To the 20 million inhabitants of the Mekong Delta
who are deprived of their voice
To US Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio
To the Friends of the Mekong Group
With an inconsistent and always “pivoting” policy,
with a negligible total investment, over the past 50 years since 1975, the
United States has made almost no positive and effective moves to prevent
China’s expansion and encroachment – not only in the Mekong River basin – but
also in the East Sea. To be able to counterbalance Beijing, of course,
Washington needs to have a strategic vision, accepting a commensurate price to
pay in order to restore its long-standing influence on the Mekong River
Chessboard. NGO THE VINH
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INTRODUCTION: Over the past thirty years, tens of
millions of people living in the Mekong River basin have suffered from
increasingly severe and frequent floods and droughts. Their food sources in the
basin have gradually depleted and the living environment is no longer healthy
to support them and their children. These disadvantages are largely due to the
hydropower projects of China and Laos, accumulated from upstream, which have
been brought down on them. China is the culprit and the main driver of the projects
in Laos. This region is an important geopolitical dispute between China and the
United States. Step by step, China has completed 12 of the largest dams on the
Mekong mainstream, despite all the protests from the people and the authorities
in the lower basin. The United States has been powerless against all these
developments from the beginning and has recently withdrawn its trump card, not
allowing the Mekong Dam Monitor (MDM), an organization that monitors and
reports on the activities of reservoirs across the basin, to operate. This
paper by Dr. Ngo The Vinh, a persistent environmental activist, presents the
inconsistent US Mekong strategy as a failure in the Mekong River basin. PHAM PHAN LONG, PE
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TOUBA / 托巴 :
ANOTHER 12TH MAINSTREAM DAM IN YUNNAN
Figure 1: Tuoba / 托巴, China's 12th mainstream dam in Yunnan, has been
detected and monitored by US satellites: left, the construction site of Tuoba Dam
(as of 29.01.2024), right, Tuoba Dam 1,400 MW has filled its reservoir during
the dry season (as of 23.06.2024) and is starting to have further negative
impacts on the flow of the Mekong River downstream. [source: Stimson Center / Mekong Dam Monitor]