14 DAY TRIAL // As of recently, it has been decided that hydropower dams are to be erected on the river Mekong, something that is quite likely to affect the local communities' main trade: fishing.
People living in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, who up until now took pride in having some of the most productive fisheries in the world, may soon have to find other ways of supporting their families.
Rumor has it that development plans for the area of Lower Mekong include the building of 11 hydropower dams. Authorities claim that such dams are required to provide for the energy needs of the region.
However, they seem to have overlooked the fact that, should these projects be implemented, the fish living in the river Mekong will no longer be able to migrate up and down their usual passages. This means that fishermen will find themselves cut off from their key food and income source.
As well as this, seeing how the natural flow of the river will also be affected by these dams, odds are that the valuable nutrients currently carried by the Mekong to agricultural lands might also find themselves stuck at the bottom of the river, instead of making their way to where they are needed.
As a sign of courtesy, turning to raising livestock instead of fishing and importing food have been offered as solutions for the people living here.
As practical as these suggestions are, one must bear in mind the fact that entire countries cannot simply change their lifestyle over the course of one development project, and that the initial shock might prove to be a bit too much for the local people to handle.
According to ipsnews.net, the country of Cambodia is the one to be most affected by this “upgrade” intended for the river Mekong, as its losses might amount to 300,000 tons of fish per year.
For the time being, continual arguments are taking place between the officials in charge of designing and building these hydropower dams and environmental organizations.
The former argue that there is no other way of supplying the energy these countries need to function properly, whilst the latter argue that the main drive behind this project is profit.
Regardless of these debates, facts are that the country of Laos is said to have already begun building the required infrastructure around the dam area and that Thailand has also recently closed the deal on building its dam.