Case Study of the Mekong River part 2 Issues: 1.

Demand for water has increased as the governments are encouraging trade, investment, transportation and other forms of economic activities by exploiting the Mekong River poverty alleviation and raise SOL Pressing ahead with dam-building and water diversion schemes without adequate consultation or environmental impact studies China has built 3 hydroelectric dams and is planning to build 4 more by 2020 o Xiaowan Dam (one of the largest) to hold back 15 billion cumecs of water o Dams are needed to meet the increasing energy demand Laos has started construction of 23 dams in Mekong River since 2009 poverty alleviation Vietnams Yali Falls hydroelectric dam: in 1999 and 2000, the release of water from the Yali dam across the border from north-eastern Cambodia caused deaths of some 25people. Local communities reported the destruction of fisheries and farms, flood and contamination. o No of deaths could have been reduced with early warning of water release o Shows the importance of coordination between the Mekong countries

2. Impacts are starting to be seen In April 2010, some parts of the Mekong have fallen by 10m o Some parts of the blame Chinese dams in the upper courses o Causing problems to transportation and agriculture in various countries that depends on Mekong o Also because of drought & decreased precipitation in Thailand and Laos Lack of regulation/enforcement/political will to ensure only treated wastewater dumped to the river Lack of regulation to ensure water quality impact life and health of downstream riparian populations

Case study: Tien River, Vietnam runs through several provinces in the Mekong Delta Cause: My Tho City discharges into the river about 50,000 cubic metres of untreated household wastewater daily o Project to build a household wastewater treatment plant for My Tho has been set up, but has yet to be approved by a competent agency shows lack of political will of the government Untreated industrial waste released into the river by factories and breeding farms o Problematic legislation: building a waste water treatment system requires large investment, so companies rather risk it and pay fines instead when their violation is discovered Severely contaminated, with some pollutants exceeding the limit by up to 1000 times Content of grease and oil in the river water was 1.5-75 higher than the permissible limit Content of disease causing bacteria like Coliform and E.coli can go up to 1000 times higher

Seen impacts: Residents in Chau Thanh District: people who bathe in the river will suffer from rashes because of the water

Plants that are watered with water from the rivers soon withered show that its toxic Ecological impact: Anchovy and Long Tong population has decreased in the area, while other fish species that can survive in contaminated water has become increasing common

3. Mekong River Commission The Mekong River Commissions task is to plan the sustainable development, use, conservation and management of the Rivers water and related resources in mutually beneficial manner and to channel resources into its work program. Does useful information sharing and practical work e.g. saline intrusion studies, water quality monitoring program Pushed out Basin Developmental Planning strategy facilitate the cooperative development of water related resources

Problems: 1. Failure in managing dam constructions - Theoretically, when a dam is to be constructed by one of the Mekong countries, there needs to be prior approval among all the riparian states - But no country is willing to surrender their sovereignty to that extent - Protest letter to MRC: MRC has remained notably silent in the face of these new hydropower projects - At the Mekong public forum, critics had varied accusations of the MRC, calling it weak and ineffective to virtually being a supporter of governments and private developers bent on pursuing dam projects 2. Ineffective methodology: - Financed mainly by international multilateral or bilateral organisations. Major financing organisations have been criticised by NGOs as too narrowly focused on infrastructure development - Reliant on top-down approaches which ignore the needs of people. 3. A job scope that is too large - Combines many factors under its charge (political, social, economic) strained resources - A general lack of skilled hydro-meteorologists in the region with sound knowledge on data processing, data management and modeling - Problem is compounded with MRC regulation that riparian professional can only serve a maximum of 2 3-year terms - Different parts of the Mekong has different needs complicate the matter o E.g. Vietnams lower delta is facing an extremely different problem from Cambodias upper delta o Vietnam: seawater intrusion in the dry season in the lower Delta, limiting rice production to one crop per year in saline intrusion areas o Cambodia: impacts of upstream and downstream river flow regulation on flooding, rice and fish production

The only example of success: improvement in NT2 dam construction compared to Pak Mun Dam when MRC has not been established PAK MUN DAM The Pak Mun Dam is located on the Mun River, a tributary of the Mekong in northeast Thailand

Inaccuracy in planning leads to large increase in actual cost with energy benefits lower than expected due to unpredictability of the runoff from the Mun River and the Pak Mun's power production peaks in the wet season when power is least needed in the national system. Adverse ecological impacts: The fish catch directly upstream of the dam decreased between 60-80% after the dam's completion and numerous fish species have since disappeared. Over 50 species of fish dependent on river rapids have disappeared and 51 have been caught less significantly since the dam's completion.

Adverse social impacts: The percentage of upstream households dependent on fisheries declined by almost 30%. Many villagers who were reliant on fisheries for income were displaced without any other means of livelihood.

The Pak Mun project is an example of poor water resource management in the Mekong Basin. Without an international commission to provide guidance and minimize oversight, the project directors overlooked the impact on fisheries, failed to gather the necessary information, and refused to involve all stakeholders. NAM THEUN 2 DAM While the NT2 project is most certainly not immune from criticism, it improves upon the Pak Mun venture in several respects. (see NT2) Here the MRC has the capacity and obligation to facilitate the monitoring of the impacts on the river basin with NT2 construction. For example, The Asian Development Bank commissioned a cumulative impacts assessment to evaluate the effects of the NT2 project based on development scenarios into a 5 year and 20 year time periods. MRC was consulted as key stakeholders (the study concludes that the impact of NT2 alone on fisheries and water levels downstream of the Xe Bang Fai confluence with the Mekong would be insignificant)