This is a very educated post by a knowledgeable chap on TOF on this issue & the effect of natural ground water (from monsoon rains, etc.) being more important to the Mekong/Tonle Sap than anything coming from the source up north. Opened my eyes a bit, easy to point at the Chinese or others upstream here, but the issue is more complicated. #Whodathunk

[edit: or that guy is a hidden Chinese spy?!!111]

Mekong record low raises hydropower questions
Pratch Rujivanarom
23.09.2019
Future bleak for migratory fish species that sustain millions as Mekong drops to historic rainy season low

An elderly fisherman anchored his small boat to the bank of the Mekong in north-eastern Thailand. Inside lay his morning catch of three fat barbs.

“We can catch plenty of fish,” said Thong-in Wenkham with a thin smile, “It’s easy for us when the water level is low like this.

“I can get up to 2,000 baht (US$65) for this catch. It’s a lot for a poor fisherman like me. But this is not happening every day.”

It was August in the district of Chiang Khan, the height of the rainy season. Yet the river’s level more closely resembled the dry season.

“Abnormal water levels are becoming quite normal, but this year’s extreme is frightening me because it’s troubling the migration of the fish upriver into the tributaries to reproduce,” Thong-in admitted.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental organisation set up to jointly manage water resources, confirmed that the water level in many stretches, including at Chiang Khan, Chiang Sean and Vientiane, had dropped below the historic rainy season low of 1992.

During the worst period in mid July, the water at Chiang Khan was four metres deep instead of the normal 11.

MRC put this down to low rainfall and a reduction in water being discharged from the Jinghong Dam in China’s Yunnan province, as scheduled maintenance work took place in July. Estimates of the amount of river water that reaches Chiang Khan via the dam vary from 10 to 30% of the total. Determining what proportion of the historic low is due to the drought and what proportion the dam is extremely difficult.
Full article: https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/s ... -questions

Officials to meet on Mekong crisis as fishing communities suffer
Mekong River Commission will meet in Phnom Penh as dams and drought take toll on the once-mighty waterway.
by Leonie Kijewski
16 hours ago

Siem Reap, Cambodia - On Cambodia's Tonle Sap, record low water levels have plunged fishing communities into crisis but with warnings of "severe drought", there are concerns the situation will get even worse.

"Every day we can only find about one or two kilogrammes (two or four pounds) of fish, and you can see there are many people in the family," fisherman Lay Non said, explaining that just last year their catch was still coming in at about 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds). "How can we feed everyone?"

While the catches have steadily declined over the past years, the 63-year old said, this year was worse than any year since he started as a fisherman when he was a teenager.

"It's because the water level is lower than in the other years, and the fish only lay egg in the deep water - so the fish doesn't get eggs here any more," he said.

At their floating home in Chong Kneas village, Lay Non's wife Seng Vun pulled out a small bag of rice to feed the seven people in her family.

"You see, this is all we have," she said. "We are fishermen, but now we don't even have fish and have almost nothing to eat," she said.

Every family Al Jazeera spoke to had seen their catch fall to an all-time low this year.

But things are likely to get worse in the coming months. The Mekong River Commission, the inter-governmental agency that oversees the river and its connected waterways, has warned of a "severe drought" between now and January.

"The 2019 drought has brought the Mekong water levels to their lowest points in at least 60 years. Most parts of the basin have been experiencing an exceptionally regionally low flow since June," the MRC, which holds its annual ministerial meeting in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, said in a statement.

Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia programme and author of Last Days of the Mighty Mekong, said the Tonle Sap provided Cambodians with between 60 and 70 percent of their annual protein intake.

"This year, the amount of water flooding into the Tonle Sap was extremely low and fishing communities are already reporting up to 70 percent lower fish catches than this time last year," he said in an email, noting that despite it being monsoon season, which usually turns the Mekong basin into one of the wettest parts of the world, the region had been afflicted by drought conditions over the last six months.

Dam problem
Eyler said that a combination of weather conditions and newly-built dams were the problem.

"Waters from the Mekong mainstream flow backwards up the Tonle Sap River and cause the lake to expand five times its size every year," he said. But this year, he said, the amount of water flowing back was "extremely low".

According to the Stimson Center, there are now 13 active dams along the Mekong, which flows for 4,500 kilometres (2,796 miles) from China through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The latest, the Don Sahong Dam in Laos, started operations just last week.

