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A plan for water shortage in Mekong River needed
VietNamNet Bridge 10/08/2009
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2009/08/862793/
VietNamNet Bridge Many experts and economists who attended the
seminar entitled Review the Vietnam economy of 2009 and the prospects
for post-2010 in the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho on August the 6-7th
said that Vietnam needs to develop a plan to confront the water
shortage situation of the Mekong River.
Professor Dapvid Dapice, a leading expert about Southeast Asian
economics, said that the Mekong River Delta is facing a serious
reduction of underground water. This situation may directly hit
agricultural production and the breeding of marine life as well as
seafood processing.
When the level of groundwater falls, the quality of the water will go
down and pumping the water up to the surface will be more costly. This
can create a big shock to the current production systems in the Mekong
Delta, Prof. Dapvid warned.
He also expressed worries about hydro-power dam projects in countries
located upstreams of the Mekong River, such as China and some
neighboring countries of Vietnam as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. He is
worried because these dams can change the flow of the river. If this
happens, Vietnams Mekong River Delta will be infected with salty
water in the dry season and have less fertile sludge in the flood
season. Farmers, thus, will be affected.
The famous Vietnamese agricultural expert, Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan,
said that under the impacts caused by the construction of dams
upstreams of the Mekong River, Mekong River Delta provinces like Tra
Vinh, Ben Tre and Tien Giang will face a lot of difficulties in
agricultural production.
He suggested that provinces in the Mekong River Delta should unite to
utilize the Mekong River Delta in a sustainable and reasonable manner
as well as building suitable economic models for sharing water
resources to coastal provinces. This should be done, according to him,
to curb the losses surfacing from the expected hydro-power plants.
Experts and officials of Mekong River Delta provinces said that they
will need the central governments guidance and assistance to make
plans to cope with future water shortages of the Mekong River.
Dams on the Mekong River
In the 1980s, China began drawing up plans to build a cascade of dams
on the Mekong River in its territory. China has put four of these dams
into use. The construction of dams in China seriously harms the
ecological environments of countries in the lower section like
Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
The Yunnan hydro-power information network named eight major hydro-
power works which will be built on the Lancang River (Mekong River),
the section running through Yunnan province. Among them, a dam named
Guongguoqiao with the annual capacity of 4.04 million MW is 105m high.
Geological exploration was conducted last November. China plans to
store water as of June 2011.
Next to the Guongguoqiao dam is Xiaowan (19 million MW/year), which is
292m in height and will be put into operation in October 2009.
Another dam is Manwan (6.2 million MW/year), which started operating
in 1993. This dam is 132m in height, and its reservoir can hold 920
million cu.m of river water.
Next to it is Daichaoshan dam (5.9 million MW/year), around 600km from
Kunming city, 111m in height. It can hold 940 million cu.m of water.
The dam was put into use in late 2001.
After Daichaoshan is the 108m-high Jinhong dam (7.85 million MW/year).
Construction started in mid 2003 and put into full operation in 2009.
Three other dams will be built from now to 2011: Nuozhado (located
between Daichaoshan and Jinhong), Ganlanba and Manton.
Laos, Cambodia and Thailand also building dams
Laos, in which the Mekong River runs from the north to the south, has
23 hydro-power projects. Nine of them are located in northern Laos,
including Pak Beng, Luang Prabang, Xayaboury, Pak Lay, Sanakham and
Pak Chom, and Lat Sua, Donsahong and Ban Koum in the southern region.
Ban Koum is the largest, with a capacity of 2,000 MW/year.
In Thailand, besides Sekamen 1 and 3 dams, the government announced it
was resuming the construction of some dams on the Mekong River, worth
around $11 billion, which can yield around 4,000 MW of power.
According to the Bangkok Post, these dams will help provide water for
agriculture in Thailand.
In the lower section of the Mekong River, Cambodia also has two hydro-
power projects named Sambor and Stung Treng totalling around 3,600 MW.
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