THE DON
SAHONG DAM
UNMISTAKABLE FINGERPRINTS
FROM CHINA
"Rice production in the
Vietnamese Mekong Delta is further threatened by the building of the next dam
on the main stream, the Don Sahong Dam in Southern Laos. This dam will block
the Mekong’s main stream just before the famous Khone Falls, reducing its flow
and endangering the Ramsar site in Siphandone and the crops and fisheries
downstream.” Prof. Võ Tòng Xuân, Rector Emeritus An Giang
University, Vietnam.
To the Friends of the Mekong
Group
NGÔ THẾ VINH
WITH THE GREEN LIGHT FROM THE
LAO NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
As reported in the The Diplomat, [Sep 04, 2015] the Lao National Assembly had
officially approved the construction of the Don Sahong Hydropower Dam, a
project that has raised much controversy in the past. The original plan called
for MegaFirst, a Malaysian construction company, to start the actual building
phase around the end of 2015. On account of the power-generating potentials of
the Mother River - Mea Nam Khong, the
Thai-Lao name for the Mekong - the Lao Government brushed aside all criticism
and appeals from the neighboring nations like Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam
to put a halt to the Don Sahong Dam Project in order to go full steam ahead
with the implementation of its hydropower development program.
THE HYDROPOWER POTENTIALS OF
THE MEKONG
With a current measuring over 4,800 km,
the Mekong is the third largest river in Asia and the 11th in the
world. The richness of its eco-system ranks second only to that of the Amazon,
South America. The Mekong’s potentials
for hydropower generation are estimated at about 60,000 MW:
-- The Upper Mekong
(28,930MW) consists of the current’s northern half where the series of 14
hydropower dams of the Mekong cascades in
Yunnan Province, China are located.
-- The Lower Mekong (30,000 MW) comprises the
sections of the Mekong that meander through the five countries of Myanmar,
Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. There are in total 12 main stream
hydropower dams in those countries - mostly in Cambodia and Laos.
DISASTER STILL COMES FROM THE
NORTH
As for China, Peking has built the two
largest dams on the northern section of the Mekong: The gigantic Nuozhadu Dam (5,850 MW) and the
mammoth Xiaowan Dam (4,200 MW). In general, China has completed its
hydro-electrification program on the Lancang Jiang, the Chinese name of the
Mekong. According to Fred Pearce of Yale
University, the Mekong has been transformed into the waterfall and the power
generator of China. [3]
Philip Hirsch, Director of the Australian Mekong Resource Centre, University of
Sydney, noted: “The two massive Nuozhadu and Xiaowan Dams will
affect the entire current of the Mekong all the way to the Mekong Delta of
South Vietnam.”
To this date, China has completed the building
of 6 large main stream dams on the Mekong with a total output of 15,150 MW or
over half of the hydropower generating potentials of the Lancang Jiang. With
only 8 projects left in the overall plan - not counting any new ones that may be
added later on - it would not take long for China to finish their construction
within the first decades of the 21st
century.
ADDITIONAL FINGERPRINTS FROM
CHINA
On February 2, 2015 the International Rivers Network sent a letter to the Sinohydro International Corporation voicing its opposition to the Hydropower Don Sahong Dam Project on account of its nefarious
effects on the environment and communities living along the Mekong main
current: “As you know, the position of
International Rivers on the Don Sahong Hydropower Dam Project, we oppose it
based on the significant environmental and social impacts on the Mekong River
main stream.”
The letter added: “However, we have observed that Sinohydro
International as the proposed EPC contractor for Don Sahong Hydropower Dam
Project has already attracted international scrutiny for its connection with
the project. Based on our understanding of hydropower issues the Mekong Region,
we have judged that there will be significant consequences should Sinohydro, a
Chinese state-owned corporation, sign a contract with the project development,
to effectively interfere with the good faith negotiations currently underway.
This is an extremely sensitive time for the region with much attention and
debate on the costs of hydropower development of the Mekong River. We hope that
Sinohydro will support these discussions, the need for further scientific
studies, and utmost respect the decisions and formal requests from the
Governments of Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.” [End of quote]
Therefore, the veil of secrecy has been
lifted: Malaysia’s MegaFirst is only an investor in the Don Sahong Dam
Project. It does not have any prior experience in the construction or operation
of hydropower dams. Clearly it only serves as a smokescreen or a front for Sinohydro, the firm that will carry out the actual
building works regardless of the detrimental effects it inflicts on the
population that lives downstream the river.
