Ho Chi Minh Declaration dodges Mekong dams dispute: rivers group

Medilyn Manibo in Eco-Business: Non-profit group International Rivers expressed disappointment over the unresolved dispute concerning the proposed dams on the Mekong River at the second Mekong River Commission (MRC) Summit held recently in Vietnam.

International Rivers, which works with an international network of organisa
tions that aim to protect rivers and local communities against unsustainable management, said that the actions and statements of government leaders in the region did not clearly denounce the current rush of dams being built along the mainstream portion of the lower Mekong river.

Ame Trandem, the environmental group’s Southeast Asia programme director, explained how the on-going construction of dams pursued by the Lao government poses a threat to local communities and their livelihood.

Government leaders from Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Thailand and Vietnam presented the Ho Chi Minh Declaration as the outcome of the summit, which concluded on April 5. The declaration set new priorities for the MRC, an intergovernmental body that facilitates regional cooperation agreements between the four member countries.

The actions proposed in this document include expediting the implementation of MRC’s basin-wide studies to reduce negative impacts of development projects in the river, including hydropower, as well as prioritising initiatives on battling the effects of natural disasters and the impact of climate change and rising sea level on the river basin...

Khon Phapheng Falls on the Mekong River in Laos, shot by Rup11, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license

As dams loom, Mekong fishermen fear for their future

Terra Daily via AFP: The waters of the mighty Mekong have sustained generations of families but nowadays its fishermen often find their nets empty and fear hydropower mega-dams will destroy their livelihoods.

...For many in the community, the reason lies upriver in the Chinese province of Yunnan where dams on the upper reaches of the river disturb the delicate cycle of nature. "Usually the water would rise (and fall) with the seasons," said fisherman Decha Chaiwong, 48. Now it ebbs and flows depending on whether the dams are open or closed, he said.

...Today a new threat looms downstream in neighbouring Laos. The Xayaburi hydropower project is one of 11 planned on the lower Mekong, raising worries for the future of the 60 million people in the region estimated to depend on the river in some way...

Scoop net fishing on the Mekong River, shot by Ricardo Hurtubia, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Rising sea levels put Mekong Delta at risk

Vietnam Net Bridge: This is revealed in a World Bank report titled Turn down the heat: Climate extremes, regional impacts and the case for resilience, which was released globally last week. The report said the rapid rise would mean a loss of about 12 per cent of crop production due to inundation and salinity intrusion. It was projected that rice production could drop by about 2.6 million tonnes per year.

The report said the Mekong Delta and two other Asian river deltas in Asia were particularly at risk because they were less than two metres above sea level. It said that rising sea levels, more intense tropical cyclones and land subsidence caused by human activities, would disrupt the main economic activities of the delta - agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and tourism.

The Washington-based development bank estimated the cost of adapting shrimp and catfish aquaculture in the Mekong Delta would range from US$130-190 million per year. HCM City was also declared to be among coastal cities in Southeast Asia hardest hit by rising seas and increased storm surges. The report claimed that up to 60 per cent of the built-up area could expect rises of up to one metre.

Ajali Acharya, the World Bank Viet Nam's environment cluster leader, said the report provided scientific evidences on which Viet Nam and development partners could help the country move along the low-carbon, climate-resilient, sustainable-development path.

Tran Thuc, director of Viet Nam's Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment, agreed with the World Bank's recommendation that Southeast Asian countries intensify actions to address the impacts of climate change. He said Viet Nam had made remarkable efforts, with short-term priority going to climate adaptation...

Across the river from Ho Chi Minh City, shot by Violetbonmua, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Greater Mekong countries 'lost one-third of forest cover in 40 years'

John Vidal in the Guardian (UK): Five Asian countries have lost nearly one-third of their forests in the last 35 years and could be left with little more than 10-20% of their original cover by 2030 – with devastating effects on wildlife and humans, a new report suggests.

Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam have lost nearly 40m hectares (ha) of forest cover since 1980 but have retained about 98m ha of natural forest, just over half of the region's land area.

Using satellite data, the WWF researchers calculated that since 1980, Cambodia has lost 22% of its 1973 forest cover, Laos and Burma 24%, and Thailand and Vietnam 43%.

