April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Leaders of six nations along Asia’s Mekong River meet today to bolster cooperation as a severe drought heightens concerns that dams in China have distorted water flows, depleting the world’s largest inland fishery.
The dry weather has reduced Mekong water levels to their lowest in three decades, affecting more than 60 million people in the lower basin, an area larger than the U.S. state of Texas. China agreed on March 25 to share water-level data at two dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Water is life,” Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission, said in a statement over the weekend, after a meeting of more than 200 activists, government officials and scientists. “Our increasing demands for food and energy depends on our ability to work together to develop and manage this precious resource.”
The drought has raised scrutiny about the river’s management as governments aim to harness its potential to provide food and electricity. Mainstream dams constitute “the single largest threat” to the Mekong’s wetlands and fisheries that benefit locals, the commission said in an April 2 report.
China’s capacity to improve water flows is “limited” as the river’s low levels are mainly due to a shortage of rainfall, said Bird, who heads the regional body that advises governments on managing the basin. Increased flows from China’s dams in January did help alleviate the severity of the water shortage, he said.
‘Fluctuating Unnaturally’
“The water in the Mekong River is not only drying up, but the water levels are fluctuating unnaturally,” Pianporn Deetes, an activist with environmental group International Rivers, said at a seminar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok last week. “Since the first dam was built, local people have seen a loss of fish catch and the destruction of aquatic resources.”
China and Myanmar, both dialogue partners of the Mekong River Commission, will send envoys to join the prime ministers of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam at today’s meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand. It is the first-ever summit of its kind.
Chinese officials have defended the country’s water management, stressing that it is also suffering from drought. Most rivers in southern China are at about 40 percent of normal levels and more than 600 have dried up completely, leaving almost 20 million people with shortages of drinking water, said Chen Mingzhong, a ministry of water resources official.
‘Upstream Country’
“As an upstream country with a high sense of responsibility, we do nothing harming the interest of riparian countries downstream,” Chen said in a presentation to counterparts at the summit in Thailand. China contributes about 13.5 percent of water flows to the lower Mekong.
China has pledged to strengthen communication with downstream countries, inviting them to a training program on flood management in June. Floods on the 2,700-mile river in August 2008 claimed lives in Thailand and Laos.
China has completed four dams to date and another four are planned before 2025 for a total of 15,200 megawatts, enough to provide electricity for 75 million people. Another 11 dams are in various stages of development downstream in the lower Mekong that would deliver the same amount of electricity.
“The Mekong has become one of the most active regions in the world for hydropower development,” the Mekong River Commission said in its State of the Basin report issued every five to seven years. The dams will “effectively stop” river fish migration, “leading to reduced production, substantial economic cost and social deprivation,” the report said.
Not All Bad
“You cannot say all dams are bad,” said Thanin Bumrungsap, vice president of Italian-Thai Development Pcl, Thailand’s biggest construction company. Thai farmers, for instance, “couldn’t grow rice two or three times a year as they do now if there were no dams, no irrigation systems.”
Rice production in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, may decline as drier-than-normal weather curbs yields. Officials have blamed the drought on the El Nino weather phenomenon, characterized by warmer sea-surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific that can cut rainfall in Asia.
China’s first upstream dam became operational in 1993, with subsequent openings in 2003 and 2008. The country started sharing data on rainy season reservoir levels in 2002. Last month was the first time it shared data in the dry season.
In the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, the closest point in the country downstream from China, fishermen say their catches have declined in recent years. River levels can change by a few meters per day without warning, an occurrence they blame on the upstream dams.
“In the past few years it’s been hard to catch a lot of fish because of China’s dams,” said fisherman Sompon Kumla, who makes about 3,000 baht ($97) per month, down from 10,000 baht in previous years. “The government needs to talk to the Chinese and tell them to release the water.”
--With reporting by Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok. Editors: John Brinsley, Patrick Harrington.
To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net
The dry weather has reduced Mekong water levels to their lowest in three decades, affecting more than 60 million people in the lower basin, an area larger than the U.S. state of Texas. China agreed on March 25 to share water-level data at two dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Water is life,” Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission, said in a statement over the weekend, after a meeting of more than 200 activists, government officials and scientists. “Our increasing demands for food and energy depends on our ability to work together to develop and manage this precious resource.”
