Dams need thorough assessment
tion, and a sudden release of water into the Sesan River in Vietnam in 2000 resulted in flash floods downstream destroying the lives of communities in Cambodia.
It is hard for us to imagine what it must be like living in a community downstream of a dam, so long touted as milestones of progress. But for the people of the Mekong, now acutely aware of a looming threat having witnessed the worst come true for others just like them, the reality is bleak. Especially given that they have little or no power to lessen the risks and take action to protect their families, homes and livelihoods.
This was a human-made disaster that could and should have been avoided. There should have been effective and timely warning systems in place. Mistakes have been made, and we hope there will be an open and public discussion with the lessons learned taken to heart and acted on. However, as found out by Oxfam partner My Village, the people of the Mekong have doubts that this will happen.
“We are still worried and scared to replant the vegetable crops destroyed during the flood [becuse] villagers who have relatives in Laos claim floods from the dam will come again,” said Pheng Sivath, the deputy president of a community-based organization in Stung Treng province’s Siem Pang district.
Their worries are justified as there is a clear lack of functional early warning and information dissemination systems in place.
“Mechanisms for information dissemination, such as disaster warning and flood prevention between Laos and Cambodia for tributary rivers like the Xe Kong, are weak to non-existent,” Brian Eyeler, the director of Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia, told the South China Morning Post.
“Clearly, more transboundary cooperation is needed. Perhaps this crisis will drive progress in the conversation.”
Those fears and communication breakdowns can easily translate into unbearable economic losses for poverty-stricken communities living downstream in Cambodia struggling to make ends meet.
Losses like these can tip them into debt with the resulting negative consequences for their families. Their worries remain intact as they are yet to see any compensation for their losses or moves to allay their fears despite having been directly impacted by last month’s calamity.
Oxfam has been working with communities across Asia and around the world helping them to reduce risks and make their communities safer. We find early warning systems where people can access information quickly, reliably, and in ways that make sense to them, to be effective in saving lives and communities.
Properly designed systems allow communities to access the same information as the authorities, and at little cost.
We are piloting such systems with communities across borders in South Asia; however, sharing information, even about rising water levels, between countries remains a challenge due to sovereignty concerns.
Across the region and elsewhere, we are already seeing unexpected repercussions of hydro-dams affecting those who live downstream. Many communities along the Mekong are left worse off due to the reduction of soil fertility exacerbated by climate change, reduced fish stocks and impacting their livelihoods and dietary habits, and suffering the resettlement of enitre vil- lages to make way for development of dams.
The governments’ and developers’ promises of prosperity have failed to deliver.
If we are serious about learning from the catastrophic collapse of the Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy dam, we need to think beyond merely pushing the same development agenda with some added safety precautions.
We need to look at sustainable, long-term development solutions that put people at the centre. We need initiatives that take into account the communities affected, their lifestyles, viewpoints, and the issues they face, whether they are upstream or downstream or across the basin.
If we fail to do that, we will be left with development that benefits only a few at the cost of the many.
And that is too steep a price to pay.