Dams signal misery for Mekong River

A part of the Hau River in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang in the dry season TUOI TRE

http://vietnewsonline.vn/
via CAAI News Media

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Compiled by Thuy Hang

The proliferation of dams and hydropower plants along the Mekong River poses a severe threat to people’s livelihoods, experts warned at a conference held Wednesday in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

Dao Trong Tu, former deputy secretary of the Vietnam Mekong River Commission, said China is building three of 16 dams it has planned, while Laos and Cambodia are planning to build 11 others.

“We want fish, we can’t eat electricity for living,” a Cambodian fisherman was quoted by La Chhuon of Cambodia-based NGO Oxfam Australia, as saying.

Most fishermen who were interviewed were unhappy about the dams and did not care much about the compensation they get for relocating, he said.

“If people who make their living on the river are relocated to a mountain, how can they make their living any more?” he said.

Tu concurred, saying by changing the river's hydrology, blocking fish migration, and affecting the river's ecology, dams on the lower Mekong are likely to threaten the entire basin.

Carl Middleton of US-based environmental group International Rivers said the dams pose a huge threat to the region’s food security.

He estimated that countries in the Mekong basin could lose 700,000-1.6 million tons of fish and other catch a year due to the damming.

Nguyen Huu Thien, a Vietnamese expert on flooding, warned that the Mekong River’s hydrology would be totally dependent on the 11 dams planned by Laos and Cambodia.

The plans have long alarmed environmentalists, who say the damming will devastate Asia’s major waterway which runs from Tibet to southern Vietnam.

They warn that the planned mega-dams will displace tens of thousands of people, harm the fragile river ecology, and endanger species such as the rare Mekong giant catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin.

Vietnamese scientists said at the conference that the construction of dams and power plants could double the misery for Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region which already faces the threat of climate change.

Because of its long, low coastline and exposure to storms, Vietnam is considered one of the five countries most vulnerable to climate change.

The sea is already encroaching on sections of the delta, the country’s rice bowl.

According to a study by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 12.8 percent of the Mekong Delta will be under water if the sea rises by 65cm.

The Mekong River runs through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. All the countries except China and Burma are members of the Mekong River Commission.
The river runs through 13 provinces of Vietnam where it forms the Mekong Delta.