From Flickers to Full Power: When Reliable Electricity Arrived in Banmai

Picture: New Mandala

In this article published by New Mandala, Floramante S.J. Ponce asserts that one rural community in Laos displaced by a BRI-backed hydroelectricity project reveals how the novelty of round-the-clock electricity affects everything from household chores, education, and family life, to more deep-seated ideas about space, temporality, personal worth, and the spiritual world.

It was a dry November evening in 2018 when Sith, a man in his twenties, invited me to drink with his friends in Banmai. “What are you studying here in Banmai Resettlement, Ay [brother]?” Sith asked me as we headed toward his family’s house after buying a case of beer. I told him I was there to study electricity.“Are you an engineer?” he asked. “I also studied electrical engineering after secondary school, but I failed to finish it.”

“No, I’m studying social science. I’m studying resettled villagers’ experiences of new electricity,” I said.

“Experiences of new electricity, [bo]? Before moving here, we only had a small solar panel. We could turn on our light bulbs for two to three hours only. It was lesser during rainy days. We usually used oil lamps. We had to sleep early, because it’s very dark at night. We just stayed at home, because we’re afraid of accidents or malevolent spirits [phihay].  Here, people are more productive at night because of new electricity. People can now use all types of electric appliances and devices. Electricity has made us ‘modern’ [thansamai]. Electricity has given us ‘comfortable bodies’ [sabaygay]. If you have money here, you can now live like urbanites [khônnaimuang].”

Many scholars have examined how dams on the Mekong mainstream and tributaries have impinged upon local communities who rely on the river system for food and livelihoods. However, there has been less scholarship devoted to how consumption of hydroelectricity in these communities has transformed the lives of the displaced.