By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
The Irrawaddy
BANGKOK––Uncoordinated decision-making and unilateral initiatives not only threaten the Mekong River area environment and livelihoods, but could affect security in Southeast Asia.
With four out eight Chinese dams already built on the Lancang, the name for the Upper Mekong River inside China, and nine more either in place or awaiting construction on the river's middle and lower reaches in Cambodia and Laos, the jury is still out on how these dams will impact on the region. Environmental damage could also damage the economies in the region, in turn causing political strife within the affected countries and damaging the relations between countries.
According to Dr. Richard Cronin, the head of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, “fragmented decision-making and lack of co-ordination between stakeholders means that all sides are going ahead with their own projects without getting knowing how these work together or impact on the river and region as a whole.” Cronin was speaking at a seminar organized by the American Studies Programme at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
According to Dr. Cronin, “the river is more fragile than we think, and it will take only a few dams for the river to be changed in ways we cannot fully understand.”
For example, environmental groups say that the Mekong catfish, the third-largest freshwater fish in the world, will be unable to spawn, as it will not be able to get upstream due to the dams.
Other critical voices such as Carl Middleton of International Rivers questioned the labeling of the dams as development projects, saying that they would undermine livelihoods for 60 million people who are dependent on the river.
Additional dams are likely to reduce fish stocks on the river, which is one the most lush waterways in the world. The prevention of silt from the Chinese or upper reaches from reaching the floodplains in southeast Asia could have unforeseen effects on farming and on the sustenance of the river delta.
China controls the upper reaches of the river, where most of the hydro-electric potential is located, much of which comes from melt water off snow-capped peaks, including from Tibet.
Chulalongkorn University academic Dr. Ukrit Pathmanand noted a potential for distrust and discord to emerge, if the changes to the river impact on livelihoods within the Mekong sub-region. “Non-traditional” security problems will fester, with disgruntled people losing fishery income or farmland due to changes in the river, thereby threatening social unrest.
However, Dr. Ukrit added that there are positives and negatives to dam construction––with additional hydropower to be weighed against potential damage caused to the environment and to livelihoods.
A four-country intergovernmental body called the Mekong River Commission aims to better-manage development along the waterway. The MRC had its first summit meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand, in April 2010. The body comprises Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, but China and Burma have only accepted observer status. Pornlert Lattanan, the president of General Electric (Thailand), said that it is unlikely that Cambodia and Laos will raise the Mekong issue with Beijing, which has close relations with both.
This was seen at the MRC Summit, where Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen put the low waters in the Mekong region down purely to climate change, rather than Chinese dams. His Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva was more nuanced, saying that “this summit is sending a message that all countries in the Mekong Region, both its upper and lower parts, are stakeholders, and we all have to take joint responsibility for its long-term sustainability.” In June Thai officials went further, with Prasarn Maruekpithak, the representative at a MRC meeting in Vietnam, saying that “China’s four dams on the upper part of the Mekong River have already destroyed the river’s ecosystem. Now this giant nation plans to build 12 dams more on the lower part.”
Vietnam is concerned about the dams, some of which are planned for upstream in Cambodia and Laos. Speaking on June 29, Le Duc Trung, the director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, is reported to have said, “Vietnam has...great concerns over the research results on the projects [the proposed dams], especially impacts on agriculture and fisheries likely caused by their dams'.
With the dam projects threatening to transform the river into a “series of lakes,” Dr. Cronin suggested that “a tipping point” looms for the Mekong, releasing a report and DVD to this effect recently.
“The impact on fisheries will be almost immediate,” if any more dams are built, he says.
With four out eight Chinese dams already built on the Lancang, the name for the Upper Mekong River inside China, and nine more either in place or awaiting construction on the river's middle and lower reaches in Cambodia and Laos, the jury is still out on how these dams will impact on the region. Environmental damage could also damage the economies in the region, in turn causing political strife within the affected countries and damaging the relations between countries.
According to Dr. Richard Cronin, the head of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, “fragmented decision-making and lack of co-ordination between stakeholders means that all sides are going ahead with their own projects without getting knowing how these work together or impact on the river and region as a whole.” Cronin was speaking at a seminar organized by the American Studies Programme at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
According to Dr. Cronin, “the river is more fragile than we think, and it will take only a few dams for the river to be changed in ways we cannot fully understand.”
