Both hydropower dams and global warming pose threats to freshwater fish diversity. While the extent of global warming may be reduced by a shift towards energy generation by large dams in order to reduce fossil-fuel use, such dams profoundly modify riverine habitats. Furthermore, the threats posed by dams and global warming will interact: for example, dams constrain range adjustments by fishes that might compensate for warming temperatures. Evaluation of their combined or synergistic effects is thus essential for adequate assessment of the consequences of planned water-resource developments.
Category: Region
Selected environmental stories from media outlets in the Mekong region and beyond.
Flood crisis threatens to kill Vietnam’s rice bowl
The Mekong Delta makes up 55.5 percent of the country’s annual rice output. Shortage of floods has resulted in a hefty 50 percent decrease in sediment deposited in the Mekong Delta each year, causing Vietnam’s largest delta to face serious subsidence and likely disappearance in the future.
Myanmar green energy sector faces hurdles
Myanmar’s goal of achieving a 100 per cent electrification rate by 2030, with 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources, is achievable but several hurdles need to be tackled first, energy experts have said.
At the Myanmar Green Energy Summit 2016 last week, panellists agreed that hydroelectricity, plus wind and solar energy, were good choices given available resources.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi assures China of solution to stalled dam
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi told China’s premier on Thursday that her new government is willing to look for a resolution that suits both countries to a suspended Chinese-funded hydropower project in northern Myanmar, a senior Chinese diplomat said.
Finding a solution to the US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project is important for Suu Kyi who needs China’s cooperation in talks with Myanmar’s ethnic minority armed groups operating along northern borders with China.
Major rivers of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta become unusually deeper
Vietnamese scientists have warned of the unusual increase in the depth of two major rivers in the Mekong Delta, with sand mining and hydropower dams said to be the cause.
According to experts, instead of being accreted, the 250-kilometer long Tien (Front) River and 200-kilometer Hau (Back) River have become five to seven meters deeper since 2008.
The Mekong separates in Phnom Penh into the Tien River, the main northern branch, and the Hau River, the primary southern distributor, after entering Vietnam.
“Kong – Loei – Chi – Mun” Mega Project and Experts Concerns
Currently, the Mekong Delta provinces are facing saline water intrusion as a result of low water levels in the Mekong River. Cambodia and Lao PDR are also plan for similar water diversion projects. If the Kong-Loei-Chi-Mun and similar projects will be implemented in Cambodia and Lao PDR, the volume of flood water to Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta area will be significantly reduced. Furthermore, climate change and El Nino phenomenon will make the issue even more challenging.
Making Inroads: Chinese Infrastructure Investment in ASEAN and Beyond
Inclusive Development International (IDI) released Making Inroads: Chinese Infrastructure Investment in ASEAN and Beyond, its new report that seeks to shed light on the rapidly changing landscape of infrastructure finance in the region which has been driven by China.
China’s Three Parallel Rivers national park threatened by illegal mining
China’s best preserved forests in south-west China’s Yunnan province are under threat from illegal mining, according to a new report.
The study by Greenpeace shows mining and industry activity in the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan protected area is destroying pristine forests in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. The researchers combined remote sensing data and field visits to show mining is leading to deforestation, water pollution and habitat loss in the mountains of north-west Yunnan on the eastern foothills of the Himalayas.
China’s lack of cooperation causing problems for Vietnam’s water resources programming
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MARD), the total area of the entire Red-Thai Binh River basin is 169,000 square kilometers, of which 86,700 square kilometers, or 51.3 percent, belong to Vietnam, 81,200 square kilometers (48 percent) to China and 1,100 square kilometers, or 0.65 percent, to Laos.
Tong Ngoc Thanh, director of the National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation (NAWAPI), said at a workshop held recently that since China was uncooperative, and that it was difficult for Vietnam to get information for development programming about the water source in the upper course belonging to the Chinese territory.
New Commission to Decide Fate of Myitsone Dam in Kachin State
President Htin Kyaw on Friday formed a new commission to evaluate all proposed hydropower projects on the Irrawaddy River prior to their going ahead.
The committee formation comes a week before State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s trip to China as Burma’s foreign minister.
Since the installation of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government in April, China has been lobbying for the resumption of the multi-billion dollar Myitsone Dam, which was being constructed with Chinese backing just downriver of the confluence that forms the Irrawaddy, in Kachin State, prior to a government suspension order in 2011.