ENVIRONMENT / THREATS TO THE MEKONG

China plans more dams on regional river - Unfazed by outcry from neighbours
Porpot Changyawa - Chiang Mai

The outcry of countries affected by the dam project on the Mekong river in southern China has not deterred Beijing from proposing three more hydropower dams. China has played down resistance from neighbouring countries to the dam project on the Mekong in Yunnan province, a Yunnan-based environmental activist told a roundtable seminar on Mekong regional management.
The seminar was part of a three-day international conference to discuss management of common goods. ``It's unlikely the government has not heard of the protests,'' the activist said. ``Apart from international resistance and local opposition, Chinese scholars sent studies to officials pointing out the negative effects. They just ignored the problems.''
Beijing instead proposed three more hydroelectric dams in addition to the five already planned in Yunnan, dubbed China's hydroelectricity production
hub. Of the five, two are now in operation. The three new dams would be slightly smaller than the first five and generate less than 1,000 MW.
Campaigns for the project have been aired on television with an emphasis on accelerating development. Countries downstream of the Mekong reported significant impacts after the first dam opened five years ago.
Thai environmental activists have opposed the dam project and blasting of rapids in the Mekong to widen and deepen the navigation channel from
southern China to Laos's Luang Prabang province. They say the projects will hurt the Mekong ecological system and the livelihoods of more than 100 million people who depend on it. Mak Sithirith, of Fisheries Action Coalition Team in Cambodia, said water released from the dam in China, together with disappearing rapids had changed the direction of water flows in Cambodia's great lake.
Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake, the southernmost body of water supplied by the Mekong, had become shallow and stagnant. The ecology of Southeast Asia's
largest lake was dying, Mr Sithirith said. However, Beijing was likely to stop the rapids-blasting temporarily. It was satisfied with the navigation channel gained so far from blasting, which is 80% complete.
Resistance from countries downstream had also played a part in the Chinese decision, the activist said. Blasting could start again in the dry season at the end of the year and would include Khon Phi Luang rapids in Chiang Rai's Chiang Saen district, on the Thai-Lao border.
However, if the authorities wanted the rest of the project completed they would be able to press ahead regardless of the result of the environmental
impact assessment being conducted by the member countries of the Mekong River Commission, he said.

ADB PLAN SUPPORTS A DOZEN MORE DAMS FOR THE MEKONG
Critics say plan is destructive, 40 years out of date

A new Asian Development Bank report has recommended the construction of a regional power grid in mainland Southeast Asia fueled exclusively by
hydropower. Twelve dams in Burma, China and Laos are proposed to generate power for consumers in Thailand and Vietnam. The long-awaited report, released last month by the ADB and carried out by the Norwegian hydropower consulting company Norconsult, examines different scenarios of grid development and power cooperation. The report recommends a $43 billion generation and transmission system which includes the controversial Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos, Nuozhadu and Jinghong dams on the Upper Mekong in China, Tasang Dam in Burma and Sambor Dam on the Mekong mainstream in Cambodia, among others.
Mak Sithirith, coordinator of the Cambodian Fisheries Action Coalition Team, says "The ADB's grand design of building hydropower dams will bring more harm and exploitation to the people of the Mekong river basin. Dams in China and Laos will disrupt the river's fisheries and hydrology, destroying the
livelihoods of millions living downstream."
The power grid is being promoted by the ADB through a poor process of development  without consultation with affected people, without a full assessment of energy options and without a cumulative assessment of the impacts of the grid and the hydropower projects it would support.
The project's economics are also questionable. While the recommended scenario is estimated to save about $900 million, Norconsult admits the
savings are only "in the order of magnitude of 1-2% in relative terms," meaning that grid development will have minimal impacts on consumer
electricity tariffs.
Susanne Wong of International Rivers Network says "With such marginal economic benefits and huge potential impacts, it is shocking that the ADB is pursuing such a high-risk plan. Norconsult and the ADB are stuck in a 1960s mentality, believing that the only viable energy choices for the region are hydro and fossil fuels. Instead of considering more sustainable options like renewables, demand-side management or decentralized systems, the ADB and its consultants are continuing in their dogged pursuit of hydropower."
In the coming months, IRN together with other NGOs will conduct more detailed technical reviews of the 700-page master plan.
Other resources:
Asian Development Bank, Philippines, www.adb.org, +632 632 4444
To request a copy of the "Indicative Master Plan on Power Interconnection in Greater Mekong Subregion Countries," contact Lynette Mallery at
lmallery@adb.org.
"Trading Away the Future: The Mekong Power Grid," IRN briefing paper, available online at http://www.irn.org/programs/mekong/030620.powergrid-bp.pdf.