Thread: Death by dam for the Mekong

The sleepy town of Pak Beng, best known as a stopover for slow boats connecting the Laos-Thailand border to the ancient Lao capital of Luang Prabang, will be transformed later this year by the launch of a third major hydro-dam on the lower Mekong River.

Only 180 kilometers away, Thai communities and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) along another section of the Mekong are lobbying for the dam to be stopped to prevent negative impacts on fisheries, crops and livelihoods.

The US$2.4 billion Pak Beng dam, a 912-megawatt hydropower project being developed by China Datang Overseas Investment, a Beijing-based power development company, will export 90% of its generated electricity to Thailand.


Thailand’s privately held Electricity Generating PCL, or EGCO, and the Lao Ministry of mines are also key shareholders in the venture.

The dam’s plan came under heavy fire during the six-month consultation process concluded in June organized by the Mekong River Commission – an intergovernmental body that brings together the four riparian states of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam towards the goal of sustainable development of the region’s water resources.

The MRC’s panel of experts found many flaws in the dam’s design and a lack of credible environmental impact studies, Le Anh Tuan, a Mekong expert at Can Tho University located in Vietnam’s Mekong delta, told Asia Times.

more Death by dam for the Mekong | Asia Times

A sad current state for the broader region.

This will be a disaster.
What a shame.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

A sad current state for the broader region.

+ 1

Agreeing with both posters above.

I understand why China is doing it, but the implications for the communities and the environment downstream will be devastating.

^ It's not China doing it. The Laotian dams are largely built to export power to Thailand. It's industries and consumers in Thailand who are doing this.

Thailand wants the power from both Laos and Myanmar rivers.

While Thailand will be the main customer for the power from this dam it is Lao which wants and will get the profits from the sale of the electricity. Lao has said it wants to become the battery of SEA and to achieve this they are building dams everywhere they possibly can, now they have chopped down and sold most of their trees they have little else to export.

And dams are not the clean green energy they are touted as :

An article from New Scientist lays it out:

This is because large amounts of carbon tied up in trees and other plants are released when the reservoir is initially flooded and the plants rot. Then after this first pulse of decay, plant matter settling on the reservoir's bottom decomposes without oxygen, resulting in a build-up of dissolved methane. This is released into the atmosphere when water passes through the dam's turbines.
Seasonal changes in water depth mean there is a continuous supply of decaying material. In the dry season plants colonize the banks of the reservoir only to be engulfed when the water level rises. For shallow-shelving reservoirs these "drawdown" regions can account for several thousand square kilometers. In effect man-made reservoirs convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into methane.

Full article here :

https://www.newscientist.com/article...cret-revealed/

While Thailand will be the main customer for the power from this dam it is Lao which wants and will get the profits from the sale of the electricity.

Yes, but Thai engineering companies are also making a lot of money out of it - I used to work indirectly for a (Thai) company which was heavily involved in these dams.

Plus, it doesn't make sense to cut responsibility off too dramatically. The Laos government is fucking up the country but every time I go to the my local shopping centre and do my bit to contribute to the demand for the village-sized air-conditioning units, I'm playing my part too.

So just to reiterate :

After selling off its forest for timber, Laos is screwing up the flow of the river, seriously affecting the downstream ecology and downstream people who depend on it for their lives, then selling the power to industries downstream who are slaves to Growth Economics.

Just another example of the increasing gap between the rich and poor ?

Oh....and dams silt up in a big way.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

A sad current state for the broader region.

Sad river current, but not electrical current.

However they might want to appear, the ruling establishments seemingly all look alike - regardless of where they come from or cast themselves off with the faux benevolence.

Mega-profits and retained control for the few. A nexus of governments/corporations.
Be damned with the people and communities that they rule over, yet the same populations that maintain their quotient.

Dunno what all the fuss is about personally the Lao are simply harnessing there abundant water ways. Producing ectricity and creating jobs. Can't keep the fookers in the charcoal age forever. I might be slightly biased though.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Dunno what all the fuss is about personally the Lao are simply harnessing there abundant water ways. Producing ectricity and creating jobs. Can't keep the fookers in the charcoal age forever. I might be slightly biased though.

Really?

No thoughts about the rest of the Mekong and all the folk that depend on it?

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Dunno what all the fuss is about personally the Lao are simply harnessing there abundant water ways. Producing ectricity and creating jobs. Can't keep the fookers in the charcoal age forever. I might be slightly biased though.

Well, you make your living by destroying nature for short-term rewards so I suppose it's not surprising that you think it's a reasonable course of action.

Originally Posted by Passing Through

Well, you make your living by destroying nature for short-term rewards so I suppose it's not surprising that you think it's a reasonable course of action.

Some, literally, can't see the forest for the trees.

Some months ago, I talked with a Viet grad student from Can Tho. She said that the Mekong delta is drying up and the land is getting more salty - harder for farmers to grow rice. They're now trying to grow salt-tolerant rice varieties, but the yield isn't as high. It's the farmers, fishermen and little people who will suffer in the long run...

Tonlé Sap Lake is being devastated by combination of dams and climate change. More than three million folks around the bank of the lake. 90% of them earn a living by catching fish. No matter. Just poor folks. Let them eat cake.

Originally Posted by katie23

Some months ago, I talked with a Viet grad student from Can Tho. She said that the Mekong delta is drying up and the land is getting more salty - harder for farmers to grow rice. They're now trying to grow salt-tolerant rice varieties, but the yield isn't as high. It's the farmers, fishermen and little people who will suffer in the long run...

The Mekong Delta has a future which is about as rosy as my 85-year-old mother's. Anyone farming there is fucked and there's absolutely nothing which can be done about it.

Originally Posted by Passing Through

Well, you make your living by destroying nature for short-term rewards so I suppose it's not surprising that you think it's a reasonable course of action.

Im a big fan of electricity. And aircon. It is, after all, the 20th century.

I'm a bigger fan of a functioning biosphere.

Of course, we're all guilty to a certain extent; I'm the good German who watches the trains go by, while those who work in the extractive industries are the camp guards and commandants.

Originally Posted by crackerjack101

Really?

No thoughts about the rest of the Mekong and all the folk that depend on it?

Actually I do have empathy for folk who may be affected along the Mekong. I simply find it hard to believe that the MRC would let it go ahead if indeed the dams would have such a negative impact. Media sensationalism at its best?

Originally Posted by Norton

Tonlé Sap Lake is being devastated by combination of dams and climate change. More than three million folks around the bank of the lake. 90% of them earn a living by catching fish. No matter. Just poor folks. Let them eat cake.

I think we could take into account that those people throwing their rubbish into it, shitting into it and generally polluting it has done more damage than dams and climate change has ever done.

People are the problem not climate change.

People have created climate change and built all the dams which in turn has fuked the environment.

No people = a very happy planet.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Im a big fan of electricity. And aircon. It is, after all, the 20th century.

That's about it innit yet the tree hugging tossers want all that without any impact on the environment. ????

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Media sensationalism at its best?

Not to mention more fake news and the Nay sayers talkin shit up again.