Mekong officials discuss environmental mitigation for mainstream dams

“A broad range of the possible avoidance, minimisation and mitigation measures that will be up for discussion at the meeting include how key uncertainties are addressed and how countries view measures to attenuate for the potential cost to fisheries and other livelihoods in light of the financial and other significant benefits of the dams,” said Voradeth Phonekeo Manager of the MRC’s Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower in HCMC today. “There will inevitably be discussion on mitigation measures to ensure a fair distribution of costs and benefits should any dams on the mainstream Mekong go ahead.”

Some of the strategies that have been suggested, which will be up for discussion over coming days include the relative merits of mainstream dams over an accelerated programme of tributary hydropower projects or other electricity supply alternatives, and prioritising certain areas that would lead to lower levels of impact and mitigation measures for specific impact, such as fish migration and sediment-nutrient management says the MRC.

“Countries along the river will also need to strengthen their co-management of fisheries as river-flood plain fish would come under pressure from the dams proposed. There will also be a need to develop a consistent design approach to navigation locks, spillways and measures to ensure fish migration for example,” said Mr. Phonekeo.

On the benefits side, the electricity produced would have significant impacts on reducing electricity generation from fossil fuels and meet the countries’ rapidly increasing demands - while providing foreign exchange earnings to finance rural and social development projects says the MRC.

“When we analyse these projects for a range of future development scenarios, we can see negative as well as positive impacts. Dams can cause an increase in erosion, inundate important ecological habitats and redistribute water flow on a daily and seasonal basis. What we can’t predict as easily, but have been spending a lot of time to understand better is the effect that such proposed mainstream dams could have on fish migration and numbers, and ultimately – on the people that depend upon them that live in the river system,” says Jeremy Bird, CEO of the MRC Secretariat.

Twelve hydropower dams are currently being studied by private sector developers for the mainstream of the Mekong under MOUs signed by the governments. The MRC says that the 1995 Mekong Agreement, signed by Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam, requires that such projects are discussed extensively among all four countries prior to any decision being taken. In anticipation of any future notification for such consultation on a mainstream scheme the Strategic Environmental Assessment is providing the basin-wide assessment of all 12 schemes and a framework for that project-specific discussion to take place once a project is formally notified to the MRC under the Agreement.

“That discussion, facilitated by MRC, will consider the full range of social, environmental and cross?sector development impacts within the Lower Mekong Basin,” said Mr. Bird. “MRC has already carried out extensive studies on the consequences for fisheries and people’s livelihoods and this information is widely available. The SEA provides the necessary broader understanding of the opportunities and risks of such development.”

So far, none of the prospective developments have been officially notified to the MRC although this process of prior consultation required under the Mekong Agreement is expected to start soon.

More than 60 million people in the lower Mekong basin depend on the river system for food, transport and economic activity. Freshwater fisheries in the basin have a commercial value of US$2 billion per year, making it the world’s most valuable inland fishery. Eighty percent of the animal protein for Mekong inhabitants comes from the Mekong, with up to 40 percent of the catch being from migrant specie.

Source: http://www.mrcmekong.org/MRC_news/press10/Mekong-officials-discuss28-Jun-10.htm