The Lao planned Don Sahong hydropower dam on the Mekong River will pose a great threat to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, said Vietnamese experts. The dams, including Lao Xayabury and Don Sahong, in the Mekong mainstream will have negative impacts on the ecological environment, especially the downstream, said Dr. Pham Bich San, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA). Dr. San cited a recent research as saying that the Mekong is one of the world’s five biggest river basins, which have seen its current reduced the most sharply. The average annual flow in the lower course has declined by 10% over the last 30 years. The Mekong section which runs across Vientiane in Laos has been so depleted in the last 10 years that people can wade across the river in the dry season, he said. In Thailand, the Chao Praya River, as it’s known by locals, which has traditionally been mild, unexpectedly caused major floods which lasted many months in 2011. In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, salt water has encroached on the Tan Chau area in An Giang province. This never happened in the past, Mr. San noted. The Mekong River has always played a very important role in Vietnamese socio-economic development and regional food security. The Mekong Delta is home to 20 million people who are responsible for 27% of Vietnam’s GDP, 90% of rice exports and 60% of Vietnam’s seafood exports. “VUSTA has many times in the past voiced its concern about the negative impacts of hydropower dams on Vietnam. Nevertheless, Laos went ahead and built its Xayabury hydropower plant. Now Vietnam needs to have a stronger voice against the Lao Dong Sahong project,” Dr. San said. Professor Dr. Ho Uy Liem, a renowned scientist, some years ago warned that if Xayabury dam was built, it would create a very dangerous precedent for another 11 dams to be set up on the Mekong main stream. “If so, this will be the destruction of the river,” Liem said. “This will deprive the livelihood of the 60 million people living along the riverside, especially the Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta,” he said. Le Bo Linh, deputy head of the National Assembly’s Science & Technology Committee, has also expressed his deep concerns about the Lao decision to build Don Sahong dam, affirming that the work will affect the river’s hydrological regime, causing depletion in the dry season and bringing salinity to the Mekong Delta. At the international meeting of the Mekong River Commission in Ho Chi Minh City in April, the involved parties approved a declaration which says that countries need to consult with others in the region if they plan to execute construction works on the Mekong main stream, Mr Linh said. The Lao government, which promised at the meeting that it would consult with other countries, still has decided to set up its hydropower dams. Mr. Linh said the government of Vietnam needs to express its official viewpoint on Laos building dams on the Mekong River, because it seems that concerns voiced by scientists and environmentalists, institutions and individuals are not enough for the Lao government to rethink the project. (VietNamNet June 30, Nong Thon Ngay Nay – Today Countryside June 30)
