Dams and other projects on the Mekong and its tributories

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Source/publisher: Burma Rivers Network
Date of entry/update: 2016-10-18
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Chinese dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in the countries downstream of the Mekong River – known as the Lancang in China – despite higher-than-average water levels upstream, according to a US research company. China’s government disputed the findings of the US-government funded study, saying there was low rainfall during last year’s monsoon season on its portion of the 4,350km (2,700 mile) river. The findings by Eyes on Earth, a research and consulting company specialising in water, could complicate tricky discussions between China and other Mekong countries on how to manage the river that supports 60 million people as it flows past Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and through Cambodia and Vietnam. Last year’s drought, which saw the Lower Mekong at its lowest levels in more than 50 years, devastated farmers and fishermen and saw the massive river recede to expose sandbanks along some stretches. At others the river turned from its usual murky brown to bright blue because the waters were so shallow..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2020-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "As societies around the world focus on containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, millions of people in Southeast Asia have another worry on their minds: How to put food on their table amid a devastating drought. In Thailand, historically low levels of rainfall since last summer have taken a heavy toll on the agriculture sector, which employs 11 million people. Inland fishing communities across the region are reporting drastically smaller catches. And in Vietnam, a state of emergency was declared earlier this month in five provinces in the southern Mekong Delta, which produces more than half of the country’s rice on just 12 percent of its land area. The proximate cause of the drought is last summer’s El Nino, characterized by above-average water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean that alter weather patterns around the world. For much of Southeast Asia, this meant an uncharacteristically dry monsoon season last year, as the heavy rains that typically start in late May or early June never really arrived. That came on the heels of a similar weather event in 2015 that also caused severe drought in the region. Studies have found that climate change is making intense El Nino events more common. The impact of the current drought has been particularly severe for the Mekong River, one of Asia’s most vital waterways, which is seeing some of its lowest water levels in recorded history. From its source in the Tibetan plateau, the Mekong runs roughly 3,000 miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, sustaining the livelihoods of roughly 60 million people along the way. In addition to the current drought, the river has long suffered from the effects of climate change and the construction of hydropower dams along its mainstream and tributaries. As a result, many experts are concerned about its long-term ecological viability..."
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Source/publisher: "World Politics Review (WPR)"
2020-03-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "China on Thursday said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The statement came as a new economic report predicted that the building of dams to harness hydropower on the Mekong River would reshape the economies of five countries along the waterway, fueling long-term inflation and dependence on China. The drought over the past year has severely hurt farming and fishing in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, and many blame China’s 11 dams on the upper Mekong – which China calls the Lancang River – as well as climate change. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a lack of rain was the main cause of the drought and said China had suffered from it too. “China has overcome its own difficulty and increased water outflow from the Lancang River to help Mekong countries mitigate the drought,” Wang told a meeting of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) grouping..."
Source/publisher: "National Post" (Canada)
2020-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "China has had a setback in its infrastructure building along the Mekong River after Thailand cancelled a project on the vital Southeast Asian waterway. But observers say that without more coordination between downstream countries, China’s influence in the region will continue to go unchallenged. In a win for locals and activists concerned about the ecosystem and their livelihoods, Thailand’s cabinet called off the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project – also known as the Mekong “rapids blasting” project – along its border with Laos. Proposed back in 2000, the project aimed to blast and dredge parts of the Mekong riverbed to remove rapids so that it could be used by cargo ships, creating a link from China’s southwestern province of Yunnan to ports in Thailand, Laos and the rest of Southeast Asia. But it drew strong opposition from local communities along the river and environmentalists, who feared it would destroy the already fragile ecosystem and would only benefit Chinese. The decision two weeks ago came as a prolonged drought has seen the river drop to its lowest levels in 100 years, depleting fish stocks in downstream communities...."