The drought has raised scrutiny about the river’s management as governments aim to harness its potential to provide food and electricity. Mainstream dams constitute “the single largest threat” to the Mekong’s wetlands and fisheries that benefit locals, the commission said in an April 2 report.
China’s capacity to improve water flows is “limited” as the river’s low levels are mainly due to a shortage of rainfall, said Bird, who heads the regional body that advises governments on managing the basin. Increased flows from China’s dams in January did help alleviate the severity of the water shortage, he said.
‘Fluctuating Unnaturally’
“The water in the Mekong River is not only drying up, but the water levels are fluctuating unnaturally,” Pianporn Deetes, an activist with environmental group International Rivers, said at a seminar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok last week. “Since the first dam was built, local people have seen a loss of fish catch and the destruction of aquatic resources.”
China and Myanmar, both dialogue partners of the Mekong River Commission, will send envoys to join the prime ministers of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam at today’s meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand. It is the first-ever summit of its kind.
Chinese officials have defended the country’s water management, stressing that it is also suffering from drought. Most rivers in southern China are at about 40 percent of normal levels and more than 600 have dried up completely, leaving almost 20 million people with shortages of drinking water, said Chen Mingzhong, a ministry of water resources official.
‘Upstream Country’
“As an upstream country with a high sense of responsibility, we do nothing harming the interest of riparian countries downstream,” Chen said in a presentation to counterparts at the summit in Thailand. China contributes about 13.5 percent of water flows to the lower Mekong.
China has pledged to strengthen communication with downstream countries, inviting them to a training program on flood management in June. Floods on the 2,700-mile river in August 2008 claimed lives in Thailand and Laos.
China has completed four dams to date and another four are planned before 2025 for a total of 15,200 megawatts, enough to provide electricity for 75 million people. Another 11 dams are in various stages of development downstream in the lower Mekong that would deliver the same amount of electricity.
“The Mekong has become one of the most active regions in the world for hydropower development,” the Mekong River Commission said in its State of the Basin report issued every five to seven years. The dams will “effectively stop” river fish migration, “leading to reduced production, substantial economic cost and social deprivation,” the report said.
Not All Bad
“You cannot say all dams are bad,” said Thanin Bumrungsap, vice president of Italian-Thai Development Pcl, Thailand’s biggest construction company. Thai farmers, for instance, “couldn’t grow rice two or three times a year as they do now if there were no dams, no irrigation systems.”
Rice production in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, may decline as drier-than-normal weather curbs yields. Officials have blamed the drought on the El Nino weather phenomenon, characterized by warmer sea-surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific that can cut rainfall in Asia.
China’s first upstream dam became operational in 1993, with subsequent openings in 2003 and 2008. The country started sharing data on rainy season reservoir levels in 2002. Last month was the first time it shared data in the dry season.
In the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, the closest point in the country downstream from China, fishermen say their catches have declined in recent years. River levels can change by a few meters per day without warning, an occurrence they blame on the upstream dams.
“In the past few years it’s been hard to catch a lot of fish because of China’s dams,” said fisherman Sompon Kumla, who makes about 3,000 baht ($97) per month, down from 10,000 baht in previous years. “The government needs to talk to the Chinese and tell them to release the water.”
--With reporting by Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok. Editors: John Brinsley, Patrick Harrington.
To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net
1 comment:
Chinese are very smart. They like to plan at least 50-100 years ahead of them. You see, while we are busy fighting with each other of both internal and external conflicts(CPP and SRP)and the border boundary, Chinese were busy building new dams and major rivers to stock all the water, making sure they have it all to themselves. They knew that this will affect the down stream people but did they care? no, if they do they would not have done this in the first place. Chinese's behaviour like always, their people come first!. They like to use tactic to kill others and then deal with them later, e.g. used khmer to kill khmer, by sending guns, mines and other artillery in exchange for rice. You see while they fed their people and we were too busy killing our people by listening to their dictatorship. Chairman Moa said to the stupid king "you must kill all of your intellectual starting from their cradle, if you want to be king forever". It was mention on the radio and everybody heard this message and was outrage but the damage already been done.
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