Environmentalist Warns Against Mekong Dams

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington
02 April 2010

With the Mekong River experiencing its lowest water levels in decades, a Cambodian environmentalist says the country should not jump into constructing hydroelectric dams but should instead consider alternative energy.

The construction of Mekong dams in countries above Cambodia has already had an impact on Cambodians who rely on the river, Tep Bunnarith, executive director of the Cultural and Environmental Preservation Association, told “Hello VOA” Thursday.

“People are facing a lot of difficulties due to the development of the Mekong basin, mainly related to hydropower construction and diversion of water for irrigation,” he said.

Southern China is undergoing a prolonged drought that has dried up rice fields and left tens of thousands of people short of water. Meanwhile, farmers and fishermen in other Mekong countries have lashed out at China for its construction of four hydro-dams on the river.

Leaders from the Mekong basin are due to meet in Thailand the weekend to discuss the drought and other issues.

“Climate change and the construction of these dams are the main factors causing the low water levels,” Tep Bunnarith said.

A senior government official told “Hello VOA” the levels of the Mekong were part of a cycle, one that played out in 1992 and 1998, when water was at similar levels—with no dams constructed.

But the official, Sin Niny, vice chairman of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee, did say that reservoirs in Laos and China had insufficient water under the drought.

“That’s why they have to use water reserved during the rainy season for hydropower generation,” Sin Niny said. “This is the reason why water flowing to the lower Mekong has decreased.”

Tep Bunnarith said that if the trend continues, it will hurt this year’s fish catch, a main source of protein for many Cambodians, especially the rural poor.

Instead, the government should consider renewable energy like solar, wind and bio-fuels to help power the many areas still off the national power grid, he said.

“We have to think: if the need for energy consumption in a local area is so big that we have to build a big dam across the river, this will affect people’s livelihood,” he said.

Mekong under threat from climate and dams

December 2, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The Mekong River is vital as a source of transport, irrigation and fisheries for the millions who live along its banks.

Originating in Tibet, the Mekong river passes either through or by China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. But it is under threat from hydro-electric dams and from climate change

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Milton Osborne, visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney and author of a new paper on the Mekong River

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

OSBORNE: In terms of climate change, we are still some distance away from seeing a dramatic change, so far as can be determined by the scientific work that is being done to date. One of the big concerns is, if there is a significant rise in sea level, this will certainly affect in a very significant and negative fashion, the Mekong Delta, which is the major agricultural production area for Vietnam. A very small rise in sea level would led to much of the Mekong Delta being inundated. The longer term concern is the glaciers which feed the Mekong River in the highlands of Tibet are melting and that is going to remove the snow melt that feeds the river. But at the same time as that is occurring, with the expectations of climate change, the possibility is that there will be increased precipitation, which could led in 20 years time to increased flooding on the Mekong. So it's a paradoxical sort of development that is occurring in this second case.

LAM: Indeed, so it's a question of too much water and too little water?

OSBORNE: That could be the concern, but are directed into climate change. The more immediate concerns in relation to the river relate to the possibility first of all, that dams will be built on the course of the river below China. There is no actual certainty about when those dams will be built, but there are plans to build up to 11 dams on the river below China and there is the already established problem that is going to arise from the dams China has built. It's already built three and it's planning to build at least another two. In fact another two are currently under construction.

LAM: Indeed, as you point out that China does control a large proportion of the Mekong River and it's of course enormously more powerful than the other regional countries. Are countries like Laos and Cambodia, for instance, talking to China about managing the river, or is China in a position to just simply do whatever it wants?

OSBORNE: Well, in very bold times, China is in a position and has taken the position that it will decide what is done on that section of the river that runs through its territory. And as you rightly say, 44 percent of the river's overall length is in China. There has been very little consultation between China and the downstream countries and in fact, until very recently, the Chinese have been reluctant even to let people from the governments of Laos and Cambodia and Vietnam visit China to examine the dams the Chinese have built.

LAM: What about the role of the Mekong River Commission? Is it an effective body or is it in need of change and reform?

