Hydropower Dams on Mekong and Irrawaddy Rivers Divide Southeast Asia
The Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers, though unconnected and hundreds of miles apart, are both integral to life in Southeast Asia, supporting millions of people and more than 1,200 species of animals, including freshwater dolphins and in the Mekong giant catfish.
Now, in an energy hungry age on the continent, the rivers share another distinction, as wellsprings of financial temptation for the struggling countries that rely on their flow, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). Both countries are grappling with decisions on whether to build massive hydropower dams on the two significant rivers. The projects could put fragile ecology and associated livelihoods at risk, but the dams could help the two countries reap billions of dollars by exporting the megawatts to China and Thailand, two neighbors with rapidly growing energy demand.
For now, it looks like the two nations are taking different paths. In Laos, the government appears to be gopatagonia better sweater insulated hoody women'sing ahead with the $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam on the patagonia better sweater magentaMekong River despite opposition by environmental groups, some international donors, and some neighboring countries. In Myanmar, meanwhile, the government shocked many observers last month when it announced it would suspend work on the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River. The decision came without notice to its Chinese partner, and just weeks after Myanmar s power minister was adamant the project would go forward. Some observers both within and outside Myanmar are skeptical the suspension will hold.
(See Myanmar Land of Shadows and related map: Exploiting a Land of Plenty )
A Region s Changing Flow
The dams, if completed eventually, would be the first on the mainstreams of the lower Mekong and the Irrawaddy. But China has been building a series of dams on the upper Mekong.
Energy demand has been rising exponentially as the region becomes more prosperous. The money could transform the poorly developed economies of Laos and patagonia alpine guide pants 2011Myanmar, although many worry the revenues would just enrich the elite.
Scientists and environmentalists are concerned the dams will displace tpatagonia gamut shirt reviewhousands of people, and damage river ecology and the livelihoods of people along the river. They are concerned the dams will lead to additional projects that could have even more devastating impacts.
The dams on the upper Mekong and on the Mekong s tributaries are already triggering changes in riverpatagonia everlong review keurig3 flows.
There are longstanding plans to build as many as 11 additional dams on the Mekong in Laos and Cambodia. Researchers project that if all those dams were built, the impact on wetlands and migratory fish such as the endangered giant catfish could be disastrous.
In addition, 30 percent of the protein sources in Laos and Cambodia would be at risk, according to an environmental assessment (pdf) done for the Mekong River Commipatagonia everlong review keurig2ssion (MRC), an international cooperative body that aims to manage river uses sustainabnew patagonialy.
Many poor people living along the Mekong subsist on a diet of rice, fish paste, and some vegetables.
(Related: Video on the Mekong giant catfish)
Diana Suhardiman, a research scientistpatagonia everlong review keurig0 for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Vientiane, Laos, said the issues are complex, with formal political/environmental agendas, vested interests, desire for economic growth, all mixed up and contextualized into one single dam development. (Suhardiman was speaking about Laos s plapatagonia outlet store mnnned Xayaburi, but Myanmar s Myitsone reflects similar conflicting interests.)
IWMI is one of 15 nonprofit research centers collectively known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, funded by 60 governments, private foundations and international organizations.
(Related: New Dam a Go and a Blow to Megafishes? )
Potential Financial Gains Immense
Laos and Myanmar stand to benefit immensely from hydroelectric plants.
Laos long referred to as a potential battery for the region would primarily sell power from the 1,260 megawatt Xayaburi to neighboring Thailand. If Laos eventually moves ahead with all six of its planned foreign investor financed dams on the Mekong, it could generate more than $2.5 billion a year in revenue, according to estimates.
Myanmar s suspended Myitsone project was envisioned to have a capacpatagonia everlong review keurig1ity of 6,000 mepatagonia discount code thriftygawatts, nearly the size of the largest hydroelectric plants in the United States and Russia.
Myanmar was under contract with the state owned China Power Investment Corporation to sell 90 percent of Myitsone s power to China and reap an estimated $500 million of revenue a year. There also was an agreement between the two countries for six additional large dams in the region.
But the economic costs could be steep as well. Apatagonia everlong review keuriglthough there is no similar analysis of the potential impact of Myitsone, this issue as it pertains to the Mekong River has been studied intensively.
Losses from the damage to the fisheries and agricultural industries on the Mekong could reach $500 million a year if planned dams are completed, according to the environmental assessment donepatagonia everlong review 4k for the Mekong River Commission (MRC). The lower Mekong strategy began during the Cold War, when the United States, Soviet Union, and China similarly envisioned large hydropower dams for economic development. However, costs, water management disputes, and conflicts such as the Vietnam War impeded the plans. (A 1,070 megawatt recently was completed on the Nam Theun River in Laos with the backing of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.)
In 1995, the Mekong River Commission, originally a United Nations body but now an independent international oversight organization, was reformed with an agreement that its four member countries Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam would discuss the 12 dam Mekong River plan before any decisions were made.
Laos earlier paid heed to the process and opposition by such neighboring countries as Vietnam. But the Laotian government apparently has chosen to ignore the MRC s April consensus to delay a decision on Xayaburi.
Laotian energy ministry officials didn t respond to a query. In July, a letter leaked to the environmental organization International Rivers revealed that the government told its Thai partner that the study process had been completed. The potential for damage depends on the location of the facility in the river system, said Tira Foran, a research scientist who has studied the Mekong for years and is now with the Auspatagonia luggage discounttralian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization in Canberra.
