Save the Mekong

Key Issues:

The Mekong River is under threat. The governments of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are planning eleven big hydropower dams on the Mekong River’s mainstream. If built, the dams would block major fish migrations and disrupt this vitally important river, placing at risk millions of people who depend upon the Mekong for their food security and income.

Fisheries, Food Security and Livelihoods

The Mekong River supports one of the world’s most productive inland fisheries, which feeds over sixty million people. Official estimates put its value at more than US$3 billion annually. Yet, even this staggering figure understates the true value, as fisheries are also central to peoples’ nutrition and food security. Experience around the world points to the fact there is no way of mitigating such large dams’ impacts on fisheries.

Biodiversity

The undammed Mekong River has an extraordinary aquatic biodiversity, second only to the Amazon. Building mainstream dams would push the endangered species such as the Irrawaddy Dolphin, the Mekong Giant Catfish, and countless other migratory fish species to the brink of extinction. Losing this ecological wealth would be a tragedy of global proportions.

Mekong Mainstream Dams in China

China’s dam construction on the Upper Mekong mainstream (Lancang) has already caused serious environmental problems on downstream Burma, northern Thailand and northern Lao PDR. Declining fish stocks and unpredictable water levels made life more difficult for downstream communities, pointing towards the damage that mainstream dams will inflict.

Better Energy Solutions

The bulk of electricity generated by the Mekong mainstream dams is destined for distant energy-hungry cities in Thailand and Vietnam. Yet the region’s urban electricity needs could be better met by improving energy efficiency and deploying recent innovations in decentralized energy technologies. By adopting policies that encourage investment in new energy technologies, Mekong governments could leapfrog 1950s-era big hydro and start growing sustainable, modern economies. Securing electricity supply in this peaceful way would also avoid cross-border disputes arising from these dams’ cross-border impacts.

Actions to Date

The prospect of damming the Mekong has evoked widespread concern amongst potentially affected riverside communities, civil society groups, academics, journalists, businesses, and the general public within the Mekong region and internationally. As the Mekong River sustains both rural and urban populations and is intimately linked to local cultures and traditions, damming it will undermine the region’s prospects for sustainable development.

Mekong River Commission and Mekong region donors

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental agency with a history of promoting hydro development along the mainstream that dates back to the 1950s. Today the agency is supported by the lower Mekong governments and survives on international donor aid from the World Bank, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan and Sweden, amongst others. Despite its mandate to promote sustainable development of the Mekong River, the MRC has failed to adequately respond to the threat posed by Mekong mainstream dams.

About Save the Mekong Coalition

The Save the Mekong coalition is open to non-government organizations, community groups, academics, artists and ordinary citizens within the Mekong region and internationally, anyone who shares concerns regarding the future of one of the world’s greatest river systems. It was formed in response to the public’s growing concern about the effects dams on the Mekong River’s mainstream would have on the Mekong’s migratory fish stocks, regional food security, and the livelihoods of millions of people. The Save the Mekong coalition aims to do two things: to raise further public awareness about the risks associated with damming such an important international river, and to persuade policymakers to adopt more sustainable and peaceful ways of meeting people’s energy and water needs.