OSBORNE: The Mekong River Commission is unfortunately, very poorly understood by many people who criticise it. It's regarded incorrectly by its critics as a body that has the right to determine what is done by governments in relation to the Mekong River. But that is not the case at all. It is a body which has a very important role, particularly through its Secretariat in providing scientific and technical information about the river, but it has no powers to mandate what any individual government or group of governments should do in relation to the Mekong River.

LAM: But as far as you know, has it made representations to either China or any of the other regional countries?

OSBORNE: No, and it would not under its charter really have the right to do so.

LAM: And Milton Osborne, on a micro-level, fish stocks I understand, in particular, are being threatened.. but are there technical solutions to this?

OSBORNE: Well, I have to take the guidance provided by scientists so far as technical issues are concerned. And scientists have looked very carefully at whether or not it is possible to overcome the barriers that dams built on the river will provide, if these dams do come to be constructed, to see whether there're ways of mitigating the dams' fact of preventing migration by fish. There are some 900 species of freshwater fish in the Mekong, which at least 80 percent are migratory, moving over long distances. So that if you have dams in the river that block the migration, this will have a dramatic and devastating effect on fish. And the importance of fish becomes very clear when you know that in Cambodia, well over 70 percent of the Cambodian population's protein intake comes from fish taken out of the Mekong and its associated system.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Opposition to Mekong Dams Overflows at Meet

Dam-affected residents at Mekong meet. (Credit:Lynette Lee Corporal/IPS)

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, Nov 16 (IPS) - In what looked like a blitzkrieg rally, about a dozen hand-held 'No Dams' signs appeared out of nowhere in the packed conference hall at a public forum here on the construction of dams in the Mekong region.

This happened while Sompong Viengchan, from the north-eastern Thai province of Ubon Ratchathani, was delivering an impassioned speech on the negative impact of dams on the lives of residents along the Mekong River and its tributaries.

"I will not give up and I will fight to the end. My family has lived along the river for generations. If you want to build dams, do it in your own house!" she told the more than 200 participants at the Mekong Public Forum on mainstream dams, held here Nov.12-13.

"We've been fishing there for generations and lived our lives not dependent on the government. Now we can’t even find enough fish for our families," added Sompong, who was displaced by the construction of the Pak Mun dam. For 20 years, she had been protesting plans to build the dam along the Mun river, a Mekong tributary, as well as its destruction of fisheries after its completion in 1994.

Her statement echoed the sentiments here of other representatives of communities among the six Mekong countries that have been affected by dams on the Mekong’s tributaries, or fluctuations in river flows in the last few years.

The 4,880-kilometre Mekong River starts from the Tibetan plateau in China, then flows through Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, before spilling out into the South China Sea through the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

Over two days here, community groups took turns citing the problems brought about by dam projects and the questions that hover over many similar projects now being planned for the Mekong, the world’s 10th longest river.

There are different estimates of the number of dams planned for the Mekong region. But among those most closely watched are hydropower projects in Laos, which is keen on using income from these resources for its development. The country has six big dams in operation, seven under construction and 12 more in the pipeline, according to a report by the advocacy group International Rivers, in September.

The proposal to build the Sambor hydropower project in north-eastern province of Kratie prompted Yoth Theary Cambodia's Community Economic Development, to question the government's motive for pushing this dam project.

"We found out that 40 percent of the energy that will be generated by this dam will be used within the country and 60 percent will be exported. My question is where will the income from the 60 percent go -- to the investor or to the country?" asked Yoth Theary.

He maintained that the demand for energy within the country is much less than the desire to sell energy.

For China's Zhang Chun Shan, it was quite upsetting to hear about the problems that downstream communities say they are experiencing because of dams that China built on its stretch of the Mekong River, which it calls the Lancang.

China has three dams on the Mekong mainstream -- the Manwan dam completed in 1995, the Dachaoshan and the Jinghong one -- and a fourth is under construction.

"I hope in the future we will come back to a period where people have (an abundance of) fish, rice, water. It is difficult but it is our goal and mission," he said.

Pham Quang Tu from the Consultancy on Development-Hanoi publicly apologised to Cambodians "for the negative impact" caused by Vietnamese dams, specifically the one billion US dollar Yali Falls hydroelectric dam in central Vietnam.

In 1999 and 2000, the release of water from the Yali dam across the border from north-eastern Cambodia caused the deaths of some 25 people, media reports said. Local communities reported the destruction of fisheries and farms, floods and water contamination.

