Australia urged to help halt Mekong dam

March 10, 2011
Ron Corben
AAP

Environmental groups want Australia's help to halt a $3.5 billion hydro-electricity power project on the Mekong River which has pitted our South-East Asian neighbours against each other.

Thailand and Laos want to press ahead with the Xayaburi Dam project, but Australia - through the Mekong River Commission (MRC) - has backed concerns by Vietnam and Cambodia over project.

The Xayaburi Dam in Laos is the first of 11 proposed hydropower developments on the lower Mekong River.

Concerns have been raised about the dam's impact on the biodiversity of the river and the 40 million people who depend on it for their livelihoods.

The United States has already called for development to be deferred for 10 years to allow further environmental impact studies to be carried out.

Environmental groups in Australia have also pressed Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to back calls for a stay on hydro-power development along the river.

Ame Trandem, a representative for environmental group International Rivers, says Australia needs to step up pressure on the commission given fears of the wider impact hydropower dams will have on the Mekong River.

"Australia should be applying more pressure on the Mekong River Commission to make sure that the four countries take a precautionary approach to the dams and that they are fully informed and aware of the impact the dams will cause," Ms Trandem said.

A decision on the project by the commission could come as early as March 22.

The Laos-based MRC is internationally donor sponsored, with Australia a key contributor.

The MRC advises the four countries - Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam - over the direction of development on the Mekong River.

Laos, in official statements, says it sees no reason for delaying the Xayaburi Dam, having met all legal, environmental and social measures.

In 2007, Laos signed a memorandum of understanding to sell 95 per cent of the electricity produced by the Xayaburi project to Thailand.

Financing and construction for the $3.5 billion development is also set to come from Thai banks and construction companies.

University of New South Wales political analyst, Carl Thayer, says Australia faces difficult diplomatic times given Thailand and Laos' ambition to press on with the Xayaburi hydro-power development.

"Vietnam's got Australia's ears," Mr Thayer said.

"Laos needs the money from selling electricity. All northeast Thailand and Vietnam are importers of electricity from Laos - it cuts the other way," he said.

"By Australia and environmentalists raising it, it is because the scientific evidence isn't clear enough. And be careful what you wish for because it could do irrevocable damage for downstream states," he told AAP.

"There's no win-win situation for Australia because each country (has its) own national interest in getting... the water and using its flow."

The 4900-kilometre Mekong River starts in the Tibetan Plateau, running through southern China, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia and onto the Vietnam's delta region to the South China Sea.

China has gone ahead with programs to dam the upper Mekong, while the Xayaburi Dam is the first planned construction on the lower Mekong's mainstream.

Climatologist Anond Snidvongs from Chulalongkorn University says dams will impact the region's agriculture.

"Dams are definitely going to affect the biodiversity, that's one thing. It's very clear and very well proven," he said.

Of key concern is the impact on fisheries on Cambodia's Ton Le Sap Lake and Vietnam's delta, both vital sources of food and income for millions of people on the Lower Mekong.

"Fish in the Mekong, they are both food and also economics. About one third of the economy of Cambodia at the moment relies on the exporting of fish (from the lake) to other countries, especially Thailand," Mr Anond said.

In Vietnam, a deputy minister of natural resources and environment warned the Xayaburi Dam would greatly affect Vietnam's agricultural production and aquaculture.

Reduced fresh water flows into the Mekong Delta in Vietnam would lead to greater saltwater intrusion into agricultural soils damaging rice output from the delta - the rice bowl of the country.