The report on ecosystems in the greater Mekong area warns that these countries risk losing more than one-third of their remaining forest cover within the next two decades if they fail to increase protection.

"The greater Mekong is at a crossroads," said Peter Cutter, landscape conservation manager with WWF-Greater Mekong. "One path leads to further declines in biodiversity and livelihoods, but if natural resources are managed responsibly, this region can pursue a course that will secure a healthy and prosperous future for its people."...

A Thai rain forest, shot by Michael Cory, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Mekong region facing six degree-warming, climate extremes

Alexander Hotz in SciDev.net: Temperatures in South-East Asia's Lower Mekong Basin are set to rise by up to three times the global average temperature increase, according to a USAID-funded study. Previous reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the basin would see increases in line with the global average of around two degrees Celsius.

But according to a preliminary report by the Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change Project (Mekong ARCC) released last week (29 March), parts of the basin could see annual temperatures increase by as much as six degrees Celsius by 2050. It also predicts that areas such as Mondulkiri province in Cambodia could experience doubling of the number of days with heavy rainfall, up from just nine days annually.

"We've found that this region is going to experience climate extremes in temperature and rainfall beyond anything that we had expected," says Jeremy Carew-Reid, the study's lead author, and director of the International Centre for Environmental Management, one of the organisations tasked with implementing the five-year project.

The Lower Mekong Basin, which encompasses most of Cambodia and Laos, and parts of Thailand and Vietnam, is primarily rural, with 70 per cent of its 60 million inhabitants working as farmers or fishermen.

But as temperatures increase, the region's suitability for certain crops and aquaculture will change. Farmers could find that yields from crops that once thrived, including staples such as cassava, will plummet...

A banana vendor at the Cai Be floating market on the Mekong River, shot by McKay Savage, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Mekong Delta: No common voice found yet in adapting to climate change

Vietnam Net Bridge: Vietnam is an agriculture economy with 70 percent of its territory in urban area and 75 percent of population earning their living on rice fields. The agriculture production makes up tens of billions of dollars to the export turnover. However, the production has been threatened by the climate change.

Kosei Hashiguchi from JICA (the Japan International Cooperation Agency) said at a workshop on the response to the climate change in late January 2013 that the seven coastal provinces in Mekong Delta would be most seriously affected by the saltwater intrusion and sea water rise.

The seven provinces include Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Kien Giang. According to the expert, the temperature in Mekong Delta has increased by 0.5-0.9oC over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, in the future, the temperature would increase by 0.2-0.3oC more every decade.

As for the sea water rise, the water level has increased by five centimeters over the last 10 years, while it is expected to rise by 8 centimeters in every 10 years. The temperature increase would lead to the decrease in the rice productivity. The rice yield would decrease by 10 percent by 2030, by 15 percent by 2050 and 25 percent by 2100.

Meanwhile, Do Minh Nhut, Deputy Director of the Kien Giang provincial agriculture department, said the saltwater intrusion and sea water rise would influence 1/3 of the total rice field area in the province, estimated at 100,000 hectares.

JICA has predicted that most provinces in Mekong Delta would be influenced by the climate change, and that Ca Mau alone would suffer the damage worth VND16 trillion a year due to the climate change by 2100....

Life on the Mekong Delta, in Cai Be, shot by Milei.vencel, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

EU helps Mekong River Commission tackle climate change

The Vientiane Times: The European Union (EU) yesterday committed 4.95 million euros (over US$6 million) to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to boost its efforts to respond to the region's climate change challenges. Representatives of the EU and the MRC signed the funding agreement in Luang Prabang yesterday on the sidelines of the 19th Mekong River Commission Council meeting.

...According to a media release from the MRC, the funding supports the Climate Change Adaption Initiative until 2015. It supports the MRC programme to assess the effects of change climate and integrate adaption planning at the regional, national and community levels.

The funding is a part of the Global Climate Change Alliance – an EU initiative to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with the nations most affected by climate change. “The support of the EU underscores the importance of climate change in the development of the lower Mekong Basin. Adaption planning can better prepare the region for the challenges ahead, ensuring food security and alleviating poverty reduction,” MRC Chief Executive Officer Mr Hans Guttman said at the signing ceremony.

Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events such as typhoons are increasing in frequency, leading to droughts and floods that destroy homes, infrastructure, livestock and crops. A predicted rise in sea level will increase salinity and floods in the Mekong Delta, causing damage to crops in the most productive area of the basin....

The Mekong River at Luang Prabang, Laos, shot by Allie Caulfield, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Laos approves Xayaburi 'mega' dam on Mekong

BBC News: Laos has given the go-ahead to build a massive dam on the lower Mekong river, despite opposition from neighbouring countries and environmentalists. A formal ceremony marking the start of full construction at Xayaburi would be held on Wednesday, the government said.

Countries downstream from the $3.5bn (£2.2bn) dam fear it will affect fish stocks and the livelihoods of millions. The announcement came as leaders from Asia and Europe began a two-day meeting in the Laos capital, Vientiane.

Landlocked Laos is one of South-east Asia's poorest countries and its strategy for development is based on generating electricity from its rivers and selling the power to its neighbours, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok. Xayaburi is being built by a Thai company with Thai money - and almost all of the electricity has been pre-sold to Thailand, our correspondent says.

Countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam point to a report last year that said the project should be delayed while more research was done on the dam's environmental impact. Up to now Laos had promised not to press ahead while those concerns remained....

One of the "4,000 islands" on the Mekong River in or near Laos, shot by Gnilenkov Aleksey, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Work progresses on Mekong dam?

Terra Daily via UPI: Construction is proceeding at the controversial proposed $3.8 billion Xayaburi Dam site on the Lower Mekong River in northern Laos, observers say, despite calls for the Laos government to put the project on hold until further studies are conducted into the dam's impact on lower Mekong communities.

About 95 percent of the dam's 1,260-megawatt capacity is intended for export to Thailand, which is financing the project. Thailand would operate the dam, turning it over to Laos after 30 years.

The Lower Mekong supports nearly 60 million people who depend on it for their livelihood, says the World Wildlife Fund.

While the Laos government says that only preparatory work on the dam has been conducted, the Bangkok Post reported that work is still under way at the site, including a dike straddling the Mekong River that locals say is obstructing the passage of boats....

The Mekong watershed, created by Karl Musser from USGS data, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Managing the Mekong

Shada Islam in Dawn (Pakistan): ...As it prepares to host the ninth Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) in early November, Laos is also gearing up for more international scrutiny of its policies. And with Vientiane situated on the bend of one of the world’s largest and most legendary rivers — the Mekong — world attention is focused on how Southeast Asia’s smallest and poorest nation is going to deal with increasingly shrill world demands that it stop plans to build a hydroelectric dam on the mythical river.

Laos is not alone in having to deal with controversy and potential confrontation over the sharing of the world’s water resources. Almost all majestic rivers — the kind that songs are written about and which have become part of our global heritage — are the source of tension among neighbouring nations. Think about the Indus, the Ganges, the Amazon and the Nile.

...Countries can either opt for competition and protectionism over water or decide to work together to ensure the equitable, efficient and sustainable management of water resources. Interestingly — and at least for the moment — Laos appears to have opted for the second track. After a spate of criticism from its neighbours over plans to build a huge, multi-billion-dollar dam on the Mekong, officials in Vientiane say work on the dam has been suspended in order to undertake further studies on the impact of the project.

Laos has made no secret of its plans to use the Mekong to expand its generating capacity and sell electricity to its neighbours. But according to reports, Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith admitted recently at a regional meeting in Cambodia that the Lao government had decided to postpone the construction of the dam because “We have to do further studies”....

A gondola on the Mekong in Laos, shot by Ricardo Hurtubia, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Meeting reviews Mekong projects

Vietnam News: Foreign ministers from Lower Mekong nations and the US convened for their fifth meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh to review the implementation of programmes on the environment, education, health and infrastructure.

This year's meeting saw the first presence of Myanmar as an official Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) partner nation, together with Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam. At the meeting, the ministers agreed to add a new pillar of agriculture and food security chaired by Myanmar, to establish the pillar "connectivity" on the basis of broadening the co-operation content in infrastructure, and strengthen co-operation with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) while broadening programmes on water.

