Pennapa Hongthong
The Nation (Thailand)
Yunnan, China
China's talent for building dams is undeniable, but would her ancient engineers have been so at odds with Mother Nature?Published on January 20, 2008
Almost four hours after leaving downtown Lin Cang, a small city in China's Yunnan province, our bus stops. Here, halfway up the mountain, we can clearly see the Manwan Dam in the centre of the valley. To the right, almost dwarfed by the huge volume of water in the reservoir, is the Lancang River, the name by which the Chinese know the mighty Mekong. Gazing down at this narrow, slow-moving channel, I find it hard to believe that the Mekong has been dammed. Somehow the history books had convinced me that this was the one river that simply couldn't be conquered by man.
Originating in Tibet's Tanggula Mountains, the Mekong runs through Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia before joining the South China Sea in Vietnam and has several physical characteristics that have traditionally hindered development.
For example, in Yunnan and Tibet, the waterway snakes through valleys between mountains so high that access has always been difficult, if not downright impossible. Further downstream, in Burma and Thailand, shoals, rapids and reefs make it hard to navigate.
In 1866, a team of French explorers sailed from Saigon in an attempt to reach the river's origins by way of Cambodia and Laos. Their dreams were dashed when they reached the Khon Pa Pheng, also known as the Khone Falls, just outside Champassak in Laos. These unnavigable 21 metres of segmented rapids brought the expedition to an abrupt end, just six months after it had left.
In the 1950s, the US Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) drew up a comprehensive development scheme for the Mekong once it flowed out of China's Yunnan province. In its plan, which at that time was aimed at preventing the Mekong Basin region from falling under communist influence or domination, BuRec suggested a range of sites suitable for hydroelectric schemes. However, the plan failed to interest any of the Mekong's riparian countries.
Then the Chinese started building dams. Man Wan was the first but it isn't the only dam blocking the Lancang. In 2003, eight years after the completion of Manwan, the government finished work on the Dachaoshan Dam. Another three large dams are under construction and several more are in the pipeline.
China's success in damming the Mekong has revived the schemes initiated by BuRec half a century ago. Just last year, the Mekong River Commission allowed Chinese companies to conduct feasibility studies for six dams in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Vorasakdi Mahatdhanobol, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist and an expert on China, isn't surprised that the Asian giant has been able to overcome the Mekong.
"The Chinese are great at civil engineering - we only have to look at the Great Wall. Hydraulic engineering is part of their history," he says.
Vorasakdi reminds me of the Chengdu's Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, which I visited several years ago. This 2,200-year-old system, made of wood and stones, was so well designed that it's still being used today, preventing drought and flooding as well as providing water for five million farmers in the Chengdu plain.
According to Vorasakdi, China has always viewed dams as basic infrastructure, necessary for the country's development and economy. The reason why few were built had to do with internal problems such as civil wars among ethnic groups and the Cultural Revolution, which left little time for development and dam construction.
In 1978, with the country enjoying political stability, Deng Xiaoping embarked on a dam construction project. The Three Gorges Dam that blocks the Yangtze River and all the projects on Lancang river are a result of Deng's policy to modernise the southwestern part of the country.
Back at the Manwan, I board the bus again along with my fellow travellers - scientists from China's Institute of Hydrobiology, Japanese academics from their nation's leading universities and journalists from the Greater Mekong Region and Japan. Due to the narrow road and many sharp curves, we crawl down the valley, eventually stopping at a small restaurant where we board a boat for a trip on the reservoir.
As the two-storey vessel cruises along the vast body of water, I look up at the mountains and am surprised to see that some slopes have been converted into paddy terraces. The water is still and clear and a slight breeze caresses my face in the winter sunshine.
"The reservoir demonstrates the western style of water resources management. For them water is for recreation, for us water means life. That why the reservoir is a good place to take a vacation, but it's not good for the life of the people and the environment in the long term," says a Chinese scientist who asks not to be named.
If it were not blocked by the Manwan and other dams, the water in the Lancang River would flow freely downstream to countries where thousands of people depend on it for fish and riverbank farming. The dam, which is 132-metres high, can store 920 million cubic metres of water at maximum capacity, although an official at the Manwan hydropower station told me that the water level on the day of our visit was 89 cubic metres.
Vorasakdi is certain that the ancestors of those who built the Manwan would not have dammed the Mekong this way.
"The ancient Chinese water engineers did their jobs in a way that was friendly to nature. They didn't try to conquer nature like this present generation. The old generation always wanted to control nature in a holistic way; they believed human life co-existed with the environment. Today, we only think of using nature for our own benefit and don't care about the environmental impacts," he says.
As the bus drops us off in Lin Cang that night, I notice how the town is lit up with colourful lights powered by the Manwan dam. For urban people whose lives depend on modern facilities, the dam is a source of happiness. For those downstream whose survival depends on the Mekong River, the dam is a disaster as it deprives them of water and fish.
If the ancient Chinese engineers had been given the chance to "manage" the Lancang River, I wonder if we would perhaps have ended up with a hydropower system that would enrich lives in both the upper and lower parts of the river rather than just those at the Manwan Dam?
Almost four hours after leaving downtown Lin Cang, a small city in China's Yunnan province, our bus stops. Here, halfway up the mountain, we can clearly see the Manwan Dam in the centre of the valley. To the right, almost dwarfed by the huge volume of water in the reservoir, is the Lancang River, the name by which the Chinese know the mighty Mekong. Gazing down at this narrow, slow-moving channel, I find it hard to believe that the Mekong has been dammed. Somehow the history books had convinced me that this was the one river that simply couldn't be conquered by man.
