Role of China Dams At Issue In Severe Drought in Mekong River Basin

Government officials and environmentalists in Southeast Asia are questioning whether a network of Chinese dams along the Mekong River and its tributaries is exacerbating a prolonged drought and contributing to the sharpest drop in water levels along the Mekong River in decades. Meeting in Thailand to discuss the impact of the drought on the Mekong River basin, officials from Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia asked the Chinese government to supply more information about the change in water flows caused by eight dams that China has built, or is currently building, along the Mekong. Song Tao, a Chinese vice foreign minister, said a regional drought, not China’s hydroelectric power dams, is responsible for the drop in water levels along the Mekong. But some officials and environmentalists contend that China’s Mekong dams — particularly the Xiaowan dam, China’s second-largest, which began storing water last October — have worsened the drought along the Mekong, an important source of water and fisheries for 65 million people in Southeast Asia. Song vowed that China would release more information about the dams’ impact on water flows. He also noted that southwestern China is suffering from its worst drought in 80 years, creating water shortages for 24 million people and causing agricultural losses of $3.5 billion.