It is common knowledge that Sinohydro International is a giant Chinese state corporation
considered to be the world’s largest hydropower dam building company doing
business all over the globe. However, it is also being widely accused of
building dams that wreak havocs on the environment. It is safe to state that
the Don Sahong is undeniably a Made
in China dam. [1] Besides
the Don Sahong, Sinohydro has also been awarded the bids to build two other dams: the Pak Lay and
Sambor Dams in Laos and Cambodia respectively.
To make matter worse, two
Vietnamese companies also jump
on the bandwagon and accept to build the main stream
dams named Luang Prabang in Laos and Stung Treng in Cambodia. Their action may
be likened to a person picking up a gun and shoots himself in the foot.
So it now becomes understandable why the
tiniest of countries like Laos can behave in the most disruptive manner in
total disregard of the concerns of its already disunited neighbors as well as
of the cautions raised by the environmental organizations. Laos can always rely on the unconditional backing from Peking.
FROM
XAYABURI TO DON
SAHONG
Laos turned a deaf ear to
the 2011 recommendation of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) calling for a
moratorium
on all main stream dam projects in the Lower Mekong for at least a decade,
until the year
2020, in order to have time to conduct the needed studies. It proceeded with the construction of
Xayaburi (1,285 MW), the first main stream dam built outside of China. Xayaburi
is compared to the first Domino that fell precipitating in its wake the unchecked
construction of other dams downstream.
Don Sahong is the second
domino to follow suit. Almost two years ago, on October 3, 2013, Laos notified
the MRC of its intention to build Don Sahong, its second main stream dam. This
is a run-of-river dam that stretches over 5 km along the Hou Sahong
water channel in the vicinity of the Khone Waterfalls, only 2 km from the
border with Cambodia. Don Sahong boasts an output of 260 MW,
much smaller than even that
of the dams built on the tributaries in Laos. [Picture I]
Picture I: Location of the
Don Sahong Hydropower Dam (260 MW) on the Khone Waterfalls, Southern Laos
[Source: MRC]
The Khone Waterfalls offers
a majestic landscape adorned by countless rapids, whirpools and a chain of
thousands of islets. As observed by engineer Phạm Phan Long of the Viet Ecology Foundation:
"if the average annual current flow of Niagara Falls is 2,400 m3/s, that of Victoria Falls
1,088 m3/s then it is
10,156 m3/s at Pakse, the
nearest observation station to Khone Waterfalls. Therefore, one can see that
the average annual current flow of the Khone Waterfalls is almost triple that
of the other two combined.”
In 1886, the French exploration team led
by Doudart de Lagrée / Francis Garnier
left Saigon on an expedition sailing
upstream the Mekong in search of a water trade route with China via Yunnan
Province. After a stopover at Angkor, the group
continued on to Khone Waterfalls in the southern part of Laos. They were
astounded by an extremely majestic and spectacular scenery complete with rapids and
whirpools and alive with the thundering sounds of water splashing and foaming
at the tips right before their eyes. At that time they also realized that the
prospect for commercial boats to sail on the Mekong from Saigon to Laos then
onward to Yunnan, China was not in the cards. [Picture II]
Hình II: Rapids on the Mekong- Southern
Laos
[Source: Francis Garnier, Voyage
d'exploration en Indo-Chine, Paris 1885]
The Khone Waterfalls represents an utterly
amazing phenomena of the Mekong as far as biological diversity is concerned.
Right at the foot of the Waterfalls we have the most abundant and varied
congregation of freshwater fish species not only in Southeast Asia but in the
entire world: here alone, we can find
some 1,500 fish species of which over 2/3 are
classified as migratory fish that
swim upstream the Mekong, depending on the seasons, into even the tributaries
to spawn and grow. Most of the fish caught in this river system serve as a
source of food and commerce amounting to 4 million tons and bringing in
up to US$ 9 billion per year - not counting the abundant catch of shrimps, snails, crabs, turtles, weeds
and plants.
The Mekong, for a long time,
acts as the “lifeline” of the nearly 70 million inhabitants in the basin. It is
not only the source of water, alluvia but also of fish providing 80% of the
daily protein intake of the people in Laos and Cambodia. In the eyes of environmental experts, this section
at the Khone Waterfalls on the Mekong can be called the “vital chokepoint” of
the entire eco-system of this river’s basin.
Picture
III: Catching fish at the Khone Waterfalls (left); The Khone Waterfalls in the
Dry Season (right) [Source: Tom
Fawthrop]
DON SAHONG’S UNIMAGINABLY
DETRIMENTAL IMPACTS
The Khone Waterfalls has been compared to
a microcosm of the eco-system of the
Mekong, a place for biologists and ichthyologists to come and conduct their
research. Owing to that unique trait, Dr. Mark Hill argued that due consideration must be given to
conserve the integrity of the Khone Waterfalls in all future development
projects or construction of hydropower dams on the Mekong’s current.
