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  Manipulating the Mekong
China's talent for building dams is undeniable, but would her ancient
engineers have been so at odds with Mother Nature


Pennapa Hongthong, The Nation (Thailand). January 20, 2008
http://nationmultimedia.com/2008/01/20/lifestyle/lifestyle_30062656.php

Almost four hours after leaving downtown Lin Cang, a small city in
China's Yunnan province, our bus stops. Here, halfway up the mountain,
we can clearly see the Manwan Dam in the centre of the valley. To the
right, almost dwarfed by the huge volume of water in the reservoir, is
the Lancang River, the name by which the Chinese know the mighty
Mekong. Gazing down at this narrow, slow-moving channel, I find it
hard to believe that the Mekong has been dammed. Somehow the history
books had convinced me that this was the one river that simply
couldn't be conquered by man.

Originating in Tibet's Tanggula Mountains, the Mekong runs through
Laos, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia before joining the South China Sea
in Vietnam and has several physical characteristics that have
traditionally hindered development.

For example, in Yunnan and Tibet, the waterway snakes through valleys
between mountains so high that access has always been difficult, if
not downright impossible. Further downstream, in Burma and Thailand,
shoals, rapids and reefs make it hard to navigate.

In 1866, a team of French explorers sailed from Saigon in an attempt
to reach the river's origins by way of Cambodia and Laos. Their dreams
were dashed when they reached the Khon Pa Pheng, also known as the
Khone Falls, just outside Champassak in Laos. These unnavigable 21
metres of segmented rapids brought the expedition to an abrupt end,
just six months after it had left.

In the 1950s, the US Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) drew up a
comprehensive development scheme for the Mekong once it flowed out of
China's Yunnan province. In its plan, which at that time was aimed at
preventing the Mekong Basin region from falling under communist
influence or domination, BuRec suggested a range of sites suitable for
hydroelectric schemes. However, the plan failed to interest any of the
Mekong's riparian countries.

Then the Chinese started building dams. Man Wan was the first but it
isn't the only dam blocking the Lancang. In 2003, eight years after
the completion of Manwan, the government finished work on the
Dachaoshan Dam. Another three large dams are under construction and
several more are in the pipeline.

China's success in damming the Mekong has revived the schemes
initiated by BuRec half a century ago. Just last year, the Mekong
River Commission allowed Chinese companies to conduct feasibility
studies for six dams in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Vorasakdi Mahatdhanobol, a Chulalongkorn University political
scientist and an expert on China, isn't surprised that the Asian giant
has been able to overcome the Mekong.

"The Chinese are great at civil engineering - we only have to look at
the Great Wall. Hydraulic engineering is part of their history," he
says.

Vorasakdi reminds me of the Chengdu's Dujiangyan Irrigation Project,
which I visited several years ago. This 2,200-year-old system, made of
wood and stones, was so well designed that it's still being used
today, preventing drought and flooding as well as providing water for
five million farmers in the Chengdu plain.

According to Vorasakdi, China has always viewed dams as basic
infrastructure, necessary for the country's development and economy.
The reason why few were built had to do with internal problems such as
civil wars among ethnic groups and the Cultural Revolution, which left
little time for development and dam construction.

In 1978, with the country enjoying political stability, Deng Xiaoping
embarked on a dam construction project. The Three Gorges Dam that
blocks the Yangtze River and all the projects on Lancang river are a
result of Deng's policy to modernise the southwestern part of the
country.

Back at the Manwan, I board the bus again along with my fellow
travellers - scientists from China's Institute of Hydrobiology,
Japanese academics from their nation's leading universities and
journalists from the Greater Mekong Region and Japan. Due to the
narrow road and many sharp curves, we crawl down the valley,
eventually stopping at a small restaurant where we board a boat for a
trip on the reservoir.

As the two-storey vessel cruises along the vast body of water, I look
up at the mountains and am surprised to see that some slopes have been
converted into paddy terraces. The water is still and clear and a
slight breeze caresses my face in the winter sunshine.

"The reservoir demonstrates the western style of water resources
management. For them water is for recreation, for us water means life.
That why the reservoir is a good place to take a vacation, but it's
not good for the life of the people and the environment in the long
term," says a Chinese scientist who asks not to be named.

If it were not blocked by the Manwan and other dams, the water in the
Lancang River would flow freely downstream to countries where
thousands of people depend on it for fish and riverbank farming. The
dam, which is 132-metres high, can store 920 million cubic metres of
water at maximum capacity, although an official at the Manwan
hydropower station told me that the water level on the day of our
visit was 89 cubic metres.

Vorasakdi is certain that the ancestors of those who built the Manwan
would not have dammed the Mekong this way.

"The ancient Chinese water engineers did their jobs in a way that was
friendly to nature. They didn't try to conquer nature like this
present generation. The old generation always wanted to control nature
in a holistic way; they believed human life co-existed with the
environment. Today, we only think of using nature for our own benefit
and don't care about the environmental impacts," he says.

As the bus drops us off in Lin Cang that night, I notice how the town
is lit up with colourful lights powered by the Manwan dam. For urban
people whose lives depend on modern facilities, the dam is a source of
happiness. For those downstream whose survival depends on the Mekong
River, the dam is a disaster as it deprives them of water and fish.

If the ancient Chinese engineers had been given the chance to "manage"
the Lancang River, I wonder if we would perhaps have ended up with a
hydropower system that would enrich lives in both the upper and lower
parts of the river rather than just those at the Manwan Dam?


Pennapa Hongthong
The Nation
Yunnan, China
 
 

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