A new study and cooperation project in the wake of 11 proposed hydropower schemes on the Mekong River has been launched amid concerns for the river and the 60 million people who live in the lower basin.
The results of the Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) Strategic Environment Assessment are expected by July or August next year, Damian Kean, spokesman for the MRC secretariat in Laos, told AFP Friday.
The MRC is now "faced with perhaps its most important strategic challenge" since its founding in 1995, Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the MRC secretariat, said in a statement on Thursday.
The MRC has launched the study to look at the proposed hydropower developments on the river in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and their impacts.
MRC is an intergovernmental body that deals with all river-related activities including fisheries, agriculture and flood management, with member countries Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The probe has been launched to help riparian countries affected by the projects decide whether they want to go ahead with them.
The Strategic Environment Assessment is obtaining submissions from individuals and organizations on its website at www.mrcmekong.org/ish/SEA.htm.
The private sector is seriously considering developing hydropower schemes on the mainstream, the MRC said in a Thursday press release, adding that there are already 3,235 MW of electricity being generated by hydropower on Mekong tributaries and dams with an operational capacity of 3,209 MW are under construction.
In another move to safeguard the river on Wednesday, MRC and the Mississippi River Commission in the US announced their intention to cooperate on a wide range of water resource challenges common to both river basins.
The move was formalized at a ceremony in Laos, following the recent visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the region to encourage greater cooperation between the US government, ASEAN and the governments of the Mekong Basin.
The two river-basin management organizations intend to exchange technical cooperation and know-how to determine how best to adapt to climate change as it affects the Mekong river system.
They will also work together to promote the sustainability of hydropower development, address water and food security, manage and cope with floods and droughts better, and increase navigation and trade on their inland waterways.
The two river commissions are currently exploring a formal agreement, which will identify a plan of action and specific institutional mechanisms for cooperation in their mutual areas of interest.
In another campaign to protect the environment and the livelihood of millions, the Save the Mekong coalition has launched a campaign for a petition to the prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to express concerns about plans to build the hydropower dams that will impact the river’s environment and natural resources, including natural flow, biodiversity and ecosystem.
“Please listen to the voice of the Mekong’s people and keep the Mekong flowing freely, saving this critical source of food and income for millions,” says the coalition’s online petition form currently available at www.savethemekong.org.
The Save the Mekong coalition is formed of non-government organizations, local groups and ordinary people who all share a concern about the future of the Mekong River.
From March until early June, coalition members also collected signed postcards from people in the countries who would be affected by the projects and around the world.
The Mekong is one of the most active regions in the world for hydropower with eight existing or planned Mekong mainstream dams in Yunan Province in China and 11 proposed by Cambodia, Laos and Thailand – all in various stages of investigation or feasibility study.
In Vietnam, the Mekong is known as the Cuu Long River as it flows through the southwestern region and joins the sea.
As set out in the 1995 Mekong Agreement, MRC member countries are committed to undergoing a formal approval process prior to any decision on building dams on the river. The process must balance the interests of people's livelihoods, as well as the energy, fisheries, tourism, and navigation industries.
Past studies undertaken by the MRC have shown that dams can have both a positive and negative impact, for example, MRC analysis shows that large storage dams in the upper Mekong basin can increase dry season flows and reduce flood levels, which can benefit water users. But at the same time the changed flow patterns can reduce fishery yields.
The largest impacts of the proposed mainstream dams in the lower Mekong Basin, apart from local resettlement issues, are likely to be significant changes in fish passage and migration, aquatic habitats, sediment flow leading to erosion and loss of nutrients.
More than 60 million people in the lower Mekong Basin depend on the river system for food, transport and economic activity.
Freshwater fisheries in the basin have a commercial value of at least US$2 billion per year, making it the world's most valuable inland fishery.
Also, 80 percent of the animal protein for Mekong inhabitants comes from the Mekong, with 70 percent of the commercial catch being long distance migrant species; the kind of fish species that the MRC says could be severely affected by dams on the river.