Damming The Mekong

Damming the Mekong

Damming the Mekong is a problem that will affect most of south-east Asia, and Australia in big way. I am apposing this idea, because it will lead other countries such as Laos in severe poverty, as there will be near to no water supply running through the country.

In southern china it has been noted that most places suffer from power shortages, this hydroelectric dam was going to be an opportunity for china to increase its living conditions, and well being across most of southern china. After china completed its first dam on the Mekong, the 1500 megawatt (MW) Manwan dam, it realized that it could make an eight dam cascade. This idea was first proposed in the seventies, and it is calculated that with completion of these dams, it would see more than 68,000 people evicted and 6,500 hectares of farm land destroyed.

China is obviously hoping to bring big businesses to its land in southern china, as in 1988, after china had built its Etan dam, it could only sell 60 percent of the power generated. This was stated by Liu Junfeng, "Liu Junfeng, the general manager of the Ertan Hydropower Development Corporation, admitted that he could only sell 60 per cent of the electricity generated by the dam, due to a glut of electricity in Sichuan province. A second, more serious problem is that electricity generated by smaller power plants is cheaper." By making southern china a power house, it will allow for other countries such as Australia, to move big businesses into southern china, to take advantage of the cheap rates.

Damming the Mekong will also bring southern china a suitable plumbing network. Allowing areas of southern china to become modernized and quickly brought into a westernized way of living and thinking. It will eventually produce modern housing which will electricity lines and plumbing; this will also promote other countries to build their businesses in this area.

Another reason why china wants to build these dams is because the Chinese development is through the roof at the current time, and will need to have land ready and waiting to be built on, so that they waste no time on waiting for development to take place.

Wildlife considerations also have to be taken into the picture, as reducing the river flow will result in major changes to the eco-system. One of the major concerns is the flora that is abundant in the area in question, as once the river flow is reduced, surrounding streams and reservoirs will become dry. This will lead to forests dying from thirst. A specific example of a forest that would be damaged from this act is the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest. After this forest has been cleared it will unleash a spiral of adverse effects on the surrounding eco-system. One concern is that the dying plants will release so much CO2 that it will cause a greenhouse effect on the atmosphere, severely contributing to the issue of global warming. Another more supported concern is that the wildlife will be forced to migrate or perish, due to lack of vegetation. If all the animals migrate into the deep forest then it will see more competition

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