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Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2020-02-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "THE CHAIN-REACTION IMPACTS FROM THE DAMS: With the passing of time, the cumulative and irreversible chain-reaction impacts coming from the occluding rivers as well as the 26 mainstream dams (14 dams in the Mekong Cascades in Yunnan and 12 in the Lower Mekong) on the more than 4,800 kilometer-long Mekong include: 1/ Changes in the natural state of the river prevent its current from maintaining its seasonal ?flood pulse” which is of vital importance to the Tonle Sap Lake, the heart that regulates the eco-system of the Mekong River and the Mekong Delta. 2/ Changes in the current?s flow will result in a reduction in the wetland areas and destruction of the vital habitat required by the fish species of the Mekong that in turn will adversely affect the fish source and food security. 3/ The altered current threatens the diversity of the fish population including flagship species that serve as a gauge of the wellbeing of the Mekong?s ecosystem like the Irrawaddy Dolphins and Pla Beuks that are facing the risk of extinction. 2 4/ The forests along with the wetlands of the Lower Mekong are classified as key biodiversity zones therefore protected by the Ramsar Convention. The dams will cause the wetlands to be submerged and impact the fauna and flora of the entire basin. 5/ Agricultural production will be adversely affected on account of the submerged lands. In addition, alluvia retained in the dam reservoirs upstream will deprive the fields along the riverbanks especially those in Cambodia?s Tonle Sap Basin and Vietnam?s Mekong Delta of their essential nutrients like phosphate and nitrogen. 6/ Reduction in the quantity of alluvia leads to imbalances in the current flow and cave-ins of riverbanks. Meanwhile the Cape Cà Mau is being continuously eroded and its seacoasts receding inland. The reservoirs bring about a weaker current flow and climate change results in a rise in the seawater level: the end result is an ever worsening and encroaching salinization in the basin. No rice species or orchards can survive in fields covered by sea salt.
Creator/author: NGÔ THẾ VINH
Source/publisher: Nguoi Viet
2014-09-20
Date of entry/update: 2016-10-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 276.88 KB
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Description: this issue focuses on how the expanding influence of Chinese interests in the Golden Triangle region, from rubber plantations to wildlife trading, is bringing rapid destructive changes to local communities. There are also articles on opium cultivation, mining operations, the mainstream Mekong dams in China, and unprecedented flooding downstream..... Mekong Biodiversity Up for Sale: A new hub of wildlife trade and a network of direct buyers from China is hastening the pace of species loss... Rubber Mania: Scrambling to supply China, can ordinary farmers benefit?... Drug Country: Another opium season in eastern Shan State sees increased cultivation, mulitple cropping and a new form of an old drug... Construction Steams Ahead: A photo essay from the Nouzhadu Dam, one of the eight planned on the mainstream Mekong in China... Digging for Riches: An update on mining operations in eastern Shan State... Washed Out: Unprecedented flooding wreaks havoc in the Golden Triangle.
Source/publisher: Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO)
2009-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-04-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.59 MB
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Description: Articles on mining (including gold, manganese, coal), logging, opium, rape... Unhindered Prospects - Remote areas of Shan State a convenient place to mine for neighboring countries... Bigger, not Better - Despite its expansion, the Burma Army rests on shaky foundations... Deadly Changes - Unpredictable water surges and unprecedented low water levels on the Mekong have human costs... An Order is an Order - The junta?s zeal for castor oil causes hardship for villagers... The En people... Still no signs of outlawing license to rape - Burma Army expansion impacts women... Gun-toting monks - Militarization leaves nothing sacred in Burma... Even the Last Tree - Unrestricted logging leaves the hills of eastern Shan State bare... What Opium Ban? - Despite UN claims of reductions, poppy cultivation and trade continue in territories under the control of ceasefire groups and the SPDC... Anything for Gold - Desperate gold mining continues even after deadly accident... Chameleon Moves his Capital - Leader of NDAA survives political shake-up and continues to develop his new center of action.
Source/publisher: Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO)
2006-07-00
Date of entry/update: 2006-07-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 1.07 MB 1.22 MB
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Description: Contents: Letter from LNDO; Blasting the Mekong - The navigation scheme is making trade easier - but for whom? Sold down the river - one Lahu girl?s story; Lord of Burma?s Mekong - A profile of the shadowy drug kingpin who controls the eastern reaches of Shan State; Sop Lwe � the next Mong La? Drug lord Lin Ming Xian stakes Sop Lwe as his next casino resort - with uncertain consequences for the local population; Road Construction in Shan State: A Lucrative Way to Turn Illegal Drug Profits into Legal Revenues; Eastern Shan State Erupts Again - Movements by the SSA-S prompt increased persecution of civilians by the regime; New bridge planned across the Mekong - Big changes come to Keng Larb as a new bridge linking Burma and Laos is considered; No Place Left for the Spirits of the Yellow Leaves - Intensive logging leaves few options for the Mabri people; Living in a War Zone; 20 Lack of Education � Is Development Really Coming?
Source/publisher: Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO)
2005-01-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-12-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.53 MB
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