual rate of 4.2 percent between 1965 and 1980, slowing to 1.8 percent in the 1980-90 period. Fuelwood constitutes about 85 percent of total energy consumption. Per capita consumption of fuelwood is between one and three cubic meters annually, accounting for more that ten times the consumption of wood for commercial purposes. Total usage — including fuelwood and charcoal — was 3.9 million cubic meters in the 1985-87 period, a 21 percent increase over the 1975-77 period. In 1985 hydroelectric power accounted for approximately 5 percent of annual energy consumption. Most consumption was in Vientiane; domestic use accounted for about 89 percent in 1983 and industrial use, only about 10 percent. The transportation sector, especially civil aviation, which consumed imported petroleum products, accounted for the remaining 5 percent of energy consumption. *
The cost of fuel imports — primarily from the Soviet Union until 1991 — has placed a heavy burden on the economy, constituting nearly 19 percent of all imports in 1986. In 1989 approximately 124,000 tons of petroleum fuel were imported, an increase of nearly 40 percent over the preceding year. *
In 1987 an oil pipeline of 396 kilometers was laid from Vientiane to the border with Vietnam, close to the port of Vinh, facilitating the import of oil from the Soviet Union. The pipeline's capacity is 300,000 tons annually, considerably in excess of the annual national oil consumption rate of approximately 100,000 tons. *
Water in Laos
Drinking water source: A) improved: urban: 77 percent of population; rural: 62 percent of population; total: 67 percent of population. B) unimproved: urban: 23 percent of population; rural: 38 percent of population; total: 33 percent of population (2010 est.) [Source: CIA World Factbook ++]
Sanitation facility access: A) improved: urban: 89 percent of population; rural: 50 percent of population; total: 63 percent of population. B) unimproved: urban: 11 percent of population; rural: 50 percent of population; total: 37 percent of population (2010 est.). ++
Total renewable water resources: 333.5 cu kilometer (2011). Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): total: 3.49 cu km/yr (4 percent/5 percent/91 percent); per capita: 588.9 cu m/yr (2005). ++
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Laos-Guide-999.com, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Global Viewpoint (Christian Science Monitor), Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, NBC News, Fox News and various books and other publications.
Last updated May 2014