Mekong River Issues
Mekong River Issues: Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam
Cambodia and Mekong River: A Youth Perspective
By Kong Sreynou and Him Rotha (Cambodian Institute for cooperation and Peace)
In the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Mekong is the longest and largest river, dominating the country’s hydrology, economic value, and the livelihood of people across the country with its ecological diversity. The timeless flow of the Mekong has afforded many people in the region their basic needs for millenniums. A large part of mainland Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, depends on this river for food and water security, where fish and rice are the main sources of protein consumed in the region’s households.
According to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), it is the second only to the Amazon River in terms of biodiversity importance, and the most productive inland fishery. In essence, the Mekong River has been called “Mother of the Water”. As a Mekong Riparian, Cambodia should continue tirelessly to protect the river in accordance to its natural form as the Mekong’s importance has grown in Cambodia within many sectors.
To begin with, the Mekong River is an invaluable asset to Cambodia. It contributes enormously to the livelihoods, peace and stability and well-being of the people. The Lower Mekong Basin has played many significant roles to support food security in Cambodia. The Basin contributes 89% of fishery production to the Kingdom, while Tonlé Sap Lake is the biggest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia. Apart from this, its complex tributaries provide sources for Cambodia’s agriculture.
In this regard, 84% of Cambodian rice production has been possible due to the Mekong. Furthermore, this mighty river creates income through energy generation as well as tourism. There are a few dams across the Mekong Tributary River, for which Cambodia was projected to earn around USD 189 million in 2015. Likewise, it is estimated that the Kingdom’s tourism sector generated around USD 2 billion from the Mekong in 2017.
Besides, it is worth noting that the Mekong river is also embedded within Cambodia’s culture. Thousand years of Cambodian civilization had been prosperous and intimately tied to the river. In fact, the Royal Water Festival is a celebration that marks the migration of fish from Tonle Sap to the Mekong in which boat races, fish harvests celebrations and other activities have been conducted annually. Moreover, Cambodia’s vigorous culture, folklore, and numerous rituals, which are parts of local identities, have been found alongside the river and its tributaries.
As the Mekong subregion is becoming more modernized, the condition and the well-being of this river are being severely threatened. Therefore, it is pivotal to draw the attention toward the Mekong river as it is grievously harmed, and can negatively impact to Cambodia. In recent years, scientific data has depicted the water level across the downstream of the Mekong River as below average in the wet season. Cambodia has also faced delay of the reversed flow of the River to the Tonlé Sap Lake for the last two years. This critical situation has led to concern about the decline of fish supply in the Kingdom.
Additionally, some Cambodian provinces have experienced a drop in rice yields in recent months due to these twin disasters. There are various causes weakening the Mekong’s condtion, including climate change, and various unsustainable developments such as hydropower construction. Climate change has hindered the river’s condition, and the fate of millions of people has been jeopardized. Natural disasters caused by climate change such as drought and flooding can diminish agricultural productivity, causing food scarcity, unemployment, and poverty.
Hydropower dam constructions critically threaten the biodiversity in the Mekong, in which a large number of migrating fish as well as a substantial amount of sediment are blocked by hydropower development. This is also thought to have reduced water flow and increased the risk of drought. Human security and sustainable development are intimately connected to the Mekong river throughout the region, with Cambodia being no exception.
If the Greater Mekong is disrupted, the livelihoods of people as well as the peace and stability of the riparian states could also be jeopardized. Key lessons can be drawn from the social unrest caused by water scarcity elswehere. Take Iraq as an example, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are running dry due to the aforementioned reasons. This led to discontent between the government and its population. In hindsight, Cambodia has to preserve the Mekong at any cost for the sake of the current and future existence of its people. As mentioned earlier, the Mekong offers economic benefits and livelihood support through food stock for many Cambodian people.
