Mekong River Dammed
The Mekong before sunset, Thailand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Mekong River was originally named Mae Nam Khong in Thai and Lao language. This name means “mother of water”. It is is the largest river in Southeast Asia.
The Mekong River flows through several countries including China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam. It is usually called River Khong by the local villagers.
The Mekong drainage basin was divided into the upper basin with China and Tibet and the lower basin in Yunnan downstream starting at China coming down to the lower areas of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, other parts of China and Myanmar.
These lower basin parts come together at the famous Golden Triangle. The Mekong River is a natural habitat for over 1,300 species of fish. There are catfish, giant river carps and even giant fresh water stingrays to be found there.
Furthermore, there are over 40 million people living in the lower basin who depend on the river for their livelyhood. Two-thirds of the population who live near the river are engaged in fishing or other related jobs and business on the river.
Hence, they were directly affected when the Mekong River was dammed. In fact, many of them had to be relocated, and not all of them received any compensation.
Morning view over the Mekong river (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Over the years, the Mekong River has been dammed in many areas. There are over twenty five dams built on the river and there are issues whether more will be built.
Environment enthusiasts worry that the dams built threaten the balance of the ecosystem further. The fish cannot swim upstream in order to spawn. The conservationists are also worried that the fish stock will be greatly reduced.
Dams are built in order to meet the electricity needs of the villages. Power is a need in modern society that must be provided to millions of residents.
The fisheries are clearly harmed but there are also new jobs created for the people living near the river. Products like boats and fishing gears are profitable business made by the local villagers.
In order to settle matters, associations of affected countries have met in the past years. Even when the dams created more harm than good, they were still built. The river became a source of renewable power which lights up the concerned countries.
International Rivers is an association based in California that actively works with protecting rivers around the world. They helped in the resettlement of over 1500 families during the construction of the dams.
They believe that dams are not safe for the people and the river. They promote a strong standard of development of the dams so that they can last a long time and stand for many years.
