With the creation of the Nam Gnouang Reservoir there were 12 villages, 630 HHs and over 4,000 people have been resettled into custom-built communities in 4 new and existing villages. Twelve villages have moved to their new homes since the first households resettled in 2009.The THPC resettlement policy ensures that these people receive immediate benefits in terms of housing, facilities and services. The challenge for the company and the villagers are to ensure that these new opportunities are translated into better livelihoods and living standards in the long term.

Resettlement facilities include:

• Quality new houses with electricity, toilets and water supply
• New schools and health centers with supplies
• All-weather roads
• Land for farming and other activities
• Irrigation schemes whereas feasible
• Tools and equipment

The resettlement program also provides technical support in agriculture and other fields to help people adjust to their new environments, and is designed to run for several years until households have achieved income targets. These targets are set at 25-40% above pre-resettlement levels to ensure that people are receiving benefits from the project.

In addition the resettlement package included cash compensation for various disturbances and losses, guaranteed access to communal forests, pastures, rivers and fisheries, and replacement of cultural assets such as temples and shrines. With a diverse resettlement population, the package had to be flexible according to each household's situation. Full details are available in the Resettlement Action Plan, available on this website.

Due to The License Agreement (LA) identifies attainment of income targets as the main indicator of livelihoods restoration. Thus, the village income target achievement is the final official step in recognition and formal acknowledgement by the government that all THPC obligations have been met in a village.

From 2016 – 2019,  THPC conducted a socio-economic survey in all target villages and conducted a detailed review of income monitoring and income-target determination that led to the adoption of consumption as the metric for evaluation of income, a method that more accurately determines income levels in rural villages. The monitoring results show all resettlement villages have met or exceeded their income targets in 2019, as well as THPC has fulfilled its obligations on livelihood restoration as required by the License Agreement (LA) in which have been formal approved by the Resettlement Committee (RC) of THPC Expansion Project Bolikhamxai Province.

Following completion of the resettlement and provision of all associated infrastructure and livelihoods restoration programs , THPC has fulfilled its obligations in resettlement villages and commenced community development planning using bottom-up approaches in 2018.

  
Resettlement villages feature better quality housing than in the old villages....

  
...and also offer new schools and facilities