A number of collected data
showed that the Don Sahong Dam - in spite of measuring only about 30m in height
anh having an output of merely 260 MW [the smallest of the 11 dams on the main
stream of the Lower Mekong] - can cause immeasurable damages to the entire
aqua-ecological system of the Mekong because it is at this location that the
largest schools of migratory fish congregate. The lion’s share of the fish
caught by the Lao and Cambodian fishermen upstream comes from the Khone
Waterfalls. Even the fish caught in the tributaries also swam upstream from the
Khone Waterfalls.
The nations that finance the projects in
the Mekong River Basin along with the environmentalists including the Viet Ecology
Foundation had sent letters to the Lao Government requesting that the
construction of the Don Sahong Dam be suspended. However, they only met with
total rejection from the Lao authorities.
Foreseeing the direct danger
posed by the Don Sahong Hydropower Dam to the fish population of Cambodia, in 2007, the Cambodian National Mekong
Committee addressed a letter of protest to the Lao Government which went
“unanswered.” In November of the same year, at the
Siem Reap Conference, the Cambodian delegation and the various NGO
organizations once more raised their opposition to the Don Sahong Project. The
MRC, then, sent a cost/damage evaluation
along with “critical observations” to the Lao Government. The latter completely
ignored their protestations and went ahead with the signing of the Contract for
the Development Project with the Malaysian company MegaFirst.
Prime Minister Hun Sen
himself went to Laos [03/2008] to have a discussion on the Don Sahong Dam
Project because of his concerns about the harmful direct impacts it may visit
on Cambodia. However, according to Milton Osborne, for some incomprehensible
reasons, the Cambodian Mekong National Committee received an order to stop its
public criticism of the Don Sahong Dam Project. [It is worth mentioning here
that Cambodia had its Sambor Hydropower Dam Project. Like in the case of the
Don Sahong one, it is known as the second “vital chokepoint” for the fish
population of the Mekong]
Clearly, Laos has
demonstrated it is only adhering to its consistent and age-old behavior of “hearing nothing, responding to nothing, just go ahead and do your own thing.”
This could not be considered civilized manners in international relations of
the 21st century. By its actions, the Lao government showed that it
did not adhere to Article 7 of the 1995 Mekong Agreement, Mekong River
Commission that “calls on the member countries to “make every effort to avoid,
minimize and mitigate harmful effects that might occur to the environment …
from the development and use of the Mekong River Basin water resources.”
Laos had and continues to
unilaterally give priority to its short-term interests in total disregard to
the the hefty price it and its neighbors are having to pay for this decision.
To this day, the Mekong River Commission, once more, is reduced to an
onlooker’s role watching its recommendations and ability to coordinate being
completely ignored.
Picture IV: The people of
Cambodia display banners in protest of the Don Sahong Dam on the side of a boat
moored on the Mekong in Phnom Penh [photo by Heng Chivoan] Will we one day see banners being hung by the inhabitants of the Mekong
River Delta?
LAOS THE “KUWAIT OF
HYDROPOWER OF SOUTHEAST ASIA”
Educated Lao can easily see that their land is endowed with vast
natural resources. The country’s leaders that belong to the younger generations
nourish the ambition to harness the Mekong’s hydropower potentials with the
hope of transforming Laos into “the battery of Southeast Asia.”
Close observers of this
nation’s efforts to harness its hydropower potentials would at once realize
that the person responsible for its implementation is neither the President,
Prime Minister nor Foreign Affairs Minister but none other than the extraordinarily
bright Mr. Viraphonh Viravong. Over the
last three decades, Viraphonh Viravong has demonstrated a relentless and
single-minded determination to modernize and transform his country into the “Kuwait of hydropower of Southeast Asia”.
Viraphonh Viravong
constantly explores the current of the Mea Nam Khong in search of potential
sites to build new hydropower dams and persuade the local inhabitants about the
benefits that would arise from their construction. He would explain to them
that with the money the dams generate they will have electricity all year
round, roads and highways, hospitals, and schools. Viraphonh Viravong has
gained ample experience while building the dams on the large tributaries in
Laos. Today, after he’s done with the construction of the Xayaburi, the first
main stream dam in Laos, no opposition can be strong or wide enough to keep him
from forging ahead with the completion of the Don Sahong Dam.
Picture V: Viraphonh
Viravong,
Vice Minister of Energy and
Mines of the Lao Government
On
October 15, 2012 Viraphonh Viravong visited the Asian Institute of Technology
in Bangkok to look at the display of the Xayaburi Dam scale model, and
asserted: “The development of hydropower potentials in Laos is a given. The
only question is how to do it in a sustainable way.”
