Developments on Upstream Mekong River to Threaten Vietnam Ecology

Experts at a workshop “Opportunities for More Efficient Water Use in the Mekong Basin and Implications for Vietnam” held in Hanoi on November 6 reiterated the risks facing the downstream Mekong River with all the constructions of hydropower dams and irrigation projects in the upstream. Trinh Le Nguyen, director of a Vietnamese non-government organization called People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature), urged all countries in the Mekong River basin to rethink their approaches and minimize impacts on communities and the ecosystem.  Participants at the workshop agreed that by pursuing exclusive national interests in the use of the river waters, all nations in the Mekong Basin would miss the opportunity to synergize planning and optimize benefits of water use on a basin-wide scale to ensure security in terms of energy, water, food, and ecology. Worse still, although Vietnam has built up an irrigation system covering 48% of the total irrigated land on the Mekong’s lower reaches, saltwater intrusion and alum contaminated soil are threatening the expansion of irrigated rice areas. (Vietnam Net Nov 6, Phap Luat Vietnam – Vietnam Law Nov 6, Dai Doan Ket – Great Unification Nov 6)