PI editors

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A planned hydropower development in the lower Mekong River could negatively impact the livelihoods of many Vietnamese who rely on fishing and irrigation in the area, a Vietnamese official said at a conference last week.

The Mekong River flows through six countries with the upper stream running through China and Myanmar. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam fall in the lower half of the river.

Dao Trong Tu, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, said the development of dams and hydroelectricity could have unforeseen negative consequences for a country like Vietnam.

Tu told Thanh Nien Daily on the sidelines of the three-day regional multi-stakeholder conference in Vientiane that hydropower development could block or divert the flow of river water affecting fish and soil.

Nguyen Van Trong, deputy director of the Research Institute for Agriculture No.2 said 20 million Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta, which rely on fish for export and water for irrigation, would be negatively impacted.

Trong said dams would stop the migration of some fish species including pangasius (tra or basa catfish), leading to a reduction of production and export in the region. Vietnam alone exports more than US  $1 billion worth of pangasius a year.

According to the Mekong River Commission, around 80 hydropower projects are being privately or jointly planned by governments and corporations in the lower Mekong basin.

The projects, 11 of which will be built in Laos, are scheduled for completion over the next 20 years with a total capacity of 40,800 megawatts and a water storage capacity of 70 billion cubic meters for turbines.

The US-based non-government organization International Rivers issued a recent report criticizing the impact of rapid dam development in Laos.

The organization said the $1.45 billion Nam Theun 2 Hydropower dam under construction in central Laos has become another example of an infrastructure project in which social and environmental considerations have been left behind.

Jean Michel Devernary, vice president of the International Hydropower Association, said repercussions are unavoidable when developing hydropower and governments should do more for people living in the basin besides compensating them.

People should be offered opportunities where they can earn a living through other jobs instead of relying on fishing and farming activities impacted by hydropower development, he said.

Do Manh Hung, director of the Mekong River Commission’s Operation Department, said governments should be more involved in seeking solutions to the problems created by hydropower development.

The lower Mekong countries signed an agreement in 1995 to co-operate in developing hydropower in the lower basin.

According to the agreement, a project situated in the main stream of the river must be stopped if any one of the member countries objects.