The environment and water pillar, formerly known as the environment pillar, will be chaired by Viet Nam. The meeting agreed to strengthen co-ordination among LMI countries through a co-ordination network. They also decided to establish an LMI working group of experts and outstanding figures.

The ministers also ratified a LMI concept paper and a plan of action to implement the LMI during 2011-15, while releasing a statement on gender equality and female empowerment. A LMI working group for gender was also formed.

At the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an LMI programme to 2020, pledging a US$50 million assistance package for LMI activities over the next three years, as well as committing $2 million for the fisheries programme and $1 million for a MRC research programme on the impacts of hydroelectric dams on the main flow of the Mekong River.

On the same day, the Friends of Lower Mekong (FLM) Ministerial Meeting also took place in Phnom Penh, bringing together foreign ministers and high-ranking officials from the LMI countries as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the European Union, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, among others....

The Mekong River in Laos, shot by Allie Caulfield, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Migration from Mekong Delta to rise on climate change

VietnamNetBridge: The migration from the Mekong Delta to other areas will increase in the future as the Mekong Delta is one of the three areas most vulnerable to the global climate change, an expert told a seminar ending in Can Tho City on Tuesday.

Florian Forster, Chief of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Vietnam, told the seminar on the climate change adaptation in the Mekong Delta’s city that if the sea level rises by one meter, one third of the Mekong Delta will be flooded.

Le Anh Tuan from Research Institute for Climate Change under Can Tho University said that the weather in the delta has changed much with prolonged dry season, sudden floods, increasing saltwater intrusion, drought and landslides along the sea.

...According to Le Thanh Sang, deputy director of the Southern Institute of Sustainable Development, the Mekong Delta is the area having the highest number of migrants. Most migrants come from rural areas and three fourths of them come to work in industrial parks in southeast provinces. However, this issue has yet to receive full awareness and suitable policies....

Sea level rise threatens Mekong rice

Marwaan Macan-Markar in AlertNet via IPS: With Vietnam's fertile Mekong delta threatened by rising sea levels and salt water ingress, the country's future as a major rice exporter depends critically on research underway in the Philippines.

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are working with Vietnamese counterparts in the town of Los Banos, 63 km southeast of Manila, to develop a new strain of rice that can withstand submergence for over two weeks and also resist salinity.

A flood-tolerant variety, dubbed ‘scuba rice', which has the submergence (SUB 1) rice gene, already offers half the solution. "IRRI is experimenting to find a rice variety to deal with both problems," says Bjorn Ole Sander, a scientist at the world's leading non-governmental research centre on rice. "Even if we have rice crops that are tolerant to floods they can die because of salinity."

The search for this new grain had its roots in the Indian state of Orissa, home to the flood-resistant rice variety that resumes growth after being underwater for even 14 days - unlike other rice varieties that die if submerged for just over a week.

"This has been achieved without genetic manipulation, by breeding the SUB 1 variety," Sander said in an interview. "It can be submerged for 17 days." But the quest for a salinity-tolerant variety that could be blended with scuba rice is more daunting. "It will take at least four years to find a rice variety that will be tolerant to both - salinity and flooding," he said.

"That would be the answer to the problems faced in the Mekong Delta from flooding and salinity from the rising sea tides," he added....

A rice field on the west side of the Mekong River (in Cambodia), shot by KY Geologist, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

A damming assessment of Mekong development

Jane Qiu in Nature: Dams on the tributaries of the Mekong River could have a greater negative effect on fish biodiversity and food security than those on the main river, researchers say. Hydropower developments on Mekong tributaries are not subject to the same level of scrutiny as their counterparts on the main river. “Most of the attention has been on proposed dams on the Mekong mainstream, such as the highly controversial Xayaburi dam in Laos,” says lead author Guy Ziv, an environmental scientist now at Stanford University in California. “The impact of tributary dams is little studied.”

The findings, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, “point to a desperate need to reconsider hydropower development in the entire Mekong River basin”, says Ame Trandem, the Southeast Asia programme director for the environmental group International Rivers in Bangkok.

With a watershed of 800,000 square kilometres, the Mekong River basin supports the world’s largest inland fishery and is home to 65 million people in six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. “Most of the people are poor and get 81% of their protein from subsistence fisheries,” says Ziv.

