The Over-Daming of Mekong River

People in Asia are worried about the environmental impact of over-building of dams on the Mekong, one of the important and the 10th longest river in the world. China is the main culprit in bringing disaster into the region by building of eight dams on the upper-level of the Mekong River. The newly finished Chiewan Dam, the highest in the world, having the capacity to store large quantity of water equal to that combined water resource of the whole of South-East Asia.The Mekong river begins in Tibet, then snakes across China via Yung Nan Province and passes through the Golden Triangle in Laos, and Myanmar, then flows downward through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam into the opened sea. The over-building of dams in China on the upper-level of the river is bringing disaster to down-stream countries,Thailand and Cambodia, where people’s rely for their survival on good quality of water (in sufficient amount) for agriculture use – growing rice and fishing. Millions of people in the area now have to deal with sudden flooding of their houses and lands from the irregular flow of the river. They are facing shortage of food and drinking water. Dam-building in China is a present conflict issue of countries along the Mekong River, over the sharing of water resources, which, ironically, happens to be the main theme of the 2009 UN World Water Day. The problem is China and Myanmar are not members of the Mekong Commission which set-up to deal with such problems. So serious negotiations will have to be done through the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on the management of water use by countries in the region. The construction of too many dams in upstream countries, especially in China and Laos, violates the principal of fair-sharing of vital natural resources of the region. The Mekong Commission already accused China of blatantly disregarding the needs of countries in the downstream of the river when planning to build 12 more dams on the Mekong River. Asian NGOs should join force with the Mekong Commission to stop China from further building of more dams, and also the blasting of rapids that does damage to the river in the long run.