The Telegraph (UK)
April 1, 2004

An insatiable demand for power is being blamed for threatening the livelihoods of 20 million people by ruining fish stocks.

To the Thais, Laotians and Cambodians, the Mekong has always been the “Mother River”, but as another poor day’s fishing ended, Kham Chhon was having his doubts.

His haul was 22 lb of the sardine-sized fish that are his source of revenue, main source of protein and way of life. Twenty years ago he was guaranteed a catch of 440 lb a day.

“I don’t know why there are not so many fish. Perhaps the Mekong has been kind to man but man has not been kind to the Mekong,” he sighed, retiring to a wooden platform shaded by a mango tree in front of his simple concrete house near the capital, Phnom Penh.

Kham Chhon is among 65 million people in the lower Mekong basin whose livelihoods and health are in danger as the river level sinks.

Over-fishing and deforestation have had an effect for years but the problem has been worsened severely by the Chinese building hydropower dams up river.

One of the world’s supreme rivers, the Mekong runs for 3,000 miles through dramatically changing scenery, from the glaciers of Tibet, through the mountains of southern China and the plains of Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, before emptying into the South China Sea.

Along with its tributaries it yields two million tons of fish annually. In communities downstream of China it provides 80 per cent of protein.

About 20 million people are estimated by the Mekong River Commission, an intra-government body, to be involved in fishing. “People are dependent on the river and it is really frightening to think what could happen,” said Ian Campbell, senior environment specialist at the commission.

“In the West we sometimes talk about bio-diversity because it is nice to save species, but here it is a matter of people’s lives.” Commission figures confirm that in some places the river is flowing close to rock bottom. At many places, prominent sandbars have emerged
that were previously scarcely visible in the dry season. Near Phnom Penh, cargo boats and ferries regularly get stuck.

Se Chhuon, who steers ferries from the mainland to Koh Dach, an island in the river, said: “I have never had to be so careful. It has never been so difficult to cross.” Many monitoring stations reveal that the river is below levels recorded in 1993, itself the lowest year in living memory.

Pech Sokhem, a commission director in Phnom Penh, said: “It may be good for flood control, but it is bad for agriculture and fishing. If the water doesn’t flow properly, the fish will not spawn or migrate.”

A drought was partly to blame, he said, but China must also take some responsibility for dams which cause fluctuations of up to 11 inches up or down with surges and dips in electricity demand.

The Chinese finished their first dam, Manwan, in 1996 and the second at Dachaoshan in October last year and the problem is due to worsen.

Six more dams are planned in Yunnan province. The next, being built at Xiaowan and due for completion in 2012, will be not much smaller than the Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze, with a reservoir stretching back 105 miles.

The dams are symbols of China’s insatiable demand for power and its strategy of developing its western regions, which lag behind the east and south. Accused of arrogance by environmentalists, it has built the dams without consulting countries downriver. Its official line – rarely stated – has been that the benefits will far outweigh adverse effects.

The smaller countries, who depend on China for aid and trade, dare not criticise their neighbour and have anyway built their own, if much smaller, dams. Thailand, Vietnam and Laos have all built barriers on tributaries.

Barely developed until the 1990s, the Mekong is being turned into the region’s powerhouse at a time when the appropriateness of giant dams is being called further and further into question.

The governments say the extra power will improve lives and bring vital development to populations with average earnings of £140-£180. That is little comfort to Kham Chhon, his wife and seven children, who have never heard of the Chinese dams.