For example, environmental groups say that the Mekong catfish, the third-largest freshwater fish in the world, will be unable to spawn, as it will not be able to get upstream due to the dams.
Other critical voices such as Carl Middleton of International Rivers questioned the labeling of the dams as development projects, saying that they would undermine livelihoods for 60 million people who are dependent on the river.
Additional dams are likely to reduce fish stocks on the river, which is one the most lush waterways in the world. The prevention of silt from the Chinese or upper reaches from reaching the floodplains in southeast Asia could have unforeseen effects on farming and on the sustenance of the river delta.
China controls the upper reaches of the river, where most of the hydro-electric potential is located, much of which comes from melt water off snow-capped peaks, including from Tibet.
Chulalongkorn University academic Dr. Ukrit Pathmanand noted a potential for distrust and discord to emerge, if the changes to the river impact on livelihoods within the Mekong sub-region. “Non-traditional” security problems will fester, with disgruntled people losing fishery income or farmland due to changes in the river, thereby threatening social unrest.
However, Dr. Ukrit added that there are positives and negatives to dam construction––with additional hydropower to be weighed against potential damage caused to the environment and to livelihoods.
A four-country intergovernmental body called the Mekong River Commission aims to better-manage development along the waterway. The MRC had its first summit meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand, in April 2010. The body comprises Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, but China and Burma have only accepted observer status. Pornlert Lattanan, the president of General Electric (Thailand), said that it is unlikely that Cambodia and Laos will raise the Mekong issue with Beijing, which has close relations with both.
This was seen at the MRC Summit, where Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen put the low waters in the Mekong region down purely to climate change, rather than Chinese dams. His Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva was more nuanced, saying that “this summit is sending a message that all countries in the Mekong Region, both its upper and lower parts, are stakeholders, and we all have to take joint responsibility for its long-term sustainability.” In June Thai officials went further, with Prasarn Maruekpithak, the representative at a MRC meeting in Vietnam, saying that “China’s four dams on the upper part of the Mekong River have already destroyed the river’s ecosystem. Now this giant nation plans to build 12 dams more on the lower part.”
Vietnam is concerned about the dams, some of which are planned for upstream in Cambodia and Laos. Speaking on June 29, Le Duc Trung, the director general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, is reported to have said, “Vietnam has...great concerns over the research results on the projects [the proposed dams], especially impacts on agriculture and fisheries likely caused by their dams'.
With the dam projects threatening to transform the river into a “series of lakes,” Dr. Cronin suggested that “a tipping point” looms for the Mekong, releasing a report and DVD to this effect recently.
“The impact on fisheries will be almost immediate,” if any more dams are built, he says.
5 comments:
people got to stop depend on nature so much for food source. they should look for other alternative to food source, etc... well, turn to farming and other agricultural way of replenishing food and so forth. in cambodia, we need electricity for our growing economy and rapidly rising standard of living and consumer demand, etc... we can't stay humble and poor forever, compare to other regional countries, you know! it's just part of life, i guess. go for it, cambodia. stop staying undeveloped and behind; others are always say we're a poor country, third-world country, etc; well, it's time to change that image once and for all, really! our country has huge potential in development, etc; we must use our natural resources to our full potential so we don't be labeled as poor and third-world again! nothing poor or bad stay forever either, you know!
10:31 PM
"Tear up the very ground you stand upon, and watch yourselve and your innocent children buried in floods and landslides, more DAMNS upstream are about to burst sending more calamity and misery of unimaginable scale" - Chinese victims of environmental desaster, REALLY!
10:31PM!do not sale your daughter for motobike!!!!!!!!
Please sign the petition to condem China in building these dams. This petition, Mrs Hilary Clinton will raise this problem to China (It is real that Mrs Clinton will help us)khmer and Cambodia.
Please go to "www.gopetiton.com/petition37999".
Thanks
There are how many dams along Colorado river ?
Americans sale their daughter for motobike ?
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