Before dawn, monks walk the streets of Luang Prabang in Laos collecting alms. The Mekong gently meanders in the darkness. The river is a peaceful but powerful force here.
A heavy mist hangs over the water long after the sun has risen. It is late morning before it burns away at this time of year, in the milder heat of winter. Life is generally slow in northern Laos, but the river always stirs, with a fisherman’s net or a boatman’s call. And it always flows, its natural rhythms for millenia shaping the land and its people.
But roles have now reversed. Now man holds reign. And there is something wrong with the Mekong. The Mother of Water’ as this great river is known throughout the regions it passes, is sick.
As hydropower dam projects come online, at the same time as the effects of climate change start to manifest, the Mekong’s even flow has been disrupted. River levels are fast changing as water is stored and released. Dry and wet seasons have become confused. Fish breeding is irregular and passage has become problematic as water levels drop to record lows.
The Mekong is defined by its colour – a deep ochre that reflects the life-giving sediment that feeds its fauna and enriches the soils that countless communities depend upon. At present, in parts, even that has changed.
With the region’s largest hydropower operation – the Xayaburi dam – now operating, another major project planned on the mainstream of the river in Laos within years, and others on the way in the Mekong’s tributaries, experts believe the river’s future has never been more at risk.
For the past year, the Mekong River’s ecosystem has been treated badly all the time. If we talk in boxing terms, it has faced a lot of jab punches, but the issue of clear water in the Mekong is the knockout, said Montri Chantawong, who has spent 15 years studying the river and is currently researching health issues caused by changes in the river for public health agency, the ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation.
For many in Laos – and some neighbouring countries – hydropower has brought prosperity and potential. The country with ambitions to be the battery of Southeast Asia is seizing its most abundant resource and transforming the lives of its people, who have long been isolated and impoverished.
At the same time, the projects bring worries, because the knock-on environmental effects are being felt, hard and fast.
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