Will China turn off the Mekong tap?
Countries in the lower Mekong basin are watching anxiously to see whether their “big brother” to the north will tackle the growing Mekong River crisis.
China controls the upper section of the river, which rises on the Tibetan Plateau and runs through Laos, the North and the Northeast of Thailand, and Cambodia before reaching the sea via the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. Over the past three decades, China’s push to tap the Mekong for hydropower and transport of its goods has brought tremendous changes to the river’s ecology. Along with dams have come explosives to widen the river channel so it can accommodate large cargo vessels from southern China. Thai villagers along the river have for years complained about adverse effects from these man-made changes, especially the loss of fish stocks vital to their livelihoods.
Nauvarat Suksamran
