China starts up 12th Mekong dam despite hit to S-E Asia farms, fisheries

The dams are said to worsen droughts in downstream states, damage ecosystem

- Lim Min Zhang

BEIJING China has continued building dams in its half of the Mekong River despite the negative impact such hydropower projects have on downstream farms, fisheries and other biodiversity which provide livelihoods to people in South-east Asian countries.

Satellite images show that China has quietly begun to operate the 12th dam on the Lancang - as the Mekong River is called in China since February, five years after construction started on the 20 billion yuan (S$3.8 billion) project.

Tuoba Dam is owned by Yunnan Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower, a subsidiary of the state-owned energy giant China Huaneng Group. It is located in the Wisi Lisu autonomous county of Diqing prefecture in Yunnan, in the upper half of the Lancang.

China whose appetite for energy has grown much over the past decades views the development of dams as crucial to its renewable energy goals, which include becoming carbon-neutral by 2060.

The geography of the Lancang River, with steep valleys and a sparse population in the upper reaches, lends itself to the building of hydropower plants and reservoirs.

The first dam on the Lancang was completed in 1995. Another eight have been planned for the Lancang after Tuoba.

Chinese dams are said to worsen droughts in South-east Asian countries and damaging the ecosystem along the river, which fishermen, farmers, migratory birds and hundreds of fish species and plants depend on.