The steep topography of the region makes the Mekong an attractive place for hydropower development. Driven by increasing demand for electricity and a desire for economic development, 11 dams are being planned on the main river, with 41 on the tributaries expected to be completed within the next 4 years. Another 10–37 tributary dams are likely to be built between 2015 and 2030....

Gia Long waterfall in Srepok River, Dak Lak, Vietnam, shot by Đỗ Tuấn Hưng, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Mekong Delta told it must improve flood forecasting systems

Vietnam News: Weather forecasting must improve in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta so the region can better cope wth floods and high tides, experts have said. Flood forecasting must be accurate and timely, especially in the context of climate change, they said.

...Effective flood-forecasting can help reduce 30 per cent of losses caused by floods, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting. Many serious floods have occurred in the Mekong Delta this year, with the volume and level becoming more and more serious than in previous years, especially since the 2000-02 period.

Flood forecasting activities must be modified, and long-term plans for coping with floods needed to be carried out, the centre said.

According to the Southern Hydro-Meteorology Centre, most serious floods this year have been caused by an extremely large volume of rainfall in the middle of Laos and in lower Laos areas and the Central Highlands region. Thus, flood forecasting work must be focused on these areas....

A floating market in Can Tho, Vietnam, shot by Doron, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

No stopping big hydro projects, despite Lao veto

Niluksi Koswanage in Reuters: A surge in mega-hydropower projects across the world in the coming decade will only be affected marginally by last week's decision to delay building a large dam across the Mekong, Southeast Asia's longest river.

Hydropower remains a proven way to produce electricity on a large scale, and some governments are extremely reluctant to opt for alternatives such as nuclear. But last week's decision could mean there will be increased focus on minimizing environmental and social costs of new hydro projects, analysts say.

Laos suspended the $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam project on the lower Mekong, awaiting a study into the environmental impact of the river, the world's largest inland fishery.

The 1,260-megawatt project has been hugely controversial and underlined growing global concerns that mega-dams were a damaging and outdated way of generating power. Protests from India to Brazil and Malaysia to China have called for a halt to massive building programs....

A narrow spot in the Mekong River in Laos, shot by Feral Arts, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Mekong flooding causes widespread damage in Viet nam

Tran Phuong Anh at Unicef.org: A relentless series of tropical storms and typhoons has filled the Mekong River to record levels, causing widespread flooding that now covers much of south and central Viet Nam in water. The disaster has damaged over a hundred thousand homes, affecting 700,000 residents and killing 49 people – 43 of them children.

One of the hardest hit areas is the southern province of An Giang, where nearly 19,000 homes have been flooded. Some 54 schools are submerged in flood waters, interrupting the educations of over 1,300 students.

...And disasters like this seem to be getting worse. “Although local people are used to seasonal floods and disaster preparedness is part of their daily life, the weather has become more and more unpredictable, and we’ve seen an increased number of cyclones,” said Ho Viet Hiep, Vice Chairman of An Giang’s Provincial People’s Committee.

The Mekong floods have caused an alarming number of child fatalities, most of them due to drowning. “In emergency situations children, particularly young children, are the most vulnerable,” said Nguyen Van Nghia, a child protection expert from the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. “Many live in houses surrounded by water, and if their parents fail to keep an eye on them for just a second, they might just quickly fall into the water. The flow is currently so strong that it takes a few minutes to sweep the child away as far as a kilometer.”...

A flood in Vietnam, shot by Bút Chiến, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Sea-level rise could 'displace millions' in Vietnam

IRIN adds to the drumbeat of stories about Vietnam’s vulnerability to sea level rise and other impacts: For centuries, residents around Can Tho, a city of 1.1m people in southern Vietnam, just 0.8m above sea level, have depended on flood cycles to grow crops. However, experts warn there is a possibility that sea levels will rise in the delta region around Can Tho due to climate change, causing devastating floods that will displace millions and destroy those crops.

Can Tho is in the wider Mekong Delta, a rice-growing region that spans southern Vietnam and is home to 18 million people. More than half of Vietnam's rice is produced in the delta, as well as 60 percent of its fish and shrimp.

A 1m sea-level rise could displace more than seven million residents of the Mekong delta, and a 2m sea-level rise could double that number, according to a study by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network in New York, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and other groups.

