DPA
Bangkok - The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has failed to prevent six dam projects from moving ahead on the regional river despite unanswered questions about environmental and social impact of the schemes, environmental and civil society groups said Tuesday.
'We urge all donors to review their support to the MRC,' said Premrudee Daoroung, director of the Towards Ecological Recovery & Regional Alliances (TERRA), one of 201 groups to sign a petition blasting the four-party Mekong River Commission for failing to protect the river's fisheries and people dependent on the waterway, the longest in South-East Asia.
International donors to the MRC will meet on Thursday in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to assess the commission's recent performance.
The MRC was set up in 1995 as an inter-governmental mechanism to facilitate cooperation between the four lower Mekong River-basin countries - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - in assuring the sustainable development of the river, which courses through all four countries and starts in China.
Between June 2006 to June 2007 the MRC has received 23 million dollars in aid from 17 international donors, including the governments of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and European Commission, among others.
And yet the MRC has failed to sound the alarm on six new hydro-dams planned on the Mekong River since 2006 that will have a dubious impact on the sub-region's environment and fisheries.
'Despite the serious ecological and economic implications of damming the lower Mekong, the Mekong commission has remained notably silent,' said the petition.
The six dams - four in Laos, one each in Cambodia and Thailand - will be built by Thai, Malaysian and Chinese companies with most of the electricity sold to Thailand.
Up to 75,000 people could be displaced if the dams are built.
Research conducted by the MRC in 2004 identified dams built for irrigation, hydroelectricity and flood controls as 'the overriding threat to the future of the Mekong's fish and fisheries,' and yet the same commission has failed to object to the new dam projects.
'We would like the MRC to make known their standpoint on the six dams,' said Premrudee. 'And the next point will be, why does the MRC keep getting money and technical assistance.'
The MRC is currently headquartered in Vientiane, Laos, a communist country that is notorious for its lack of 'transparency' in decision making and information sharing.
Among the other country members only Thailand has a strong civil society and environmental movement. Vietnam is a communist state and Cambodia used to be one.
'The MRC system needs to be reformed,' said Surichai Wungaeo, director of Chulalongkorn University's Social Research Institute. 'It needs to see it's role not only as a facilitating mechanism for building dams but also be concerned for the sustainable development of the region.'
'We urge all donors to review their support to the MRC,' said Premrudee Daoroung, director of the Towards Ecological Recovery & Regional Alliances (TERRA), one of 201 groups to sign a petition blasting the four-party Mekong River Commission for failing to protect the river's fisheries and people dependent on the waterway, the longest in South-East Asia.
International donors to the MRC will meet on Thursday in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to assess the commission's recent performance.
The MRC was set up in 1995 as an inter-governmental mechanism to facilitate cooperation between the four lower Mekong River-basin countries - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - in assuring the sustainable development of the river, which courses through all four countries and starts in China.
Between June 2006 to June 2007 the MRC has received 23 million dollars in aid from 17 international donors, including the governments of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and European Commission, among others.
And yet the MRC has failed to sound the alarm on six new hydro-dams planned on the Mekong River since 2006 that will have a dubious impact on the sub-region's environment and fisheries.
'Despite the serious ecological and economic implications of damming the lower Mekong, the Mekong commission has remained notably silent,' said the petition.
The six dams - four in Laos, one each in Cambodia and Thailand - will be built by Thai, Malaysian and Chinese companies with most of the electricity sold to Thailand.
Up to 75,000 people could be displaced if the dams are built.
Research conducted by the MRC in 2004 identified dams built for irrigation, hydroelectricity and flood controls as 'the overriding threat to the future of the Mekong's fish and fisheries,' and yet the same commission has failed to object to the new dam projects.
'We would like the MRC to make known their standpoint on the six dams,' said Premrudee. 'And the next point will be, why does the MRC keep getting money and technical assistance.'
The MRC is currently headquartered in Vientiane, Laos, a communist country that is notorious for its lack of 'transparency' in decision making and information sharing.
Among the other country members only Thailand has a strong civil society and environmental movement. Vietnam is a communist state and Cambodia used to be one.
'The MRC system needs to be reformed,' said Surichai Wungaeo, director of Chulalongkorn University's Social Research Institute. 'It needs to see it's role not only as a facilitating mechanism for building dams but also be concerned for the sustainable development of the region.'
8 comments:
It's a fair game (would you say)! Quite simple (I would say so)!
You (the donors) cut the aid -- people will starve. The choice is yours!
Well, no one has more experience than the MRC, and I trust them completely.
Hell, if worse come to worse, we'll just knock down the Dams and done with it. So what is with all the paranoid?
How the hell do people starve by not funding the MRC?????!!!!!
Are you talking about the people employed by the MRC??
Ok then let's continue to fund another corrupt sham organisation who will not protect the environment, dam the Mekong and displace AND STARVE millions of people in all 3 countries, but hey at least the employees of MRC will have food to eat, right!
Guys, so far there are a couple new dams in the Mekong river in China already, and we did not see any impact on the environment other than ordinary. Thus, it should be okay to have more Dams. The challenge is to keep the dams from losing grip during the rainy season when everything turn muddy and soft.
To 6:20 PM
You have no brain.
It is wellknown that China is the most polluted country in the world.
Anyway, people can only see money $$$ and don't take care the poor people who have nothing to eat.
It is so sad to see that most of people are selfish.
You fucking crazy shit moran! Building a dam(n) does not have any impact on the environment? You can't be serious!
Environmentally, you must be fucking kidding yourself!
7:13, the Mekong river in China is not polluted. It is a nice clear blue water from the mountain and safe to drink from it directly without the need to chlorinate it. It doesn't start to turn muddy brown until it start to pickup the mud particle from the muddy clay land surface about half way through Laos. And as the water continue to zigzag through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, more and more mud particle are pick up from the similar land surface and tuned the water darker and darker as it is on the way to the ocean in south Vietnam.
7:26, you can't develop without impacting something, but we can minimized the effect by design the dam with the eco system in mind.
One of my concern might be the increase is mosquito population that is responsible for dengue fever in the region. However, I am sure we can compensate for this by adding aquatic lifes that prayed on the mosquito lavas to keep the mosquito population under control.
But no matter what you do naturally, the mosquito number will slowly to rise, one way or another, and we will be forced to used some pesticides to make up the difference. Hence, this might slowly impacting our environment, unless there are safe mosquito pesticide that is economical in large quantity so that we can spray it from a plane in problem area every other month or so.
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