The Mekong, dammed, critics say a disaster in the making

PHNOM PENH: In Laos, the lush forests are alive with the whines of drills that pierce the air. On the Mekong, a giant concrete wall rises slowly above the trees. The Don Sahong dam is a strong symbol, not only for a power-hungry Asia but also for what critics fear is a disaster in the making.

Landlocked Laos wants to become ‘ the battery of Southeast Asia’. The mountainous country with swirling rapids has the ideal geography for hydropower production and Don Sahong is just one of nine dams that Laos wants to build on the mainstream Mekong, claiming that this is the only way to develop the poor country.

Millions of people in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam could lose the fi sh they rely on for food.

But there are serious drawbacks. The Don Sahong dam is being built with little or no consideration of the impact on ecosystems and communities along the Mekong.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO), the Mekong is the second most biodiverse river in the world, after the Amazon. It supports the world’s largest freshwater capture fi shery. The Lower Mekong Basin provides a wide variety of breeding habitats for over 1,300 species of fi sh. But damming the Mekong will block fi sh migration towards these habitats.

The FAO calculated that about 85 per cent of the Lower Mekong Basin’s population lives in rural areas. Their livelihoods and food security is closely linked to the river and is vulnerable to waterrelated shocks – not just for fi shers but for thousands more who sell food products or provide hundreds of related services, says FAO. Millions of people in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam could lose the fi sh they rely on for food.

Chhith Sam Ath, the Cambodian director of the World Wide Fund ( WWF), claimed in The Diplomat that the Don Sahong Dam is “an ecological time bomb”.

Millions of people in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam could lose the fi sh they rely on for food.

“It threatens the food security of 60 million people living in Mekong basin,” he said. “The dam will have disastrous impacts on the entire river ecosystem all the way to the delta in Vietnam.”

This is particularly devastating for downstream Cambodia because more than 70 per cent of the protein consumed there comes from fish.

The 260-megawatt dam can also endanger the Irrawaddy dolphins, which are an important source of eco-tourism on the Cambodian side of the Mekong.

There are only 80 dolphins left. Some live just a few miles from the Don Sahong dam site. WWF warns that damming the Mekong will soon drive all the remaining dolphins to extinction.

Laos is going forward with the dam all the same, without approval from the Mekong River Commission and in defi ance of protests from NGOs and downstream countries.

Lao officials say that they cannot stop the country from pursuing its right to development.

They argue that they will address some of the concerns with ‘ fi sh-friendly turbines’ and fi sh ladders. But critics are not convinced that these measures are sufficient. Downstream, Cambodia is making things much worse. On a Monday morning in September, Prime Minister Hun Sen pushed a symbolic button. For the fi rst time the floodgates of Lower Sesan 2 Dam closed and an artificial lake started to fi ll.

Cambodia now has its own US$ 800 million ( RM3.4 million) battery, built with Chinese funds and knowhow. —