US announces climate change help for Mekong region

Friday, July 23, 2010
AFP

HANOI — The United States on Thursday announced a three-year programme to help countries in the Mekong River basin adapt to the impact of climate change on water resources, food security and livelihoods.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the pledge at a Hanoi meet with Southeast Asian countries of the lower Mekong region, whose waterway is also under threat from rapid economic development and expanding populations.

"Managing this resource and defending it against threats like climate change and infectious disease is a transnational challenge," she told the foreign ministers of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

"Regional cooperation is essential to meeting that challenge, to preserving the ecological diversity and fertility of the Mekong region."

The meeting was the first between the five ministers since they launched the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) in Thailand a year ago to develop cooperation on environment, health, education and infrastructure issues in the Mekong region.

The initiative was seen as an attempt by Washington to improve its profile in the region and counter the influence of China, which is home to the upper reaches of the Mekong.

The United States has said it will spend more than 187 million dollars this year under the initiative, the majority of which is directed at health issues.

Low-lying areas around the Mekong, which have been beset by drought this year, are considered some of the world's most vulnerable to climate change.

More than 60 million people rely in some way on the river, which is the world's largest inland fishery.

The intergovernmental Mekong River Commission has warned that the basin's health and the river's eco-systems could be threatened by proposed dams and expanding populations.

China has eight planned or existing dams on the Mekong River, but rejects activists' claims that these have contributed to low water levels downstream.

Japan also held a meeting with the Mekong countries in Hanoi on Wednesday to discuss a joint "Green Mekong" initiative for the next decade, which aims to tackle challenges such as natural disasters and deforestation.

Chinese Dams Accused of Flooding the Region

November 14, 2008
By LAWI WENG
The Irrawady

Many of the 300 representatives at a recent forum in Bangkok have blamed Chinese authorities for releasing water from three hydropower dams on the Mekong River in August, which devastated hundreds of communities downstream.

The accusations were aired at a forum titled “Mekong Mainstream Dams: Voices across Borders,” which was held at Chulalongkorn University in the Thai capital from November 12-13. Most of the 300 community leaders, environmentalists and activists attending the meeting were from the six nations comprising the Greater Mekong Subregion—China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The two-day forum focused on the devastation and loss of lives and livelihoods following floods in the subregion in August.

Witoon Permpongsachareon, a coordinator with the Mekong Energy and Ecology Network, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that many representatives at the forum pointed fingers at China’s hydropower Mekong River dams—Manwan, Dachaoshan and Jinghong—which released billions of tons of water as a safety measure in May after Sichuan Province in western China was hit by an earthquake. The resulting floods destroyed thousands of homes, farms and livelihoods in Mekong River communities downstream and affected millions of people.

“The representatives are annoyed with the Chinese government and they send strong messages to the government to respect other people’s rights,” he said.

According to a report in Fridays’ The Bangkok Post, a former headmaster at Chiang Khong School in Chiang Rai Province, northern Thailand, accused the Chinese of causing the heaviest floods in the area for 40 years.

“At least three districts [in northern Thailand] have yet to recoup the financial loss of 85 million baht (US $2.4 million)” said the headmaster. “Not to mention the heartbreak of being fooled by authorities that dams help prevent flooding, serve agriculture and produce electricity.”

However, a chief executive officer from the Mekong River Commission (MRC) claimed that the Chinese dams were not responsible for the regional flooding and blamed the Laotian authorities.

The representatives at the forum also spoke about the impact of dams on the natural ecosystem in the river. Many fish are unable to travel to feed or spawn because the dams block the river. Fish production in the Mekong is decreasing every year and more dams are being built in China, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, according to the Mekong River Commission Fisheries Program.

According to data from the commission, the Mekong River is the world’s largest inland fishery with some 1.5 to 3 million tonnes of fish products per year.

Speaker after speaker at the seminar urged the six countries’ governments to reduce their reliance on electrical power.

Over the next few years, Laos is planning to construct at least seven dams, with a total electricity generating capacity of 7,470 megawatts, while another two Thai-Lao projects will produce a total of 3,409 megawatts. Cambodia, too, has released plans for two hydropower dams—at Stung Treng and Sambor.

Backgrounder: The Mekong River

VIENTIANE, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Mekong River Commission (MRC) on Thursday launched a consultation meeting for the regional Mekong Hydropower Program platform here on Thursday, aiming to shape a way for the river's future hydropower development, which is shared by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and China.

The Mekong River Basin is defined by the land area surrounding all the streams and rivers that flow into the 4,800 kilometer-long Mekong River. This includes parts of China, Myanmar and Vietnam, nearly one third of Thailand and most of Cambodia and Laos. With atotal land area of 795,000 square kilometers, the Mekong River Basin is nearly the size of France and Germany together. From its headwaters thousands of meters high on the Tsinghai-Tibetan Plateau, it flows through six distinct geographical regions, each with characteristic features of elevation, topography and land cover.

The most abundant resources in the Mekong River Basin are water and biodiversity. Only the Amazon River Basin has greater diversity of plant and animal life. So much water flows into the mainstream Mekong from the surrounding basin area where, on average, 15,000 cubic meters of water passes by every second. This water nourishes large tracts of forest and wetlands which produce building materials, medicines and food, provides habitats for thousands of species of plants and animals and supports an inland capture fishery with an estimated commercial value of 2 billion U.S. dollars per year. Known mineral resources include tin, copper, iron ore, natural gas, potash, gem stones and gold.

Farmers in the Mekong River Basin produce enough rice to feed 300 million people a year. Demand for agricultural products from the basin is estimated to increase anywhere from 20 to 50 percent in the next 30 years. Agriculture, along with fishing and forestry,employs 85 percent of the people living in the basin.

The Lower Mekong River Basin (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam) is home to approximately 60 million people. There are over 100 different ethnic groups living within the basin's boundaries, making it one of the most culturally diverse regions of the world.

The Mekong River Basin is one of the most productive inland fisheries in the world. The basin provides a wide variety of breeding habitats for over 1,300 species of fish and the annual rise and fall of the river ensures a nutrient-rich environment on which fish can feed. Conservative estimates indicate that basin dwellers eat over one and half million tons of fish per year. The fishery provides a livelihood not just for fishers and their families but for thousands more who are employed full or part time making and selling food products and fishing gear, repairing boats and providing hundreds of related services.