The untamed roaring currents of the mighty Mekong have long enchanted travellers, inspired explorers, and sustained some 65 million inhabitants living off the world’s largest freshwater fisheries.
From its source in the snow-capped mountains of Tibet, the Mekong flows1880 kilometres through China and the heart of Southeast Asia to the fertile delta in Vietnam.
An environmental researcher in Vientiane, Laos, who calls herself Souvanna Thamavone, explained: “For the people here born on the Mekong, the river is like their blood, the principle of life. If the Mekong is blocked from upstream to downstream [by dams] it will be a shame.”
Further up the Mekong in Chiang Khong, northern Thailand, teacher and Thai leader of the international “Save the Mekong” campaign has a similar reverence for this majestic river:
“The Mekong is very special for the people. The community understands what is important for your life: water, forest , soil and culture.” Nita, a community organiser who has always lived by the banks of this river, said: “Many governments only think about the economy, nothing about nature for culture; they just think money. From dams, it is easy to make money.”
Now the mighty Mekong, with the second –richest biodiversity in the world and which has sustained countless generations of farmers and fishing communities, is under dire threat from investment in the rapid expansion of hydropower dams.
China has already built four dams on the Lancang (the Chinese stretch of the Mekong).
The colossal Xiaowan Dam, the tallest high-arch dam in the world at 292 metres high, was completed last August. It is only a meter or so shorter than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Four more in China and 11 dams approved by government planners in Laos and Cambodia have triggered a major controversy.
The Mekong, with its gigantic catfish growing up to 350 kg, a colony of endangered Irrawaddy dolphins, swirling currents, and majestic landscapes, a growing Mecca for ecotourism, could be on the cusp of irreversible changes to its ecosystem.
Dr Philip Hirsch, director of the Mekong Research Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia, is deeply concerned about the future: “The two dams Xiaowan and Nuozhadu (the next Chinese dam to be built ) will impact on the flow regime of the entire system all the way down to the delta in Vietnam.”
However, the authorities in Laos also want dams and have put their faith in hydropower as a formula to lift itself out of chronic poverty by selling power to its energy-hungry neighbours Thailand and Vietnam.
They have just become the first of the Lower Mekong nations to push ahead with a dam project on the Mekong at Xayaburi that is based on selling electricity to Thailand.
In accordance with international agreements among the four MRC nations (Mekong River Commission), the Laotian government has formally notified the MRC last month. This sets in motion a six-month consultation process with Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, who are entitled to raise objections.
Dams reduce sediments and silt which carry essential nutrients for fish. Taming the swirling waters of nature and harnessing one of the world’s great rivers to satisfy the thirst for energy will cause a gloomy future, Dr Hirsch predicted. “This cascade of dams will transform the Mekong, reducing the untamed waters to a series of still reservoirs and stagnant pools.”
The foreign investors, technocrats, and Lao authorities all insist that their designs will bring more development to this poor landlocked nation, but many Laotian villagers remain sceptical. Souvanna Thamavone reports that when you talk to local people, they say “development of dams brings brightness in the eyes, but darkness in the heart.”
It has triggered alarm bells among environmental scientists, NGOs, and Mekong communities about a headlong rush into a dam-building spree before the environmental impacts have been fully understood.
Juha Sarkkala, a Mekong specialist from the Helsinki Institute of the Environment in Finland, noted with grave concern: “There is a very fast pace of hydropower development. We need a time out. We need a moratorium on dams to consider a different strategy of development.”
The Thai NGO forum covering 24,000 people in riverine communities in northern Thailand has called on the country’s prime minister to cancel commitments by the EGAT (The Thai Electricity Company) to purchase electricity from the Xayaburi dam.
A warning has also been issued by the WWF that if the Xayaburi dam is built, it will almost certainly wipe out the endangered Giant Catfish that can reach up to 350kg in weight.
A further 41 species of fish face extinction. Downstream in Southern Laos and Cambodia, a colony of Irrawaddy dolphins stands little chance of survival.
A Thai parliamentary committee is studying the impact of dams on the Mekong chaired by Kraisak Choonhavan MP. The former senator and deputy leader of the ruling Democrat Party said: “The effect of the Xayaburi Dam will be devastating on all the countries --
Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.”
China is not a member of the Mekong River Commission and its framework of international cooperation. Its unilateral dam programme has been widely criticized.
But in the case of the Xayaburi dam, Laos is a member of the MRC. Xayaburi becomes the first test case for treating a Mekong dam project as an international issue. The MRC six-month consultation process comes into effect between the four MRC member nations on whether or not the dam should be allowed to go ahead.
If Thailand and Vietnam express serious objections, then the dam is stoppable. Laos will not go ahead unless it is sure Thailand will buy the electricity.
Many of the downstream dams will block fish migration, especially the Don Sahong with its site near the spectacular Khone Waterfall, sitting astride the only passable channel for fish swimming up from Cambodia and Vietnam.
For Cambodians who depend on freshwater fisheries for 81 percent of their protein intake, dams that block fish migration, could be a disaster for both food security and nutrition.
Professor So Nam from the Institute of Fisheries in Phnom Penh explained: “People totally depend on fish. We have one of the highest rates of fish consumption in world. Every year Cambodians catch about half a million tons of fish. It provides employment to more than 6 million people.”
Xayaburi, a critical decision
The Mekong River Commission views dam development as balancing opportunities against risks. The final SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment) report by independent consultants to has made clear the enormity of risks in going ahead with more dams.
SEA CONSULTANTS FINAL REPORT OCTOBER 2010
Total fish production at risk from mainstream dam development ranges between 700,000 tonnes and 1.4 million tonnes
1) Cease all dam development
2) Defer decision on all mainstream dams for a set period
3) Selective approval of dam projects
4) Market-driven development and allow all dams
The SEA consultants preferred option 2 with a strong recommendation that decisions on mainstream dams should be deferred for a period of up to 10 years, with reviews made every three years.
(*) Tom Fawthrop has reported from the region for over 25 years and written extensively about the subject of Agent Orange and the campaign for justice, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia, and environmental issues for the British media including the BBC, the Guardian, and the Economist
