Mekong River Commission Wants New Dam Construction Put On Hold

Jul 042010
 

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) says there should be no new dams on the river until more studies are done on their likely effects.

Vietnamese newspaper Thanh Nien reported this week that the MRC has decided there is too little known about the risks to the environment and the 60 million people who depend upon the Mekong for food, transportation and water to allow construction of the 12 proposed dams to proceed.

RFA has reported extensively on the Mekong including a comprehensive multi-part series Traveling Down the Mekong which looks at the river and its people from the source in Tibet to the outlet via the Vietnam Delta into the South China Sea. Included in the series is an in depth look at how harnessing the river’s power is leading to a variety of consequences.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 66

Mar 252010
 

Day 66

Today we have a single simple goal: get a boat and go the literal, physical end of the river. Our first approach is to try and follow the maps we have and get to a new town that seems to be located at the very tip of the land, in the mouth of the river.

But eventually we find ourselves stuck behind a truck on a bridge, very much landlocked in the middle of nowhere, with the river and the sea out of sight somewhere over a few kilometres of farms and trees. After a few hours of bashing along barren roads and denting the taxi driver’s nice new taxi, we call it quits and head back to the fishing village we found yesterday to try and find a boat.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 64

Mar 252010
 

Day 64

Today we are confronted by the difference between plans and practice. On paper getting to the end of a river sounds as simple as following a thin blue line, while in life getting to the end of anything is never that straightforward.

For one thing the Mekong doesn’t end in a single place, but eight enormous ones, each separated by deltaic islands and linked by unmarked roads and a series of ferries. Secondly, our schedule, already stretched, has now officially hit a deadline.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 63

Mar 252010
 

Day 63

With the sun yet to rise we are already downstairs for a quick breakfast of eggs and strained coffee sweetened with condensed milk, then into a brand new taxi to a nearby floating market.

The 30-minute drive to there is a bit like window shopping at Vietnam’s transformation from pastoral village life to contemporary industrial power. Some of our team first came to Viet Nam’s delta nearly 20 years ago, when there were no roads, or bridges. At that time it was still a quiet and beautiful floating world where every road was a river, and the only means of getting around was by boat.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 62

Mar 252010
 

Day 62

With the sights of Can Tho failing to provide a new window on life on the Mekong, we decide that our best efforts can be turn towards gaining as much expert testimony as we can.

Luckily and by design Can Tho is home to one of the region’s premier environmental institutions, Can Tho University. On the campus of the University Can Tho, between classrooms and offices, we knock on the door of the local chapter of the Delta Research and Global Observation Network, DRAGON.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 61

Mar 242010
 

Day 61

Last night we briefly met our government guide, and this morning he is up before us, waiting downstairs in the dining room of our small hotel.

We order a baguette and omelet breakfast, washed down with strong oily coffee sweetened with condensed milk, (Health plan 101). Then we set off to our first meeting with Nguyen Quang Vinh, the Director of the Center for Managing Environment and Resources.

The weather is steamy and as much as we try to hide our bigness, the short walk across town to the offices has us properly hot and bothered. Waiting in the offices of the Center for the Director, we stand beneath the vents of every air conditioner we find, attempting to re-crisp ourselves like overheated lettuce leaves.

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Mekong Diaries Day 60

Mar 112010
 

Day 60

Today we caught a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, where we arranged for the next stage of our journey downstream to Viet Nam by boat. A ferry service runs twice each way every day, carrying tourists through a stretch of river with an amazing history.

Cambodia’s rulers moved its capital from Angkorian Siem Reap to the junction of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong when trade began to replace agriculture as the engine of national wealth and influence.

Since then boats have been making there way upstream through the mouths of the Mekong Delta to the lands of the Khmer and beyond.

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Mekong Diaries Day 59

Mar 112010
 

Day 59

As if we must punish ourselves for having too much fun in a previous incarnation, we book in for a 4am rise and visit a pre-dawn fish market on the shores of the Great Lake. It is surprisingly cold in the blank darkness as we park on the side of a long man-made spit leading into the water.

 A flurry of trucks and motorbikes is already coursing up and down the thin lane, loaded with coolers overflowing with ice and fish. Down the end of the road on a steep beach dozens of fishing boats are crowded bow first onto the shore.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 58

Feb 112010
 

Day 58

When we arrive Siem Reap is hot, even in the early morning. After checking into our hotel we dive straight into a very tight schedule.

We catch a taxi to the edge of the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in South East Asia, and meet the King of the Great Lake at a port called Chong Kneas.

A young man with a lot of responsibility, the King is actually the government officer in charge of enforcing fishing laws and zones on the Great Lake. He is a much more straightforward person than we expect when meeting powerful government officials in Cambodia.

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Mekong Diaries: Day 57

Feb 022010
 

Day 57

We spring out of the very comfortable folds of our beds at 4 am and polish our sleepy faces in readiness for Gordon and Verne. They are already waiting outside with a couple of Camrys, the national conveyor in Cambodia, (did you know that a Camry could drive up the side of a rain-soaked mountain, or ford a flooded stream? They can, it’s terrifying!).

We leave for the Kampi dolphin pools and are on the water well before the sunrise. It is chilly and in the darkness the water starts to glow with that deep indigo which signals the coming of the light, and in its beautiful surface we begin to make out the shapes of rising dolphins.

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