A large number of people living in the Mekong Delta are relocating to new places as they cannot withstand the bad impacts of hydropower projects along the Mekong river, Vietnam’s experts said at a meeting on Dec 2. Over the past years, thousands of people in Vietnam’s southern provinces in the Mekong delta have moved to other places as the environment in the region worsens and threatens the national food security. Millions of people in the region have faced unfavorable living environment caused by changes in water current, landslide, salt water encroachment, and death of hundreds of species of fish. The Mekong river, which flows from China, is being polluted and affected by a series of hydropower dams, including eight projects in China, nine in Laos and two in Cambodia. Of the total, three are operating, two under construction and the rest are planned to be built. Dr. Nguyen Huu Thien said that the biodiversity of Mekong river is just behind Amazon river with 1,200 species of fish. The fishing output reaches average 2.6 million tons annually, accounting for between 7% and 22% of the world’s freshwater fish yield. The latest hydropower project is Laos-based Don Sahong following its Xayabouri dam which both has caught strong protests from Vietnam, Cambodia and international environmentalists. Together with Chinese hydropower projects, Lao hydropower plants are predicted to cause severe negative consequences over the lower part of the Mekong river, especially the Mekong delta, the biggest rice granary in Vietnam. (Sai Gon Giai Phong – Saigon Liberation Dec 3 p3)
