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Opposition to Mekong Dams Overflows at Meet

By Lynette Lee Corporal
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44724

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".

 
 

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