07/07/2016
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 21, and a new convention on global climate change, are opportunities that allow GMS countries to double their efforts in protecting Southeast Asia’s rice fields.
GMS countries, located in one of the most vulnerable regions in the world due to the impact of global climate change, have seen droughts reduce the quantity of fish in Tonlé Sap lake - causing a decline of one-third of the protein supply for 15 million Cambodian people. Productive rice fields in the Cuu Long River Delta Region are also being threatened by rising sea levels, floods and storms, along with other difficult weather conditions.
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| The construction of Xayaburi hydropower plant on Mekong River’s mainstream has caused a lot of environmental consequences |
The impact of climate change can be multiplied by the construction of unsustainable hydropower plants. Dozens of dams have been built along the Mekong River and its branches. Xayaburi and Don Sahong - two of the controversial dams - are being built in Laos, while other dam projects are being discussed. This is an increasing problem because the development of hydropower plants has caused a significant effect on the environment. Once completed, the dams will block fish from moving between areas and reduce the largest quantity of fish caught in the Mekong River, having negative effects on regional food security. Further, rice production may face similar impacts, as nutrition and alluvial sediment are held back at the dams.
Therefore, it is easy to see that the development of hydropower plants will generate issues in food security and cause a depression in the ecosystem, possibly causing local residents to lose their livelihoods, and enhance the impact of climate change. In order to co-ordinate with the climate change agreement, regional countries must consider better solutions, such as solar and wind energy - which are always available and become less expensive - along with reforestation projects.
More seriously, recent research has shown that large hydropower dams have increased climate change impacts for reasons, including the dams weakening the natural river flow, which works as a tank to eliminate some 200 million tons of carbon gas in the air every year, and produces methane, a green-house gas generated from rotten vegetation found at the bottom of rivers, which is 34 times stronger than carbon gas. These dams also reduce the chance that people in the Cuu Long River region are able to earn a living, and erode the coast, making the river’s delta region more vulnerable to increasing climate change impacts caused by rising sea levels, as well as stronger and more frequent storms.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is now the organization in charge of related issues, which works to push co-operation between nations in the region on sustainable development of the Mekong River. At the recent meeting held in Phnom Penh, ministers of natural resources and environment from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Việt Nam discussed challenges that had earlier prevented them from coming together. The Mekong Agreement, a foundation for the establishment of the Commission, was signed 20 years ago when most regional Governments were not aware of the importance of climate change. However, major decisions involved in the regional co-operation have shown their weaknesses. MRC has not resolved rising challenges, such as the damage of natural fishery production, as well as the shrinking and downsizing of the delta region due to conflicts in procedures and regulations on the impact on the downstream river caused by major dams. All of these, connected with increasing climate change impacts, will generate serious irreversible consequences for the delta region.
In spite of being a priceless regional accord, the Mekong Agreement needs changing to match with new movements of the 21th century. However, there is another appropriate solution, which is the UN Watercourses Convention (UNWC). On May 19, 2014, Vietnam approved the UNWC and became the 35th member of the Convention. UNWC is an agreement which sets up rules between members in managing cross-border water resources.
Being approved by the UN in 1997, the UNWC provides basic rules and best practices in the world’s legal system on water resources in written documents to strengthen current river-related conventions, such as the Mekong Agreement, without replacing them. None of the Convention’s items disables nor conflicts with those of the Mekong Agreement.
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| Mekong catfish is endangered due to dam construction and over-harvesting |
So what extra values does UNWC add to the existing MRC? First, UNWC provides a clear mechanism and instruction to settle disputes, which is a major weakness of MRC. Secondly, the Convention helps clarify rules and procedures, which are vaguely described, causing confusion in explanations and worsening the relationship between MRC members, especially in discussions on hydropower dams and their impacts on the downstream area. Unlike the Mekong Agreement, UNWC applies equal principles for all dams built in the mainstream and branches, and helps seal the conflict between nations in the Mekong Agreement. By promoting the Mekong Agreement to the international level, UNWC has raised the members’ accountability for complying with the Agreement, without making too many changes.
The approval of UNWC made by Laos, Cambodia and Thailand does not mean these countries will give up unsustainable projects, but instead will improve the quality of the action and ease the conflicts between nations, forcing them to consider their benefits and other energy solutions based on available best options.
At the COP 21 in Paris, governments finally reached an agreement to confront climate change. MRC’s ministers also need to develop a solution for those issues related to air and water, and should have a long-term vision beyond the nations’ narrow interests to see that building dams along the river is not the best way to lead to a bright future with a secured environment for 60 million residents in the Mekong River region.
Marc Goichot
WWF’s Advisor on Water and Energy Security
At The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
