Mekong nations face growing threat to food security amid claims China’s dams exacerbate effects of drought
- Drought, erratic water levels along 4,300km river are disrupting rice yields and fish catches, raising costs for farmers
- Beijing rejects claim Chinese dams behind drought hitting countries downstream
Fishermen in northeast Thailand say they have seen catches in the Mekong River plunge, while some farmers in Vietnam and Cambodia are leaving for jobs in cities as harvests of rice and other crops shrink.
The common thread driving these events is erratic water levels in Asia’s third longest waterway.
Water flows along the 4,300km (2,700 mile) Mekong shift naturally between monsoon and dry seasons, but non-governmental groups say the 11 hydroelectric dams on China’s portion of the river – five of them starting operation since 2017 – have disrupted seasonal rhythms. This threatens food security for the more than 60 million people in the Lower Mekong that rely on the river for a livelihood, they say.
“Naturally, Mekong water rises and decreases slowly about three to four months from highest to lowest levels,” said Teerapong Pomun, director of the Mekong Community Institute, an NGO focused on water resource management and based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
“[But now] the water levels fluctuate almost every two to three days all year, and every year, because of the dams.”
Beijing has taken issue with assessments that accused Chinese dams of causing shifts in Mekong water levels, especially a United States think tank report on April 13 that said China was withholding water upstream, citing satellite data. China said the report failed to recognise that low rainfall caused a drought in 2019, the worst to hit the region in 50 years.