SCREAMS IN THE WILDERNESS
Agronomist Võ Tòng Xuân, one of the
pioneers who introduced the Miracle Rice into the Mekong River Delta, has this
to say about the detrimental effects of the Don Sahong Dam: “Rice
production in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta is further threatened by the building
of the next dam on the main stream, the Don Sahong Dam in Southern Laos. This
dam will block the Mekong’s main stream just before the famous Khone Falls,
reducing its flow and endangering the Ramsar site in Siphandone and the crops
and fisheries downstream. We observed that dry season rice areas are being
expanded in Northeast Thailand, Southern Laos and Cambodia. Substantial water
abstraction is occurring in these areas. During the past several years water
supply during the dry season in the Mekong Delta was reduced severely,
resulting in saline intrusion as far as 80 km further inland, adversely
affecting crop yields. We call on the Lao government as well as the Malaysian
investors to refrain from altering the main stream of the Mekong River to save
the Lower Mekong environment and people.” [26-10-2013] Prof. Võ Tòng Xuân, Rector Emeritus An
Giang University, Vietnam.
Picture VI: agronomist Võ Tòng Xuân in the
rice fields [Gia Rai District, Mekong River Delta] scorched by salinization
[Source: private collection of Prof. Võ
Tòng Xuân]
It is useless to try to dissuade Malaysian investors
from investing in the dam projects. They are willing accomplices and MegaFirst
only serves as a front for China’s Synohydro,
the real culprit behind the scene. That is the stark reality we are facing
today.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR
US?
The Mekong should ideally
serve as a rallying point that brings the nations in the Basin together instead
of as a bone of contention for all. Unfortuantely, starting in the first decade
of this century, that dream has been shattered due to a crisis of trust.
Consequently, the prospect for cooperation in the “Spirit of the Mekong” to
bring about a common sense of purpose to work for mutual development and
prosperity for the entire region is growing dimmer and dimmer.
Just recently, on July 31, 2015, Mr. Đinh Hưng, from
the Mekong Delta, sent to the BBC
a sound of alarm that the journalist Tưởng Năng Tiến
who was traveling on the Tonle Sap Lake at the time deemed as “too little too
late”: “The river currents in Long An, Tiền
Giang, Bến Tre, Trà Vinh, Vĩnh Long are being threatened by salinization with
sea water intruding sometimes as far as 70 km inland. And the trend is growing
more alarming. A number of regions in the Mekong Delta have experienced severe
fresh water shortages. In recent months, in the Mekong Delta, “never seen
before” seawater intrusions have caused “disruptions in the lifestyle.” These
phenomenon do not come “unexpected”but, on the contrary, they are predicted.
The people of the provinces of Cần Thơ, Hậu Giang, Bạc Liêu, Cà Mau, Kiên Giang
are fleeing from the intruding seawater every day. Small pockets of fresh water
are being compromised all year round by seawater intrusion. Hundreds of
thousands of hectares of farmland, countless orchards are being added to the
“endangered list”, aquatic products suffer
great loss. All those calamities are befalling the inhabitants of this place.”
For ages, the Mekong has blessed the Delta with abundant
fresh water sources and rich alluvia deposits to help make Vietnam the world’s
second rice producer after Thailand.
Unfortunately, nowadays, almost 20 million inhabitants in the Mekong
Delta are facing the threat of losing their source of fresh water and alluvia
while the entire fertile Delta lies submerged in seawater. The offsprings of
those valiant pioneers who came and settled the land during the Southward March
only 300 years back now live under a totalitarian regime that renders them
docile and robs them of their right to be heard. Thus they are resigned to
watch as well as accept the gradual disappearance of the Civilizaton of the Orchards. In the not too far future, probably in
the mid 21st century, on a national scale, we will witness the
emergence of wave upon wave of ecological refugees. But the question is: Is there a place for
them to go to?
NGÔ THẾ VINH
California Sep 28, 2015
References:
1) Is the world's biggest
dam builder willing to change?
3) In Search of Aluminum: China's Role in the Mekong Region.
Heinrich Boll Stiftung, WWF and the International Institute for Sustainable
Development.
4) The Two Poles of Destruction from Nuozhadu to Don Sahon The
Mekong in the Claw of Death. Ngô Thế Vinh, Ecology Foundation, Oct 25,
2014, http://vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/112
5) Global Ecology and the "Made in China's Dams. Ngô Thế
Vinh. Viet Ecology Foundation, July 2010. http://vietecology.org/Article.aspx/Article/62#
