As new data emerge on the real potential economic and environmental costs of large dams, countries in the region are beginning to show some tentative signs of rethinking their options.
Tag: impacts
Ongoing Mekong Dam Construction Puts Communities at Serious Risk: Advocates
As hydropower projects continue to be built along the Mekong, fishing communities living near the Tonle Sap river in Cambodia say their way of life is already changing.
Forum slams Mekong dam construction, warns livelihoods at stake
Hydroelectric dams in several countries on the mainstream of the Mekong River has seriously impacted people living along it, a forum heard last week.
How has climate change affected Vietnam?
In 2016, the consequences of climate change in Vietnam were evident with 10 typhoons and seven tropical depressions in the the South China Sea, more than the average of many years ago.
The poverty of simple answers on Mekong hydropower
There are no ‘simple answers’ for managing the risks of Mekong hydropower development. The reality is much more complex.
This is climate change: When is Thailand going to do something about it?
The rivers have escaped their banks. They have destroyed millions of rai of paddies and fields newly prepared for planting.
Selling locals down the Mekong River
It’s always difficult for the little guy to get his voice heard. For those who have found themselves downstream of the international river where transboundary development is taking place, like the Mekong River, your chances are nil.
Climate change a threat on Mekong Delta
Leone Clare led a presentation called Vulnerable Vietnam: A Photo Story Focused on Climate Change in the Mekong Delta, 6 p.m. Thursday, June 1st at Sitka Public Library.
Govt to survey dams nationwide
The government is planning on reviewing the status of dams throughout the country to see if they are worth keeping. U Htun Win, deputy minister for agriculture, livestock and irrigation, told parliament on August 2 that the review would take into account the efficiency, cost-effectiveness and long-term benefit of the dams.
A shift in policy, away from building dams and toward running irrigation channels to farmland, has already led to a 50 percent cut in the request for irrigation funding next year. The ministry’s assistant secretary, U Myo Tint Tun, told The Myanmar Times on July 18 that expenditure in 2017-18 would be less than half of this year’s level, falling from K253 billion (US$216 million) to K120 billion. The funds would be used primarily to provide irrigation drainage to existing dams that lacked it.
Mekong dam projects ‘could destroy livelihoods, ecology’
THE ECOLOGY of the Mekong River could be destroyed within 10 years if dam projects along the river are allowed to continue, Thai and Cambodian non-government organisations have warned.
They have also warned that it will be very difficult for people to claim compensation for projects’ negative impacts on the environment and their livelihoods because it will be not difficult if not impossible to clearly link the effects to a particular dam.