To preserve and sustain the river, Cambodia should pay attention to two factors. First, the Mekong River should be one of Cambodia’s prioritized agendas in her own foreign policy. Due to the fact that the river is shared by five other states, the Kingdom could not encounter the confronting challenges alongside the river alone. Unless the political willingness from each adjacent government, issues would be overlooked and ignored from time to time. Therefore, the Kingdom should keep using her voice in the existed water governance mechanisms such as the Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Center, to prevent any unsustainable development activities that harm the river. Second Cambodia should expand its dependence on renewable energy. Environmental experts view the cost of hydropower as being higher than renewable energy such as wind or solar energy. Dam constructions not only degrade the natural environment, but affect people living in the surrounding areas. Currently, Cambodia has only three solar energy plants in operation, and another 10 planned projects according to the Mekong Infrastructure Tracker.
The Kingdom has postponed plans to construct two new hydropower dams in the mainstream of the Mekong, including Sambor and Stung Treng in March this year for one decade. These two dams have been tipped as among the largest and the most destructive dams in the Basin. This move is appreciated by various stakeholders as it indicates the Kingdom’s commitment and willingness to sustain the river’s health for future generations. On the other hand, it remains unclear for the next ten years.
Therefore, policy makers need to be aware of the consequences created by dams as they are a part of the Mekong river community. Any decision making should be attentively made in accordance with the river’s health and possible impacts on food security. Any infrastructural projects should be designed to support sustainable development in a way that maintains natural capital, and nation’s productivity that interconnect with ecological system, especially the river. The Mekong River is indispensable for Cambodia. The river has given a lot to the Kingdom in the past, from the food stock to invaluable economic storage. In the era of advanced development, Cambodia should try her utmost best to preserve this majestic river.
Read more here.
Laos Takes Another Step Forward on Controversial Mekong Dam
By Sebastian Strangio (The Diplomat)
Yesterday, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that Thai and Chinese investors have signed a power purchase agreement that opens the way to the construction of a third dam on the Mekong River in Laos.
The 770-megawatt Pak Lay project, which is slated for construction in Xayaburi province in northern Laos, is one of nine mega-dams that the Lao government is planning to build on the mainstream of the Mekong River. So far, two of these hydropower projects have been completed: the Xayaburi dam, which went online in October 2019, and the Don Sahong dam in southern Laos, which began operations in January of the following year. (Another huge dam, as Tom Fawthrop wrote in The Diplomat this week, is being built in alarming proximity to the UNESCO-listed town of Luang Prabang in northern Laos.)
The U.S.-funded broadcaster reported that the agreement between China’s Sinohydro Corp., Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development Public Co., Ltd., and the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) was signed Wednesday. It quoted an official from the Ministry of Energy and Mines as saying that the work on basic infrastructure, such as an access road and bridge around the dam site, would start immediately.
Under the agreement, Gulf Energy Development holds a 40 percent stake in the project, with Sinohydro taking the remaining 60 percent. All of the power produced by the project will be sold to EGAT for the 29-year duration of the concession. The dam is expected to begin generating power in 2029.
According to RFA’s detailed past reporting on the project, Sinohydro earlier this year began preparatory work on the Pak Lay project, which is expected to displace around 3,500 people living in the vicinity.
The Pak Lay project is part of the Lao government’s long-standing ambition to transform itself into the “battery of Southeast Asia,” by harnessing its rivers for hydropower generation and exporting electricity to its fast-growing neighbors.
However, ecologists say that Vientiane’s dam-building spree is likely to compound the problems facing the Mekong and the 66 million people who rely on the river for their nutrition and livelihoods. In recent years, the lower half of the Mekong, which runs through Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, has experienced a number of punishing droughts that have sent water levels to all-time lows.
This has partly has been a result of El Nino weather patterns and the broader impacts of climate change, but environmentalists say that dam construction has amplified these effects. Perhaps the most damaging have been on the upper reaches of the Mekong in China. Last year, the U.S.-funded Mekong Dam Monitor reported that “the impoundment of water and unnatural releases from dams have entirely altered the natural flow of the river” along certain stretches of the Mekong.