The delta is where the Mekong River divides into nine channels after a 5,000km journey from the Tibetan plateau. It is "particularly susceptible" to sea-level rises, says Alex de Sherbinin, a senior research associate at the Columbia University Center. A 1m sea-level rise is "definitely within the bounds" of happening this century, he told IRIN. A 2m sea-level rise, however, is less likely.

The study examined the major deltas of the world, and was based on current patterns of climate change and migration for glacier melt, as well as interviews with displaced residents.

…Although Vietnam has always been vulnerable to adverse weather, climate change "is making the hazards worse", says Koos Neefjes, a climate change policy adviser to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam….

Pressure mounts to delay "dangerous" $3.5 billion Mekong dam

Reuters: Plans for the first dam across the lower Mekong River are putting Laos on a collision course with its neighbors and environmentalists who fear livelihoods, fish species and farmland could be destroyed, potentially sparking a food crisis. The impoverished, Communist nation seems determined to defy international pressure and forge ahead with construction of the $3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam, a mostly Thai-led project that experts say could cause untold environmental damage.

The four countries that share the lower stretches of the 4,900 km (3,044 mile) Mekong -- Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia -- failed at a meeting on Tuesday to reach an agreement on construction of the 1.285-megawatt (MW) dam, the first of 11 planned in the lower Mekong that are expected to generate 8 percent of Southeast Asia's power by 2025.

In a joint statement, they said there was "still a difference in views" and the issue should be handled at ministerial level. Mekong basin countries are bound by a treaty to hold inter-governmental consultations before building dams, but none has veto powers and Laos will have the final say, although not without considerable diplomatic pressure.

Ecologists and rivers experts say an environmental impact assessment conducted last year by the Lao government was patchy at best. They warn that the livelihoods of 60 million people in the lower Mekong region are at risk if the Xayaburi dam goes ahead without proper risk assessment.

Activists say scores of fish species face extinction, fish stocks will dwindle as migratory routes will be blocked, and swathes of rice-rich land could be deprived of fertile silt carried downstream by Southeast Asia's longest waterway. Entire villages would be forced to relocate.

According to a study by the Mekong River Commission, an inter-government agency, the proposed 11 dams would turn 55 percent of the river into reservoirs, resulting in estimated agriculture losses of more than $500 million a year and cutting the average protein intake of Thai and Lao people by 30 percent…

A narrow stretch of the Mekong in Laos, shot by Feral Arts, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Flexibility key to tackling climate change in the Mekong Delta

Ngoc Le in Vietnam News: Long-term vision and short-term planning should be the twin planks on which the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta should base its adaptation to climate change, Dutch experts said at a workshop yesterday. It would be unwise to make big investments in impact mitigating projects like dykes when the actual phenomena could not be predicted with high accuracy, they said.

The two-day workshop, titled "Towards a Mekong Delta Plan", brought together policy-makers and hundreds of experts from the two countries in the presence of Dutch Crown Prince Williem-Alexander, who has been on an official visit to the country.

Workshop participants discussed different options to optimise plans for the Delta relating to many areas including the predicted rise in sea levels, salinity intrusion, drought, insufficient supply of fresh water, agricultural and aquaculture production as well as urban development.

Various scenarios and solutions were discussed based on a "design table" application developed by the Dutch. The design table presented three-dimensional images of the Delta that changed in response to different input data. The design table session was an interactive spatial planning exercise that sought to help key Vietnamese decision makers "map out scenarios for the future of the Mekong Delta in relation to climate change adaptation," organisers said.

The Dutch side gave a design table to their Vietnamese counterparts at the workshop as a present. "In the long term, many things will remain unclear," said Prof L. O. Fresco of the University of Amsterdam. "We do not know by how much the sea levels will rise and water discharge will increase," she told Viet Nam News. "Sometimes we cannot change things back," she added.

Speaking to Viet Nam News on the sidelines of the workshop, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc said the step-by-step approach was a good idea. It would allow authorities to have updated statistics on hand to develop the most accurate and appropriate plans, he added. "We should have a vision for the next 50 years, then we get back to where we are now to develop strategies for every five years," he said….

Flood in the streets of Can Tho, shot by Atsaigon, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license