(Dan Tri) – Communities in the lower Mekong River are facing the risk of losing their `bread and butter` when China builds hydroelectric dams upstream, causing drought and floods.
Cambodian fishermen catch seafood on the Mekong River (Photo: AFP)
Cambodian fisherman Sles Hiet has long lived thanks to the richness of the Mekong River, a large river that feeds millions of people.
Sles Hiet, a 32-year-old fisherman of Cham Muslim origin who lives year after year on boats along a river in Kandal province, said his seafood catch is getting less and less.
`We don’t understand why the amount of fish is getting less and less,` Mr. Sles shared with AFP news agency about the main reason pushing his family increasingly into poverty.
That is also the common concern of millions of other people living and benefiting from the river originating from the Tibetan Plateau (China) and flowing through a series of Southeast Asian countries before emptying into the East Sea.
On January 10, Prime Minister Li Keqiang will represent China, the country controlling the upper reaches of the river, to participate in a regional summit held in Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and may
According to the US-based International Rivers (IR), China is said to have built a total of 6 dams on the upper Mekong River out of the country’s total of 11 planned hydroelectric dams.
China’s geopolitical advantages
A Cambodian fisherman (Photo: AFP)
Environmental organizations have warned that China’s blocking of river flows could affect the habitat of species, disrupt fish migration, and prevent sediment from flowing downstream.
Communities living in the Mekong River in recent years have witnessed the phenomenon of seafood reserves being at risk of depletion and believe that China’s dams are the cause of this situation.
Experts say that it is still quite early to conclude whether these two issues are closely related or not due to the lack of data as well as the complex nature of the Mekong River ecosystem.
At the summit of Mekong River basin countries, AFP said that China seems to want to `rewrite` the rules of conduct of countries that enjoy benefits from this rich river.
However, Southeast Asia program director at IR Maureen Harris said that China seems to be putting its own interests above cooperation between countries.
Ultimately, the people who are most affected by the dams that China rebuilds are poor people like Mr. Sles.
“We depend on the Mekong River.
Lord Emperor
According to Straits Times