Campaign Against Planned Mekong River Dams

The 11 dams along the lower Mekong River are planned for Laos, Cambodia and the Thai-Lao border. The hydropower generated by them is to meet the increasing demand for electricity across the region.

The 4,800 kilometre Mekong River flows from the Tibetan plateau through Southern China and Myanmar before reaching the Mekong basin and eventually flowing to the South China Sea through Southern Vietnam.

Problems for food security

Civil society groups groups point to the threat to fish stocks, water access and general food security for the millions of people living in the region if the hydropower dam developments go ahead.

Premrudee Daoroung is a co-director of the Bangkok-based group 'Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance' (TERRA). She says because several dams are planned the situation is vastly more complicated than earlier campaigns to halt damming on the Mekong.

"Compared with the past 20 years, the situation has become pretty critical now – a lot more difficult – in terms of the figures of the dams, because they are not one country’s dams anymore. We have to consider the cross-border issues. The main reason for our campaign right now is to save the Mekong as a whole – which is not comparable to the past."

Postcard campaign

Civil society groups have combined efforts to present the case to regional governments. Through a postcard petition campaign more than 16,000 people have signed on urging the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to put a stop to the developments. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the issue should be raised with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Carl Middleton from the environmental group 'International Rivers', says there is now a greater understanding of both the importance of the fishing industry and the wider social impact if the dams go ahead.

"Compared to when these dams were first conceived the world’s moved on – hydropower is last century’s technology. So these projects in the past, they were stopped by various reasons, including the high environmental and social impact. But the fact is now there are far better options to meeting energy needs in the region."

Threatening endangered species

Middleton says the hydropower projects would affect the more than 50 species of migratory fish in one the world’s most productive inland fisheries. The dams would also threaten several endangered species such as the Irrawaddy Dolphin and the Mekong giant catfish.

Downstream in Vietnam’s delta region, agronomists fear the dams will drastically affect the country’s rice growing bowl, limiting fresh water flows and leading to more sea water flowing inland. As a result, soil acidity would increase destroying rice fields and affecting the lives of 17 million people.

The groups have also called for greater action by the Mekong River Commission or MRC -- to take a stronger stance over future developments that affect the river, the lifeblood for so many in the region.

Author: Ron Corben (Bangkok)
Editor: Grahame Lucas