As bitter protests continue over ongoing Mekong River dam projects, Sweden has pledged $5.3 million to a controversial multinational body monitoring development in the basin.
The funding—to be disbursed over the next four years—will promote sustainable hydropower in the Mekong River basin, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said in a press release.
Household solar systems have taken hold in Laos, but PV deployment on a grand-scale is being held back by a focus on hydropower, according to delegates at the Solar & Off-Grid Renewables Southeast Asia Event in Bangkok.
At the November 20 session of the 24th APEC Summit, a high-ranking leader suggested developing agriculture in a sustainable manner in tandem with the effective use of natural resources, including cross-border management of water resources.
“When I was born, my grandparents told me, ‘The dolphins are special. If you see them, you will get good luck. If you capsize your boat, the dolphins will save you. You can trust them.’”
The young man in his 20s is standing on the bank of the Mekong River in a section that a small pod of the critically-endangered Irrawaddy dolphin calls home – a home which is about to sit next to perhaps the most divisive hydropower dam project in the region.
“I miss the Mekong.” A sad smile flickered across the face of Thongkham Phalibai, a mother of two and owner of a grocery store in Luang Prabang.
“I was living by the river for so long, earning money from gold panning and farming. But I can’t go back there anymore. I don’t know where my old house used to be.”
It has been four years since Thongkham left a simple life in her old village of Pak Neun for a new one in Neunsavang, a remote village 80 kilometres south of Luang Prabang. She was among the 2,986 villagers who were forced to resettle because their homes either sat on the location of the controversial Xayaburi dam or were in areas that will be flooded.
The real sign of development and democracy is how a country respects, protects and promotes freedoms and human rights. The biggest challenge of our times is the increasing gap between the promises and performance of states and governments in relation to the protection of the freedoms and human rights of their people. This is most evident in many countries in Asia, with the shrinking of freedom and democratic spaces resulting in increasing attacks on human rights defenders.
The Save the Mekong coalition has expressed concerns over the development of the Don Sahong Dam in Champassak Province, Lao P.D.R. The network, consisted of communities, local and international environmental groups, reiterates their concern over the construction of the Don Sahong Dam due to its location in an area critical to Mekong fish migration, the potential impacts of the project on regional fisheries are severe. They stress that food security of thousands of people in the Mekong Basin is dependent on many of the migratory fish species which have traditionally passed through the Hou Sahong channel. The also claim inadequate information has been made available to date regarding the scale and scope of the project’s impacts, the ongoing studies and monitoring efforts that are informing the project’s ‘adaptive and flexible approach’ to mitigation, and confirmation of the implementation and efficacy of the project’s mitigation measures.
DEVELOPMENT projects in the lower reaches of the Mekong River will take a great toll on the area’s biodiversity, experts have warned, with much of its fauna and flora facing imminent extinction.
In the face of major projects, such as the plan for a navigation route on the Mekong from Chiang Rai province down to Luang Prabang in Laos, as well as a controversial dam, concerned academics and experts attended the Greater Mekong Forum in Bangkok on Friday.
AS THE Mekong region faces intensifying challenges from developments needed by its riparian countries including Laos’ latest mega-project, the Pak Beng Dam, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) insists that it is still the best institutional arrangement to ensure sustainable development for the basin.
Pham Tuan Phan, who assumed the post of MRC chief executive this year, stressed that point while delivering his presentation about the organisation, empowered by the 1995 Mekong Agreement, at the Greater Mekong Forum last week, where leading river experts and policy-makers attended to find out the best approach to ensure the river’s sustainable development.
The lives of the Preag Romkil villagers have turned to grief since Laos started building the Don Sahong Dam on the other side of the border.
“Many of us express deep concerns on survival of the dolphins. There has been some dolphins that died here. We are afraid of bigger damages to happen caused by the dam construction. Our lives rely mostly on the ecotourist site and the dolphins. Laos gets benefits from the dam, but we do not, we are the losers”.
