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World joins Mekong citizens in battle to stop dam building
by Thuy Ha
Viet Nam News. 19-06-2009
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02ENV190609
BANGKOK In a bold outpouring of public concern for Southeast Asias
Mekong River, people from the six-country Mekong region and around the
world have urged governments to abandon plans for hydropower
development along the rivers mainstream.
In the face of strong government backing for dam building on the
river, which feeds 60 million people, over 11,000 citizens in the
region have signed the "Save the Mekong" petition addressed to the
Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam urging them
to keep the river flowing freely and to pursue less damaging
electricity options.
The petition was signed by fishers and farmers along the rivers
mainstream and tributaries, as well as by monks, students, city folk
and even some of the regions celebrities. Another 5,000 people around
the world signed postcards and an online petition with personal notes.
The petition written in seven languages was hand-delivered to Thai
Prime Minister Abhisit yesterday in Bangkok, and sent to other
government leaders within the region.
"People are now more aware of the threat to the Mekong and the
movement calling to protect the river and the life of the people
living along the Mekong has spread out thanks to the signature
collection," said Premrudee Daoroung of the Bangkok-based, non-profit
Foundation for Ecological Recovery at a press conference for the
petition launch.
With the postcards and signature collection, the regional governments
are expected to make decisions to save the life and the environment of
their own countries, said Mekong Programme Co-ordinator Carl
Middleton.
The Mekong is host to the worlds largest inland fishery and its
second behind the Amazon River in diversity of aquatic animals. The
river drains an area of 795,000sq.km. From the Tibetan Plateau it runs
through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam.
The building of dams is one of the most controversial issues to raised
wide-spread concern among riverbank communities and the wider public
over the severe consequences these dams will have.
Livelihoods
Since 2006, 11 big hydropower dams have been proposed for the rivers
mainstream in which seven dam sites are in Laos, two in Cambodia and
two on the Thai-Lao border. This has been criticised on grounds of
cost as well as damage to the environment and to the livelihoods of
affected villagers.
Viet Nam is expected to suffer the most of the building it is at the
lowest part of the river with 17 million Vietnamese people almost
one- third of the Mekong River citizens living along the river.
"Broken ecosystem, soil erosion, bad impact of changed water flow on
the transport system and dry fields are among the key concerns of
Vietnamese farmers and citizens living along the river," Ngo Xuan
Quang, of Aquatic Ecology and Biodiversity, said.
"An Giang and Dong Thap are the two Mekong Delta provinces having most
severe soil erosion while Tien Giang is suffering most in dry fields,"
Quang said.
Poverty stricken Cambodia is one nation that is completely dependent
on the river for food and the vast majority of its fledgling economy.
The annual floods provide much needed water for crops for the
otherwise dry dusty land, and to refresh the Tonle Sap, yet its major
cities are all vulnerable to flooding.
Since the building of the first Chinese dam, many species have become
endangered, including the Mekong dolphin and manatee; water levels
have dropped and ferries get stuck, fish caught are small and the
catch is less than half of that before the dam was built.
Mekong fisheries provide a critical source of food and income for
millions of people along the river. Recent official estimates place
the annual value of the rivers wild capture fisheries at up to US$3
billion. Mainstream dams will block the massive fish migrations that
accounts for up to 70 per cent of the rivers commercial fish catch
and that ensures regional food security. Experience around the world
demonstrates there is no way to mitigate the fisheries impacts of such
large dams.
Chinas dam construction on the upper Mekong mainstream (Lancang) has
already caused serious environmental problems in the form of declining
fish stocks, riverbank erosion and hazardous water level fluctuations
in downstream Myanmar, northern Thailand and northern Laos.
Similarly severe cross-border impacts could create cross-border
disputes.
Other environmental concerns arise from increased water flow in some
parts as China clears rocks and sandbars, blasts gorges and slows
water as it dams and floods other sections and causes the relocation
of indig-enous peoples.
Cambodia, by far the most exposed, depending on a fine balance of
water flow, fears scenarios of mass famine and devastating floods the
likes of which destroyed the Angkor kingdom 700 years ago.
Vulnerable
Laoss biggest cities all hug the Mekong as does Viet Nams largest
city and financial hub, HCM City, which would be vulnerable mostly to
low flow and pollution from these projects.
"Acting to protect the Mekongs natural wealth will ensure sustainable
economic growth, protect food security and promote regional peace and
prosperity," said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum
on Cambodia, in his statement to PM Abhisit.
"In a world facing a growing food and water crisis, we are asking the
regions leaders to work together to protect the Mekong River for the
benefit of all the regions people and to pursue better ways to meet
the regions electricity needs," Sam Ath said. VNS |
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