The signing of this power purchase agreement offers the latest indication that the government of Laos is bent on pressing ahead with its hydropower plans, even as the governments of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand have expressed various reservations about hydropower projects. Vientiane’s dam-building mania has also contributed to Laos’ current heavy burden of foreign debt, much of it owed to Chinese state banks, which has pushed the country to the verge of economic crisis.
In early 2021, I wrote that Laos’ hydropower plans appear to have become “untethered from any solid economic rationale, driven overwhelmingly by the domestic interests that stand to benefit from dam construction.” With Vientiane forging ahead, there is no reason to revisit this assessment in 2023.
Read more here.
Vietnam’s Climate Solutions Are Decimating the Mekong Delta
By Quinn Goranson
In the delta region of South Vietnam, where the Mekong River flows into the South China Sea, locals fear that their mother is dying. They see her banks swell and collapse; salt infiltrates higher and farther than it ever has before. The Mekong is sinking.
The Mekong River stretches for 4,350 kilometers, flowing from Tibetan glaciers through six countries and eventually through Vietnam to the sea. The river’s name comes from Mae Nam Khong, a Thai and Lao phrase meaning “Mother Water.” This is fitting, as it brings vital resources to more than 70 million people across mainland Southeast Asia. The Mekong’s banks have historically provided perfect conditions for rice production, with the southern delta provinces affectionately named the “rice basket” of Vietnam.
Now, climate change and environmental degradation from human development present an existential threat to the Mekong. Salt intrusion into the freshwater river, rising sea levels, land subsidence, sand mining, lower base flow, and upstream damming have all contributed to a decline in agricultural productivity in recent years.
In 2020, rice farmers in the provinces most impacted by saline intrusion were expected to lose at least 30 percent of their harvest from lack of fresh water.
Recently, international organizations and government programs have encouraged agricultural diversification toward greater economic and climate resilience. For many, this manifests as maintaining traditional rice paddies in the wet season, when the Mekong can provide enough fresh water to sustain the crops, and then transitioning those same fields to shrimp or prawn farms in the dry season. Having shown initial success, this specific model is being touted as a textbook adaptation “win” in the Mekong Delta region.
Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to the negative environmental impacts of this mass transition to shrimp farming, an ultimately unsustainable move.
An Ancient River Cycles From Life Giver to Liability
For more than a century, the Mekong delta has been a space of global contestation, with Vietnamese governments and other outside powers treating it both as a desirable resource and a battleground. French colonial perspectives that prioritized “mastery over nature” through extensive hydraulic works and the heavy-handed American use of tactical arsenic- and dioxin-based herbicides during the Vietnam War predisposed the Mekong Delta to great environmental vulnerability, for which few international powers have taken responsibility.
Coupled with present day mismanagement, government corruption, and developmental errors, the Mekong is ill-equipped to adapt. The appearance of the delta has changed dramatically over the centuries, during which time it has seen rapid urbanization, agricultural intensification, and devastating environmental destruction. Recently, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, addressing the country’s National Assembly, said that the greatest concerns in the Mekong delta region were land subsidence, landslides, drought, and saltwater intrusion.
Land subsidence refers to the decompression of the land from the weight of infrastructure and/or destabilizing impacts of depleting ground water. This hinders drainage, leading to flooding and increased erosion. Saltwater intrusion refers to the contamination of fresh water sources as saline water is able to flow further upstream. This natural phenomenon has presented a significant issue in the Mekong delta, one that is being worsened by illegal sand mining and impediments to river discharge from upstream dams, combined with downstream sea level rises and intense storm surges.
Pointing the Finger: Climate Change or Environmental Degradation?
There is an interesting dichotomy within this framing. In North Vietnam, where the central government resides, and within much international discourse, the greatest threat to Mekong ecosystems is climate change. However, in the South, and among those worst hit by the changing environment, the problem is environmental degradation that has been directly caused by development and exploitation practices like illegal sand mining and unregulated fishing.
