New sustainable energy development plans for governments of Cambodia and Lao PDR could save the Mekong River

Press Release: [San Francisco, CA, April 2018] The Mekong River in Southeast Asia is the 8th largest river in the world, traversing eight countries with some 60 million people. It is at once the most productive river fishery in the world, providing a valuable source of food (up to 80% of protein consumption) and income for Mekong residents, and also the site of the most intense dam building in the world, to produce the power needed to accelerate development particularly in the countries of Cambodia and Laos, which are among the poorest countries in the world. On the Xe Kong River in Laos, the last undeveloped major tributary in the Mekong River Basin, seven hydropower dam sites are being actively studied and the lowest six are located right in the prime migratory fish spawning habitat of the mainstream river. In Cambodia, the proposed 2600MW Sambor dam could literally kill the Mekong River by creating a complete barrier to migratory fish and sediment that replenishes the Mekong Delta and nourishes the food chain of the Tonle Sap Great Lake. Until recently, it was presumed that this tension between extraordinary natural values and the economic development imperative forced unsustainable courses upon the leaders of these countries. Two new studies of power development alternatives now show that it is possible to have both power and fish.