The adverse impacts of climate change on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam will be amplified several times if hydropower dams planned upstream by other countries are built, experts say.
Both local and international experts said at a forum on the Mekong River environment organized by the Can Tho University on Wednesday that the dams will seriously threaten food security in riparian countries.
Dao Trong Tu, former Vietnam country coordinator for the Mekong River Commission, said three hydropower dams are already under construction in China, and another 11 were planned in Laos and Cambodia.
La Chhuon, an expert of Oxfam Australia in Cambodia, said fishermen in the country had told him they wanted to eat fish and would not be able to eat electricity generated by hydropower dams.
Without exception, every resident was unhappy with the building of dams and did not care for the compensation they would get when they are displaced by such projects, he added.
Carl Middleton, Mekong Program Coordinator of International Rivers, an INGO, that seeks to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them, stressed that the projects threatened food security in the region.
He estimated that Mekong riparian countries would lose 700,000 to 1.6 million tons of fish a year to the dams, while this has been the main food for millions people there.
Who benefits?
Chuenchom Sangarasri Greacen of Palang Thai, a Thailand-based non- profit organization, said the predicted electricity consumption in Thailand was always higher than actual demand.
According to the Palang Thai website, it “works to ensure that the transformations that occur in the region's energy sector are economically rational, and that they augment, rather than undermine, social and environmental justice and sustainability.”
Sangarasri accused companies investing in hydropower projects of being motivated solely by economic benefit rather than helping fight power shortages. She said such motivations should be eliminated and more accurate assessments made of power needs.
Natural resources can meet genuine demand but cannot satisfy human greed for profit, she said.
Nguyen Huu Thien, a Vietnamese wetlands expert, said the river flows would be controlled by the managers of hydropower dams to the detriment of other people’s interests.
He said there would be less silt supplied by the river and farmers would have to spend more on fertilizers. The losses caused to farmers and other residents would outweigh by far the total benefits generated by dams, he added.
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LAOS EXPANDING ELECTRICITY ACCESS, BOOSTING POWER EXPORTS
VIENTAINE, Feb. 8 (NNN-ADB): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping Laos roll out new power lines in underserved areas which will help improve living standards and increase opportunities to export excess power to neighboring Thailand.
ADB is providing a $20 million grant for the first module of the Greater Mekong Subregion Northern Power Transmission Project. The project will build nearly 400 kilometers of 115-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines, substations, and distribution lines in the provinces of Xaignabouli and Phongsali, and in western Vientiane. ADB will also fund a no-interest credit facility to enable poor households to connect to the new facilities.
The targeted provinces are among the poorest in the country. Along with providing grid-connected electricity to about 18,800 households for the first time, the project will also improve supply in areas which are currently relying on expensive imports or personal generators.
The project will also provide a cross-border interconnection, enabling electricity trading between state energy firm Electricite du Laos (EDL) and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
During the rainy season, hydropower is normally abundantly available and Lao PDR has excess capacity to export electricity to Thailand. During the dry season when there are shortages, it can import electricity from Thailand through a more cost-effective 115 kV transmission line,' said Duy-Thanh Bui, Energy Specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia Department.
The new facilities will link up with those being built by a separate ADB-financed power project, helping to unify the country's fragmented transmission and distribution system. The project will also assist the government in meeting its target of electrifying 70% of all households by 2010 and 90% by 2020.
ADB is the largest provider of development assistance for the power sector in Lao PDR, with over $323 million in loans and grants, and $17 million in technical assistance since the 1970's. It has also worked closely with the World Bank and other partners to support the sector.
ADB's grant from its concessional Asian Development Fund covers almost 31% of the total project cost of $65.3 million. The Government of Republic of Korea's exports and imports financing agency, Korea Eximbank, will provide cofinance of $37.88 million for two further project modules, while EDL will supply $7.44 million.
EDL is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion in June 2013.
wow ! why they complain about building dam ???? the mekhong river is about to dry, if we do not build a dam to stop it to flow down uselessly .in the next ten years it will really dry down. and some other said that all lives in the resevoir will dye when building a dam, it is strange to me that all the fish in the river would fly away from the water after building the dam, and I see the contrarry of it in the namngum dam: it produce a non stop energy for our people and exporting it to neighboring country and there are plenty of fish in the dam basin... For those who don't want dams have just to go back lighting themselve with canlde light or petrol lamp of grandma and do not use supply water because it was pumped with electric energy provided by the dams or go back to hit the paddy with the mortar left behind to get rice, cos the ricemill is running with electric motors too... Have fine day.
you can say the truth or post the truth.
