Green Pulse Podcast

Eco-systems and local communities impacted as Mekong undergoes a sea of change

In this episode, host Nirmal Ghosh speaks to Senior Fellow and co-lead of the Mekong Dam Monitor at the Stimson Center Brian Eyler and Thailand-based Campaigns Director for Thailand and Myanmar of International Rivers Pianporn (Pai) Deetes. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

Updated

Published

Aug 04, 2024, 06:00 PM

In the quest to reduce reliance on carbon-laden fossil fuel for power generation, the world has been developing renewable sources of energy, building dams along the banks of rivers and their tributaries for hydropower.

But this comes at an environmental cost to the health of the rivers’ ecosystems and the livelihoods of local communities in the area.

The non profit advocacy International Rivers estimates that only a third of the world’s rivers remain free flowing - an indication of river health where water, silt and other natural materials can move unobstructed, and animals, such as river dolphins and migratory fish, can swim up and down stream at will.

At Asia’s Mekong River, indiscriminate dam building is changing the landscape. Nowhere is this modification of river systems more apparent than on Southeast Asia’s largest river, where its natural flow has been interfered with in the name of water control and hydro power, creating additional risks as entire riverine ecosystems are transformed, consequently affecting the livelihoods of local communities.

The 4,900 km Mekong, which originates in the Tibetan Plateau, is one of the world’s longest rivers, running through China – where it is called the Lancang – as well as Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In Cambodia, it creates Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, the Tonle Sap, as its waters back up before it empties into the sea through a vast delta in Vietnam - but this is fast disappearing with dams being built upstream.

An engineering mindset, urban-based and elite-driven decision making that leaves little or no agency to local communities affected by changes to the river system, and an element of unaccountability, are some of the factors that have been driving the transformation of the river system, experts Mr Brian Eyler and Ms Pianporn Deetes, told ST’s Green Pulse podcast.

Ms Deetes is Thailand-based Campaigns Director for Thailand and Myanmar of the international non-profit advocacy organisation International Rivers. Mr Eyler is Senior Fellow and co-lead of the Mekong Dam Monitor at the Stimson Center in Washington DC - and author of the 2019 book “Last Days of the Mighty Mekong.”

Though a 1995 Mekong Agreement among Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam focused on sustainable development and management and balancing needs and rights, over 700 dams have been built or are under construction on the tributaries of the Mekong river, Mr Eyler said.

Of these, over 600 are in Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries - and the Commission has only been notified in around one in ten cases, he said.

The MRC is an intergovernmental agency funded by the governments of its four member countries Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as by donors. Myanmar and the People’s Republic of China are dialogue partners.

Written into the rules of the 1995 Mekong Agreement are water flow regimes, which require minimum flows during the wet season to allow the Tonle Sap lake - the world’s most productive freshwater fishery - to expand, Mr Eyler explained.

“There are direct relationships between the operations of those really large dams in China and the downstream ecological response,” he said.

“Those dams suck a lot of water out of the river during the wet season, and they put it back in during the dry season. We’re monitoring that effect. We’re seeing weeks where one dam just fills its reservoir a lot, and the river level goes down.

“We see times when the Tonle Sap lake is expanding, the dam in China increases its storage, and the Tonle Sap lake contracts - and then that dam stops increasing its storage, and the Tonle Sap expands again.”

There is “no... coordination whatsoever” between China and the downstream countries, he said.

For years, China has been blamed for building dams on the upper reaches of the river, which have affected the water level downstream.

But China denies that its dams cause problems downstream, blaming the criticism on preconceived judgements and politics.

“Some parties start with preconceptions, and even come to a conclusion before they analyse the data,” Mr Hao Zhao, secretary-general of the Beijing-based Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Centre, told ST on the sidelines of a Mekong River Commission meeting in April 2023.

Mr Eyler told Green Pulse that China has not started sharing its data yet - but it has pledged to do so. “We’ve got a pledge. That’s good,” he said.

But Ms Deetes told Green Pulse she has witnessed the changes the dams have wrought over the years.

Downstream communities have already experienced the destruction of ecosystem services, she said.

“We’re not only talking about fisherfolk, we’re not talking about river ecosystems or riverbank gardeners any more,” she added. “It’s everyone.”

Electricity users also need to be educated and better informed on the impact of the dams, she said.

“Decision making needs to be changed,” she said. “We need to include more voices of the local people and voices of the taxpayers, and voices of electricity users as well.”

Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg) and Fa’izah Sani

Edited by: Fa’izah Sani

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