Yahoo News 15 Oct 10;
PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Countries in the lower Mekong River region should delay any decisions about building hydropower dams for 10 years, an influential new study said Friday, warning of the many risks involved.
The recommendation was made in a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report commissioned by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental advisory body that deals with all Mekong River-related activities.
The MRC -- which represents Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- is studying the possible construction of 11 hydropower projects on southeast Asia's longest river.
"The recommendation to defer dam construction for a 10-year period is very significant," said Tiffany Hacker, an interim communication advisor for the MRC.
Environmental groups have long objected to damming the river, arguing that it would damage fragile ecosystems.
The assessment, led by consultants with the help of the MRC, government agencies and civil society representatives, said more time was needed to study the risks that come with building dams in such a complex environment.
"The mainstream projects are likely to result in serious and irreversible environmental damage and... losses in biological diversity and ecological integrity," the report said.
It also warned that the dams would have a negative impact on fisheries and could "lead to increasing food insecurity for millions of people".
The MRC stressed that it was under no obligation to follow the report's recommendations, but Hacker told AFP that member countries were "likely to take the findings seriously".
The four countries will now study the findings "for at least six months" before deciding on how to proceed, Hacker said.
More than 60 million people rely in some way on the river, which is the world's largest inland fishery, according to the MRC.
The wildlife group WWF has warned that the Mekong giant catfish -- one of the world's biggest freshwater fish -- could be driven to extinction if plans to build hydropower dams on the river go ahead, blocking spawning grounds.
Delay building of dams: Report
Official study advises pushing back plans by 10 years, citing risk of ecological damage
Nirmal Ghosh, Straits Times 20 Oct 10;
BANGKOK: An official report has called for plans to build dams on the Mekong river to be deferred, citing concerns that they would disrupt the ecology of the river system.
The report, commissioned by the Vientiane- based Mekong River Commission (MRC), recommends that plans for 11 mainstream hydropower dams be pushed back by 10 years.
Coming amid a rush by regional governments to tap the 4,500km-long river for electricity and water, it is the first real test for both governments and corporations involved, which will find it difficult to ignore the report.
Set up in 1995 by Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, the commission is an advisory body dealing with Mekong river-related activities. It has been criticised as a tool of its member governments, but its Strategic Environmental Assessment report, which was submitted this month and conflicts with official plans, could change that view.
The report warned that damming the Mekong could damage ecosystems along the river, disrupt other uses, and reduce productivity in fisheries and agriculture.
'The proposed developments when under construction and operating have the potential to create... international tensions within the Lower Mekong Basin,' the report warned.
Starting in China and meandering through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, the Mekong is one of the most productive rivers in the world and the lifeblood of some 60 million people.
The latest report adds to a growing pile of cautionary notes on damming the Mekong. Environmentalists have long opposed plans for the dams, and some have blamed dams already built upstream in China for the Mekong's falling water levels.
Numerous studies have shown that dams will disrupt the flow of water, triggering changes in the river's course and flood patterns, and interrupting biological connectivity - in turn altering the subsistence livelihood base especially of those living downstream in the lower Mekong nations of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
'The social and environmental damage likely (from) any one of the mainstream dams is of a scale that cannot be ignored,' said Vientiane-based Marc Goichot, senior adviser for the World Wide Fund for Nature's Greater Mekong programme.
'We need this 10-year deferral so innovative technology... can be developed to allow energy production without high risk to the river and the people dependent on its resources.'
The latest report gives critics of the dams - as well as the MRC - some ammunition in their opposition to the dams. A Vientiane-based expert on water governance, who asked not to be named, said the report showed the commission was trying to ensure that all issues were being assessed in a transparent manner.
'The MRC has known for months that (the report) was heading in this direction,' the expert told The Straits Times.
The report will figure in a process requiring the commission's member countries to notify and consult one another on planned hydropower dam projects. Next week, a critical meeting in this process will take place, providing the first signal of whether governments will take the report seriously.
The government of Laos, in particular, which has ambitious plans to become the 'battery of South-east Asia' through hydropower dams, is unlikely to be happy. Neither are investors in the 11 dams, which include companies from China, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
One immediate test case will be a 1,280 megawatt hydropower dam being proposed for the Kaeng Luang rapids in Xayaboury province in Laos. A Thai corporation is involved in the construction, and most of the electricity will be bought by Thailand.
