This article is from WeChat official account: World says (ID: globusnews) , author: Yi Yuan Lin, the head picture comes from: scmp.com
Starting from February this year, in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, you can see dog-tail flowers growing across the Mekong River. According to the past law, the rainy season starts in May, and the water level peaks from September to October, but the river is not as turbulent and wide as it should be under normal conditions.
Perhaps, this will become a perennial landscape.
● The waters that should have been submerged during the rainy season were photographed in February this year, and this year is full of dog-tail flowers / World Talk
The other side of Vientiane is Thailand’s Nong Khai province, which has repeatedly grabbed water from Laos in recent years.
This northeastern province of Thailand, which is separated by a river from the capital of Laos, Vientiane, often uses high-power pumps during the season when water is needed to store enough daily water resources for the country, even if doing so will cause river banks. Eroded.
At the beginning of the year, Thailand experienced its worst drought in 40 years. The drop in the water level of the Mekong River has exacerbated the difficulties of agricultural irrigation.
Referring to the photos taken by Alex and Google satellite map, the riverbed in Vientiane section (left to the orange line) is more exposed than Thailand. In recent years, Laos has not even worried about rising rivers, and has built a fixed night market business place here. This was unthinkable in the past.
● Vientiane River Reach on Google Satellite Map / World Talk
This year, the rainy season is short and the precipitation is low. The water level of the Mekong River, which has repeatedly hit record lows in recent years, has reached its lowest point in nearly six decades. This mother river is not only about a country, but the common water source of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, affecting the entire Indochina Peninsula.
Control of water resources is enough to reshape the territory of power in a region. The upstream countries of cross-border rivers naturally enjoy advantageous conditions that affect the downstream.
The ambiguous interest relationship between Southeast Asian countries, coupled with sensitive geopolitical status and powerful capitals waiting to enter the market, makes the Mekong water politics game even more confusing.
“Southeast Asia Battery”
Many studies and speculations have not yet given a conclusive conclusion on the cause of the river drying up, but the focus of controversy is on the explosive growth of dams in the Mekong River Basin, especially on the main stream.
● The river section where the water level has repeatedly hit new lows, taken in October this year / World Talk
According to China Dialogue’s 2019 article data, the Lao government has signed up to 140 dam projects, of which one-third are under construction and another one-third are completed.
In July last year, driven by the ambition to “become a battery in Southeast Asia”, Laos set out to build the Luang Prabang Hydropower Station.
This is the third and largest hydropower station built by Laos on the Mekong River so far. It is expected to start construction at the end of 2020 or early 2021, and will be able to export 1,460 megawatts of electricity to Thailand and Vietnam after it is put into operation in 2027.
At the end of October last year, the 1,285 MW Xayaburi Dam and the 260 MW Donsahong Dam were completed and put into operation. According to Reuters, Laos plans to export about 20,000 megawatts of electricity to neighboring countries by 2030.
Laos has spared no effort to build hydroelectric power stations, because this may be the only way out of poverty.
Laos is inland, with a population of about 7 million(2018 data), and does not have enough labor like other developing countries The population promotes industrialization, and its own demand for energy is not large.
As early as 2013 to 2014, the export of hydropower brought more than US$610 million in revenue to Laos. Laos also earns rents from foreign companies through franchise rights, while at the same time gaining power supply, introducing infrastructure and employment opportunities.
However, it seems to be too desperate, so that whether it takes into account the friction with downstream countries, and the long-term risk of the dam to the sustainable development of the country, it is difficult for the outside world to say.
“Big-Big-Title Meeting”
The Mekong River Commission(MRC) is an intergovernmental cooperation organization formed by four member states of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Manage public resources related to the river.
Due to the lack of legal binding, cooperation efficiency and process transparency are far from ideal.
According to the Mekong Agreement in 1995, Laos must put the proposal on the table before implementing the Luang Prabang dam plan for other member states to propose amendments and complete six months of public consultation.
However, no member has the rightVeto projects from other countries.
Since the construction of the Xayaburi Dam and the Dongsahong Dam, the huge differences of interest between the parties have repeatedly become obstacles to consultations. In 2016, Laos ignored the objections of all parties and made its own proposal to build the Pak Beng Dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Radio, an expert who participated in a meeting on the Bale Dam in January this year said bluntly that Laos ignored the concerns of neighboring countries and the consultation meeting was just a waste of effort.
Thailand and Cambodia are in conflict. On the one hand, they have long-term concerns about the pressure on water resources and the ecological environment caused by Laos’ actions. On the other hand, they hope to buy cheap electricity from Laos. For example, Thailand has been buying electricity from Laos since 1971.
As the world’s second largest rice exporter, Thailand’s agricultural irrigation and the fertile soil formed by the rainy season river alluvial all originate from the Mekong River.
In 2016, Laos selected the Sanakham (Sanakham) dam on the border with Thailand. Due to the impact on the ecological environment and farmers’ livelihoods, It aroused strong opposition from residents of eight provinces in Thailand.
In 2019, due to floods and droughts in Thailand, rice production was reduced and food prices rose. For a time, they sought assistance from China and Laos regarding water shortages.
As a powerful country in the region, in the face of urgent resources for survival, Thailand may not be so glorious.
In 2016, after Thailand encountered El Niño, it tried to divert water from the Salween tributaries and the Mekong on the Thai-Myanmar border to irrigate farmland in the north and northeast, which intensified the salinization of the land caused by drought and gave way to the downstream Vietnam lost 180,000 hectares of rice fields.
Compared with Thailand, Cambodia is not only a low-profile country, but as a country with more than 80% of its territory located in the lower reaches of the Mekong River, it is more dependent on the upper reaches. Cambodia sits on Tonle Sap Lake, the world’s largest freshwater fishery, providing 70% of its protein intake for the people.
If the upper reaches of Laos restrict water sources, it will cause large-scale fish deaths and cut off Cambodian food and economic sources. In addition, the development in the past decade has widened the electricity supply gap in Cambodia, making it more passive in the face of Laos.
< span class = "text-remarks"> World says (ID: globusnews) , author: Yuan Yi Lin