Yahoo News 13 Nov 07;
The construction of six dams along the Mekong River could displace tens of thousands of people and endanger over a thousand aquatic species, environmental groups warned Tuesday, calling for international intervention.
The planned hydropower dams on the Mekong in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia could displace tens of thousands of people and endanger up to 1,300 aquatic species including the rare Mekong giant catfish and the Irrawaddy dolphin, activists said.
Environmental groups want international donors, who fund Southeast Asia's Mekong River Commission, to pressure the commission into investigating the social and ecological impact of each dam and to ensure people were compensated for any loss of livelihood.
Donors, among them the World Bank, the United States, Japan, Australia and many European governments, are due to meet in the Cambodian town of Siem Reap on Thursday.
"We urge all the donors of the Mekong River Commission to review immediately their support to the MRC," Premrudee Daoroung, co-director of Thailand-based ecological group TERRA, told reporters in Bangkok.
She said the MRC -- which comprises Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos -- had failed since its creation in 1995 to carry out adequate environmental impact assessments or consult people affected by the dams.
"The existence of the MRC now, if they are not doing their job, they are blocking the way of other more transparent mechanisms" to do the job.
Laos, which has ambitions to become the region's key electricity supplier, has four Mekong dams under consideration, while Thailand and Cambodia each have one.
"The lower Mekong is the largest production fishery area, any change on the eco-system would create a vital impact," said Pianporn Deetes, a coordinator with Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN).
"The change in water levels would create inevitable impacts on fish migration," she added.
Activists said that because of the lack of transparent impact assessments for the dams, it was hard to say how many people would be forced from their homes, but estimates ranged between 17,300 and 75,000.
Surichai Wun'gaeo, head of Chulalongkorn University's social research institute, said a balance had to be reached between Asia's rocketing energy demands and the lives of rural people who still depend on the land.
"(The MRC) should prove its usefulness in the eyes of the public ... not only its usefulness in terms of certain businesses and interests," he said.
The 4,800-kilometre (2,980-mile) Mekong begins its life on the Tibetan plateau and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before reaching the South China Sea via Vietnam's Mekong Delta.
The river, one of the most bio-diverse in the world, is the lifeblood for tens of millions of people living along its banks, providing fish, irrigation and a vital trading corridor.
Groups say dams may damage Mekong River
Michael Casey, AP Environmental Writer, Yahoo News 14 Nov 07
Six proposed dams on the Mekong River could displace up to 75,000 villagers and harm hundreds of species like the endangered giant catfish and Irrawaddy dolphin, conservationists warned Tuesday.
Premrudee Daoroung, director of the Bangkok-based environmental group TERRA, said 13-year-old plans to build four dams in Laos and one each in Thailand and Cambodia have been revived as part of efforts — mostly by China, Thailand and Vietnam — to find new energy sources for their growing economies.
"The natural flow of the river will all be completely changed," Premrudee said. "Of course, it will affect all the vegetation and fish on the river. Many species of fish will be lost because the river will become shallower and some parts may have no water at all during the dry season."
The proposed dams would add further pressure to the beleaguered Mekong, which runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The river and its vast tributary network already face threats from pollution, climate change and the effects of dams that were built in China and have caused water levels to drop sharply on the upper Mekong.
Conservationists urged the Mekong River Commission — which is made up of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand and tasked with managing navigation and development along the river — to take a public stance on the dam projects at its annual meeting starting Thursday in Cambodia.
They also called on the commission to release any studies or surveys on the six dams' effects on the river.
"Despite the serious ecological and economic implications of damming the lower Mekong, the Mekong River Commission remained notably silent," a coalition of 175 environmental and civic groups charged in a letter sent to the commission Monday. "We find this an extraordinary abdication of responsibility."
Conservationists fear that without some outside pressure, the dams — mostly funded by Chinese companies — will fail to include affected communities in their planning, to compensate relocated villagers for possible lost land and livelihoods, and will refuse to incorporate environmental and social safeguards into their projects.
No one from the commission could immediately be reached for comment on the environmentalists' statements.
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