Mainstream dams are killing the mighty Mekong River, slowly and painfully
Can Tho City, Vietnam – A Vietnamese professor of Can Tho City University, argued that after the planned mainstream Mekong River dams were built in China (16 dams), Laos (9 dams), and Cambodia (2) and assuming that they were all profitable, but the losses in aquaculture and farm produces could easily outstrip any profit from them. He said this at a forum organized by the Can Tho City government and a number of NGOs active in nearby countries, last February, titled,’ The environment and livelihoods along the Mekong River.”
The discussion aimed at finding ways to preserve the rich bounty of this river in the face of a stampede to build mainstream dams in the river’s upper reaches. China had already built three dams on the Mekong-Lancang River and she had started on the fourth one. One of them was huge that it could hold the water of all the lakes in Southeast Asia. La Chhuon, from Oxfam Australia office in Cambodia, voiced the deepest sentiments of the Cambodian fishermen who lived in the areas where dams would be built and surveys were being carried out, said “We want to eat fish, we cannot live by eating electricity.” He added that none of the fishermen he interviewed were happy with the project because of the prospect of losing their livelihood. The fishermen, he said did not want any compensation. He asked the question,” If the fishermen were relocated to a mountainous area, could they adjust to another way of life?”
Dao Trong Tu, former secretary-general of the Vietnam Committee for the Mekong River, said that the construction of planned dams would change the annual rhythm of the flood and ebb, block the migration of fish, reduce the volume of alluvial soil and seriously harm the downstream area.
Dr Carl Middleton of International River Organization, a USA NGO, agreed with Tu, but added that it would threaten food security in the region. Middleton estimated that the countries located in the Mekong River basin would lose between 700,000 and 1.6 million tons of river fish each year owing to the planned dams.
Another problem, he pointed out, was that the river and delta people cannot easily switch to raising cattle and poultry as alternatives to their traditional reliance on protein from fish and aquatic products. A vice-chairman of Can Tho City, Nguyen Thanh Son, warned that the mammoth dam infrastructure, stretching from Mekong-Lancang in China to the delta in Ho Chi Minh City might end in total failure, “If a country seeks to take water just to satisfy its own need, there would be impacts on other countries. The long-term development in the entire region might come to a virtual standstill. (Press release from Tom Fawthrop, journalist and filmmaker and news items archive of Sunny)
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