This has been a sore issue between the two neighbouring countries, one that resulted in talks to get early notification of water releases across the border and encouraged residents in affected Cambodian areas to form a network to make their situation known.

"We are committed to finding solutions to this problem and let us work together because this has gone beyond borders," Tu said. He suggested that Mekong countries share information about their activities that affect the river, stressing the importance of having a "strategic assessment for hydropower in the region".

"This region is a big seller of electricity, but a very small buyer. Everybody wants to be the seller, but who will do the buying?" he asked.

While it may sound contradictory, he said that it is important for civil society to both "confront and cooperate with the government". It should present the government with good evidence -- including the practical experiences of communities about the dams’ negative impact, he added.

As for Laos, "many people are still confused by the impact of the dams," explained Boumtiem Keophouvong of Laos' Global Association for People and Environment. "Not many people are interested in collecting more information about dams because of the lack of interest in environmental issues."

He added that non-government groups usually do not want to get involved in the dam issue due to concern that this could "scare away investors".

For his part, Burmese environmental activist Sai Sai noted the big gap between the government, dam builders and local communities. Policymakers usually present a rosy picture of sustainable development projects, he said. For many locals, however, these are impossible to implement.

Citing as an example the Lawpita hydropower station, Sai said: "They said the dam will directly benefit the people. After the dam was built, the electricity went straight to the capital city of Rangoon and not in the Karenni state."

For Sai, the dam project also symbolised the persecution of the Karenni people especially since the Lawpita dam was located in a conflict area. Some 100,000 people were reportedly directly affected by the dam, he told the forum.

At the same time, a lot of the frustration of the community representatives from the six countries was directed at the Vientiane-based Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental organisation tasked to ensure the sustainable use and management of water and related resources in the lower Mekong basin.

At the Mekong public forum, critics had varied accusations of the MRC, calling it weak and ineffective to virtually being a supporter of governments and private developers bent on pursuing dam projects.

"We'd like to ask them to expand their role and help facilitate in bringing the government and local communities together, to dialogue and find solutions together," said Tu.

MRC chief executive office Jeremy Bird explained that clearly there was a "resurgence" in hydropower plans along the Mekong River, but that the commission was not a supra-governmental or enforcement agency.

It also consists of member governments -- the lower Mekong countries of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam -- to whom it reports to, he explained. At the same tine, Bird said the MRC is committed to carrying out its tasks of reviewing plans for hydropower development under its notification and review process with a view to "sustainable hydropower development".

In September, the commission took the major step of organising in Vientiane a dialogue with different players in the hydropower picture -- governments, hydropower companies, civil society -- in order to open venues for discussing the testy issue of dams along the Mekong.

But Theary added: "The MRC's role should be changed to reflect more support to the people. If civil society is given a chance to engage the MRC more, then we will have a stronger voice, which will hopefully affect any government decision in the future."

Sompong begged the MRC to "listen to the people".

Said Zhang: "If we have good friendship (among communities in different Mekong countries), we can help each other and promote sustainable development. But if we're in a situation where we are constantly in conflict, development is hard to achieve".

Critics damn plans for Mekong River

March 28, 2008
AFP

HANOI: The Mekong River, the world's 12th largest waterway, crossing six countries, may soon be tamed by a cascade of mega dams, but critics say the plan will harm the fish stocks millions of people rely on.

Plans for a series of Mekong dams have been made and scrapped several times since the 1960s, but now, with oil above $US100 dollars ($108) a barrel, the projects look more appealing than ever to their proponents.

The river's future will be a key issue when prime ministers of the Mekong countries meet at the weekend in the Lao capital Vientiane for a summit with the Asian Development Bank.

The 4800km river originates in the Tibetan plateau of China, where it is called the Lancang, before running through Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea.

To the development lobby, the river is a dream of hydropower potential for an energy-hungry region. To environmentalists, such plans are a nightmare.

Laos, Cambodia and Thailand have allowed Chinese, Malaysian, Thai and Vietnamese companies to study at least seven hydropower projects.

The Mekong feeds Cambodia's giant Tonle Sap lake, the fish of which are the nation's main protein source. Forty million people are active in Lower Mekong fisheries, says the UN.