Mekong River Faces Development Challenges, Cambodia Voices Opposition

 

CHIANG RAI – A summit of four countries bordering the Mekong River has led to calls for greater cooperation managing the river’s vital water resources.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC), which includes Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, has also concluded there is a need for more study of the rising challenges of population growth, water demand and impacts of climate change on the watershed.

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said strengthening regional cooperation is needed to ensure sustained development along the Mekong. He warned of severe negative impacts facing the region and pointed to the mounting pressure on water and related resources in the Mekong River basin, home to 60 million people.   

Vietnam faces rising salt water intrusion into the Mekong Delta region due to lower fresh water flow, reduced 10 percent during the past three decades.

Vietnam Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang called for Laos to consult with other Mekong River countries before completing construction of two dams on the lower Mekong.

But Laos is pressing ahead with completion of the controversial 1,285 megawatt Xayaburi Dam. Environmentalists say the 260 megawatt Don Sahong Dam, near the Lao border with Cambodia, would have a significant impact on migratory fish, vital to feeding millions of people, especially in Cambodia.

The U.S.-based non-government group, International Rivers says work on the projects should be halted immediately. International Rivers activist Painporn Deetes says the leaders should have condemned the rush to build dams.

“This is disappointing, no words on the status of construction on at least two dams that are being built on the mainstream river,” Deetes said. “But the Mekong River needs immediate action from the decision and action from all leaders. It is very important for member countries to recognize this is really an international river – an international issue.”

No enforcement powers

But the Mekong River Commission, created in 1995 as a means of scientific research has no enforcement powers, relies on member states to back pledges made at the summit meetings.

Senglong Youk from the Cambodia based Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT) says the commission should be reformed to take into account recommendations and calls by civil society.

“The Mekong River Commission needs to be reformed,” he said. “The MRC is like a paper tiger, it is like a postman, it has no power at all. No authority at all to put the pressure on any country specifically like Laos PDR that make the decisions to build the dams on the Xayaburi and Don Sahong.”

Environmentalists are preparing to step up a campaign to delay the Don Sahong project, which still requires Laos National Assembly ratification, now expected in December.

Laos told the summit it would carefully consider the concerns about dam construction impact? – Ron Corben

Meanwhile,  Cambodia has voiced opposition to neighboring Southeast Asian country Laos’ planned construction of an enormous hydropower dam on their border, which watchdogs say could lead to tremendous environmental damage and the decimation of a rare breed of dolphin.

Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor is reported to have asked Laos at a weekend summit in Vietnam to study and research the environmental impact of the Don Sahong dam.

“They can then send the results of the research to the member countries of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) in six months, before it starts to build the dam,” The Cambodia Daily reported the minister as saying Monday.

The MRC works directly with the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam on joint management of shared water resources and sustainable development of the Mekong River.

The river – Southeast Asia’s longest waterway – begins in China and twists about 2,703 miles (4,350 km) southeast through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to the South China Sea. Around 60 million people rely on it for their livelihoods and survival.

Environmental groups say the 256-megawatt dam – to be built by Malaysian company Mega First Berhad – will have a drastic impact on fish migration, food stability and the already dwindling population of Irrawaddy dolphins.

Laos, however, claims it will provide the region with much-needed electricity.

The Irrawaddy dolphin can grow up to 8 feet in length and lives in estuaries, large rivers, and freshwater lagoons in southeast and south Asia. Earlier this year, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) said the dam would likely lead to the extinction of the dolphin of which there are only about 85 left in the Mekong.

The dolphin – said to be related to killer whales – occupies a 118-mile (190-km) stretch near where Lao is planning on building dam. A WWF paper says that construction will involve the dynamiting of millions of tons of rock, which will create sound waves strong enough to kill the dolphins.

WWF-Cambodia’s Country Director Chhith Sam Ath said late February that plans to construct the dam in a channel immediately upstream from the dolphins “will likely hasten their disappearance from the Mekong.”

Last week, hundreds of Cambodians protested against the dam across the country, saying it would negatively impact their livelihoods. Both Thailand and Vietnam have also voiced concern about the impacts of the dam on the region’s fisheries.

Environmental group International Rivers has said that the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments hadn’t pushed hard enough at the summit.

“While International Rivers is pleased that Mekong leaders recognize the negative environmental and social impacts that hydropower development poses to the mainstream, we are disappointed that leaders did not condemn the current rush of dam building on the Mekong mainstream,” Southeast Asia Program Director Ame Trandem said in a weekend statement

“Words without actions are meaningless; the Lao government must stop its free reign of Mekong mainstream dam building,” she said.

While some work on the dam has already begun, Laos has said it will forge ahead with full construction in December.