When it comes to climate change, Vietnam can see itself as a passive victim. The country contributes just 0.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet suffers from both the current and historical decisions and emissions of the Global North (and neighboring China). In contrast, environmental degradation refers to Vietnam’s active abuse of its ecosystems through unregulated extraction, contamination inputs, and rapid, unsustainable development as the government prioritizes economic growth, and achieving the status of a middle income country by 2030, over the environment.
While Vietnam has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050, its greatest emissions come from the energy sector. Numerous environmental activists and civil leaders, critical of Vietnam’s contradicting priorities, have been recently arrested and jailed on tax evasion charges. While the country’s increased attention to climate mitigation and adaptation internationally reflects an acute awareness of the economic costs of unsustainable resource exploitation, those who voice concern over Vietnam’s heavy energy sector reliance on coal (49.7 percent) justifiably fear arrest.
This illustrates the tense atmosphere that surrounds the questions of environmental education and transparency in Vietnam, which in turn taints agricultural transition and climate policies. This will ensure further ecosystems damage while making long-term adaptation more difficult.
Profit and Loss: The Economics of “Sustainable” Development
While the funding landscape in the Mekong delta remains fragmented, especially regarding agricultural issues, farmers and research institutes like Can Tho University are receiving support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, United Nations Development Program, and bilateral aid from countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Netherlands. Much of this funding supports delta-wide adoption of new livelihood models, including the prawn rice rotational crop (PRRC) model.
The PRRC model sees farmers plant and harvest their rice crops during the wet season, when the Mekong is abundant with fresh water, and transition to crops that are not adversely impacted by salt water in the dry season, when saline intrusion creeps up into the delta. Shrimp are the most common aquaculture crop, as they can survive salinities of up to 45 grams per liter.
In 2020, when saline water intruded as much 40 kilometers inland, and lingered for months longer than expected in the dry season, 240,000 hectares of rice crops were destroyed. Since this disaster, some farmers have transitioned to exclusively farming shrimp, as 45 percent of the agricultural land in the Mekong Delta region now experiences salinity levels well above 4 g/l, the average upper tolerance for rice crops.
The government in Vietnam has encouraged this transition, and initial research has described these models as climate successes. One riparian province, Bac Lieu, is aiming to increase its shrimp production to $1.3 billion in exports alone by 2025, transitioning the industry toward a 95 percent contribution of its total export revenue by that date. Reports show that on average, through rapid industry and export expansion, PRRC farmers see 65 percent higher annual profits than traditional rice farmers.
Studies of these transitions exclusively focus on economic drivers and adaptive capacity instead of long-term environmental impacts.
The True Costs of Lucrative Agricultural Transitions
Shrimp cultivation is not only far more resource intensive than rice farming; it also produces significantly more greenhouse gas emissions at 13 kilograms of CO2e per kg compared to 0.9 kg of CO2e for rice. Many farmers are still using low-efficiency, high energy-intensity paddlewheel aeration systems to manage shrimp pond water quality, which often fare better at introducing disease-carrying airborne particles than distributing oxygen and nutrients. In larger, non-organic farms, chemicals and antibiotics are used to prevent disease and increase yields, causing groundwater contamination and runoff that taints organic aquaculture ponds and the surrounding ecosystem. PRRC farmers have begun noticing the long-term impacts of shrimp ponds on soil quality, as climate change limits the capacity of the Mekong to flush out the salt, making the land less fertile.
Eventually, as saline intrusion worsens from continued sea level rise and ground subsidence, salinity levels will surpass that which is tolerable even to these shrimp species. This observation has encouraged groundwater extraction to dilute the salinity levels of the shrimp ponds. Aquifer depletion has contributed to land subsidence cross the Mekong delta for decades, accelerating delta sinking to an unprecedented rate at 18 centimeters over the last 25 years. This perpetuates a negative feedback loop where saline intrusion encourages agricultural diversification into shrimp aquaculture, depleting the aquifer below the delta. This further contributes to land subsidence, one of the key initial drivers for saline intrusion.
Read more here.