Environmental research

Because the location of this village is too close to Mekong bank; peoples are living with fishery and two seasoning paddy growing. The banks of Mekong River along Ban Houay have been blighted by erosion problems for years and important parts of paddy land was disappear. It has a devastating impact on the lives and livelihoods of villagers in this village. Although they and local government officials have been dealing with the condition with courage and fortitude and develop survival strategies based on indigenous knowledge to protect the banks - grow the plants called Korlao with the expecting that these plants could naturally create protecting line, this creates a mass of roots, which protect the soil on the banks from erosion. But, there a lot can and should still be done to improve their lives and livelihoods. From SGP small grant, villagers decided to use the mixing of traditional and modern engineering technique to protect a 1,5 kilometer stretch along the bank of the Mekong. The technique was applied effectively and successfully by local communities in other parts of the country. Concrete frame will be established with simple bamboo walls underneath. The frame and bamboo walls will slow down the water flow and collecting soil and mud behind. It consequently will add the soil or mud along the river bank up to forty to fifty meters after the frame base. The experiences have shown that within three years the bank could expand up to 11 meters. Livelihood activities related to agriculture will be added to this erosion protection.

Lao Peoples Democratic Republic