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East Asia
The Mekong River: Prospects and Dangers by Dr. John C. Walsh The River The Mekong River rises in the mountainous plateau of Tibet. It drops precipitously as it passes through the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, where it is known as the Turbulent River, among other names. It then turns to the southwest just after passing through the city of Jinghong. It forms the border between Laos and Burma (Myanmar) and joins with Thailand at the junction where three nations meet in the region that has become known as the Golden Triangle. From there, it passes for a period wholly within Laos, where the ancient and holy city of Louang Phrabang was built on its banks as the centre of the state of Lan Xang – the Land of a Million Elephants. After Louang Phrabang, the Mekong then goes on to form the boundary between Laos and Thailand for hundreds of kilometers. It is very difficult to monitor people and goods moving across the river because of its length and because of the difficult terrain along its course. Smuggling is quite possible here, although in recent years better co-operation between Laos and Thailand has started to reduce this. After 1945, when France tried to re-establish its colonial holdings in what was known as Indochina, Vietnamese refugees fled by swimming across the Mekong and fleeing to Thailand. On some occasions, it is said, ‘the Mekong River ran red with blood.’ The Mekong River passes through Vientiane, the modern capital of Laos and also through the falls at Paksé which are so severe as to prevent transportation of goods by boat. Many schemes to bring wealth and economic development to the people of the Mekong have foundered, sometimes quite literally, on the falls and the rapids along the river. The river then passes through the southern tip of Laos before coming to form the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. It passes through the second capital city built on its banks, that of Phnom Penh. Finally, it emerges into the ocean through a delta with numerous channels in southern Vietnam, which is the seventh country with territory along which the river runs. In terms of water volume, it is the sixth largest river in the world. It is the longest river in Southeast Asia and the tenth longest in the world. Millions of people are dependent upon the river for protein, irrigation and livelihood. It has been estimated that approximately 600-870,000 tonnes of fish are caught annually and this is vital for the 50 million people who live along the banks, many of whom remain in poverty, particularly in Laos and Cambodia. These people are particularly vulnerable to the major problems facing the Mekong today, which include not just general environmental degradation but the creation of dams and the blasting of rapids to increase the tonnage of ships used to conduct trade along the river. Annually, at Chiang Rai in the very north of Thailand, fishermen hold a hunt for the giant catfish that are unique to the river. The number of fish caught has plummeted in recent years and there are now calls for the event to be cancelled indefinitely. Economic Development There have been many attempts to try to create a Mekong River Commission or similar multi-state organisation intended to facilitate economic development for the people of the region. The first of these was the formation of the Mekong Committee in 1957. Yet few positive results have been obtained from these organisations. The countries of the region have had very different and very antithetical forms of government and also very secretive regimes. These factors have made communication very difficult and, even when agreement of a sort has been possible, there has been a distinct lack of infrastructure to bring plans to material fruition. One additional problem has been the very low level of public consultation involved in the process of decision-making. None of the governments in the region has a reputation for listening to its people and there is no tradition of public debate or of taking into account the views of what are considered to be ‘little people.’ As a result, when plans for economic development are brought to the region, it has generally been the case that external people have inflicted decisions upon the local people, ignored their traditional wisdom and, as a result, have engaged in some projects that have led to unanticipated and in some cases disastrous outcomes for the local people. The building of dams such as the famous Pak Moon Dam is one example of this. The projected and actual dams being built in Yunnan Province are other examples. Downstream governments and organisations have attempted to complain about these construction projects but the Chinese have maintained that as the river is passing through their territory, it is their resource to do with as they please. They have been supported in this argument by the decision of the Asian Development Bank, for example, which has supported the move. The Bank is currently involved with organising a high level forum in July, 2005, at which discussions will be focused on ways in which the private sector should be involved in the development of the Mekong River. Who Benefits? One of the problems with economic development is that the benefits and costs are not or, at least, not often, equitably distributed. For villagers asked to move away from their family homes and take up a completely different lifestyle for the sake of building a new dam or hydroelectric station, the psychic strain may be much higher than the actual economic cost associated with the change. It is very difficult for any kind of research or assessment to take these human factors into account and few attempt to do so. Until societies learn to value the opinions of the people, no matter how lowly or ignorant they may appear to be to the ruling elites, then economic development will continue to be associated with maldevelopment. I mentioned in the introduction to this article the southern Chinese town of Jinghong. This town has received the benefits of economic development and the creation of a tourism industry. Some have benefited from this, while others deplore the growth in pollution, sex worker industry and the destruction of traditional values and ways of life that have left others bereft. References and Further Reading Asian Development Bank, "2nd Mekong Development Forum," downloaded from: http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2005/2nd-Mekong-Development-Forum/default.asp Borton, James, "Fund Banks on Mekong Region’s Success," The Asia Times (July 2nd, 2003), downloaded from: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EG02Ae02.html Lerdsak Kamkongsak and Margie Law, "Laying Waste to the Land: Thailand’s Khong-Chi-Mun Irrigation Project," Watershed, Vol.6, No.3 (March-June, 2001), pp.25-35. Mingsarn Kaosa-ard, Kobkun Rayanakorn, Gerard Cheong, Suzanne White, Craig A. Johnson and Pinida Kongsiri, Towards Public Participation in Mekong River Basin Development (Bangkok: Thailand Development Research Institution Foundation, 1998). Osborne, Milton, Mekong (Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 2001). John Walsh, Shinawatra International University, June 2005. Blog: http://jcwalsh.bravejournal.com
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