Originating in Tibet's Tanggula Mountains, the Mekong runs through Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia before joining the South China Sea in Vietnam and has several physical characteristics that have traditionally hindered development.
For example, in Yunnan and Tibet, the waterway snakes through valleys between mountains so high that access has always been difficult, if not downright impossible. Further downstream, in Burma and Thailand, shoals, rapids and reefs make it hard to navigate.
In 1866, a team of French explorers sailed from Saigon in an attempt to reach the river's origins by way of Cambodia and Laos. Their dreams were dashed when they reached the Khon Pa Pheng, also known as the Khone Falls, just outside Champassak in Laos. These unnavigable 21 metres of segmented rapids brought the expedition to an abrupt end, just six months after it had left.
In the 1950s, the US Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) drew up a comprehensive development scheme for the Mekong once it flowed out of China's Yunnan province. In its plan, which at that time was aimed at preventing the Mekong Basin region from falling under communist influence or domination, BuRec suggested a range of sites suitable for hydroelectric schemes. However, the plan failed to interest any of the Mekong's riparian countries.
Then the Chinese started building dams. Man Wan was the first but it isn't the only dam blocking the Lancang. In 2003, eight years after the completion of Manwan, the government finished work on the Dachaoshan Dam. Another three large dams are under construction and several more are in the pipeline.
China's success in damming the Mekong has revived the schemes initiated by BuRec half a century ago. Just last year, the Mekong River Commission allowed Chinese companies to conduct feasibility studies for six dams in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Vorasakdi Mahatdhanobol, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist and an expert on China, isn't surprised that the Asian giant has been able to overcome the Mekong.
"The Chinese are great at civil engineering - we only have to look at the Great Wall. Hydraulic engineering is part of their history," he says.
Vorasakdi reminds me of the Chengdu's Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, which I visited several years ago. This 2,200-year-old system, made of wood and stones, was so well designed that it's still being used today, preventing drought and flooding as well as providing water for five million farmers in the Chengdu plain.
According to Vorasakdi, China has always viewed dams as basic infrastructure, necessary for the country's development and economy. The reason why few were built had to do with internal problems such as civil wars among ethnic groups and the Cultural Revolution, which left little time for development and dam construction.
In 1978, with the country enjoying political stability, Deng Xiaoping embarked on a dam construction project. The Three Gorges Dam that blocks the Yangtze River and all the projects on Lancang river are a result of Deng's policy to modernise the southwestern part of the country.
Back at the Manwan, I board the bus again along with my fellow travellers - scientists from China's Institute of Hydrobiology, Japanese academics from their nation's leading universities and journalists from the Greater Mekong Region and Japan. Due to the narrow road and many sharp curves, we crawl down the valley, eventually stopping at a small restaurant where we board a boat for a trip on the reservoir.
As the two-storey vessel cruises along the vast body of water, I look up at the mountains and am surprised to see that some slopes have been converted into paddy terraces. The water is still and clear and a slight breeze caresses my face in the winter sunshine.
"The reservoir demonstrates the western style of water resources management. For them water is for recreation, for us water means life. That why the reservoir is a good place to take a vacation, but it's not good for the life of the people and the environment in the long term," says a Chinese scientist who asks not to be named.
If it were not blocked by the Manwan and other dams, the water in the Lancang River would flow freely downstream to countries where thousands of people depend on it for fish and riverbank farming. The dam, which is 132-metres high, can store 920 million cubic metres of water at maximum capacity, although an official at the Manwan hydropower station told me that the water level on the day of our visit was 89 cubic metres.
Vorasakdi is certain that the ancestors of those who built the Manwan would not have dammed the Mekong this way.
"The ancient Chinese water engineers did their jobs in a way that was friendly to nature. They didn't try to conquer nature like this present generation. The old generation always wanted to control nature in a holistic way; they believed human life co-existed with the environment. Today, we only think of using nature for our own benefit and don't care about the environmental impacts," he says.
As the bus drops us off in Lin Cang that night, I notice how the town is lit up with colourful lights powered by the Manwan dam. For urban people whose lives depend on modern facilities, the dam is a source of happiness. For those downstream whose survival depends on the Mekong River, the dam is a disaster as it deprives them of water and fish.
If the ancient Chinese engineers had been given the chance to "manage" the Lancang River, I wonder if we would perhaps have ended up with a hydropower system that would enrich lives in both the upper and lower parts of the river rather than just those at the Manwan Dam?
1 comment:
What does it mean the border-installation between Cambodia and Vietnam?
Generally, peoples may think that border installation or recognizing the border of one's country is free from colonizing or territory-expanding.
In reality, modern changes of world's politics do not require one country to invade or transpass other country by using military but the effective aggressive strategies are through:
1. Capitalism economic
2. Ethnic population planting and population assimilating
3. Creating shadow/puppet government
So what does it mean for Var Kim Hong and Hun Sen's administration to have supplemental border treaty and install those border poles?---when Vietnam's economic is gradually occupying Cambodia, Vietnamese illegal immigrants have not been well managed, and lackey mindset has been still existing in CPP's leadership?
These three premises are evident to testify leadership of Hun Sen and his present government.
KY
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