Environment and water ministers from all countries except China and Myanmar will join the MRC meeting where discussions will include hydrological conditions and the agency's Drought Management Strategy for the next five years.
Full article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/ ... 04119.html

Spigzy wrote: ↑Fri Aug 23, 2019 5:33 pm This is a very educated post by a knowledgeable chap on TOF on this issue & the effect of natural ground water (from monsoon rains, etc.) being more important to the Mekong/Tonle Sap than anything coming from the source up north. Opened my eyes a bit, easy to point at the Chinese or others upstream here, but the issue is more complicated. #Whodathunk

[edit: or that guy is a hidden Chinese spy?!!111]

Yeah Spigz, it is complicated.
Nevertheless it is my understanding that 2/3 of the Tonle Sap flood comes from upstream Mekong.

The disturbance by dams to the flood pulse, the sediment and nutrition flow, and the fish migrations are not significantly mitigated by groundwater or local rains. They just add a bit more volume, but none of the other crucial factors that sustain this living system.
The scientists are pretty unanimous about this. A total disaster.

Throw in Swine flu - and the sand mining and overfishing that has depleted the coastal fisheries.
Lucky Cambodia likes eating bugs. They are going to be the only affordable protein source for most cambodians soon.
Just like in the good old days back in the '70's.

^^
this might sound a bit catastrophist, and possibly it is
but the global/regional price of protein is predicted to go sky high very soon
just at the time 80-90 % of cambodian's own rich local sources disappear
i'm not sure how the average cambodian is going to outbid china in the protein wars

Lucky i like cashews

Can report that fishing catch is down % 20 - 30 in Chhnok Tru(20 km North -West of Kompong Chhnang ) this year .But rodfishing from lakeside still fair to good .5 2 kg + caught in 3 hours last Friday .Bait ,earthworms & bread .

January 2, 2020
Mekong levels to drop as China conducts equipment tests
The Mekong River Commission on Tuesday reported dam equipment tests in China will affect water levels in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos in the middle of this month.

In a press release obtained yesterday, the MRC said the tests are being conducted in China’s Jinghong hydropower station and it will half water levels downstream.

It said the tests will decrease outflow from the dam from 1,200 to 1,400 cubic metres per second to 800 to 1,000 cubic metres per second until Friday.

The MRC said water levels from Jinghong will hit its lowest point of 504 to 800 cubic metres on Saturday, the last day of the testing.

“In Cambodia, water levels along the Mekong river in…Stung Treng, Kratie, Kampong Cham, Phnom Penh, Koh Khel and Neak Luong will drop [by] 0.02 to 0.25 metres from January 15 to 18,” it said.

The MRC said the river in Thailand’s Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai province, which is approximately 300 kilometres away from China’s dam, will experience water level drops of 0.50 metres to one metre until Monday.

It said the river’s stretch in Laos will experience 0.02 to 0.70 metres drops until January 10.

Khem Sothea, MRC secretariat’s river forecasting specialist, in the press release said people living along the river may be affected by the drops in water levels.

“Some local livelihood activities, such as riverweed harvesting may be disrupted,” Mr Sothea said, adding the tests come at a time when Mekong countries are experiencing severe drought.

The MRC said in the news release drought has brought Mekong water levels to its lowest points in the last 60 years. It said most parts of the basin have since June experienced low flow.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50675730/m ... ment-tests

Mekong River: China Pledges to Share Data on Year-Round Flow
RFA
25 Aug 2020, 09:42 GMT+10

China's prime minister assured five of its Mekong neighbors Monday that Beijing would share year-round data on water flows into the river, a pledge welcomed by the Southeast Asian countries that have received information during the rainy season only and are increasingly impacted by drought and upstream dams.

Prime Minister Li Keqiang told a virtual meeting of leaders from Mekong River countries that China had moved cooperation on the river to a "fast track." His announcement followed a report earlier this month from four of the countries that called for increased sharing of information about dams along the waterway.

"We need to take our cooperation in water resources to a new high. The legitimate rights and interests of all countries in developing and utilizing their water resources as appropriate should be fully respected," Li said according to the text of his speech posted by China's state-run Xinhua news agency.

"China is ready to provide more help to the best of its ability for the Mekong countries to make better use of water resources. Starting from this year, China will share Lancang River's hydrological data for the whole year," the prime minister said, using the Chinese name for the river.
https://www.thecambodianews.net/news/26 ... round-flow