Sambor mega-dam threatens local populations along the Mekong

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Sambor mega-dam threatens local populations along the Mekong

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Planned Mega-Dam Threatens Fish Populations and Food Security in Cambodia
By Sabrina Gyorvary
The livelihoods and cultures of 60 million people in the lower Mekong Basin are intimately connected with the Mekong River's natural cycles. Boasting one of the world's most diverse and productive inland fisheries, the Mekong supplies people in the region with approximately 80 percent of their protein needs. For families living on the margin, the river is an invaluable source of both protein and income.

The dams that clogged rivers in the American west in the twentieth century decimated salmon populations, blocking their access to traditional spawning grounds. Now it looks like the same sort of catastrophe is headed for the Mekong, but on an even larger scale. The Sambor Dam alone would block major fish migrations between Southern Laos and Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, destroy critical deep pool fish habitats, and interrupt the river's hydrological, sediment, and nutrient cycles, impacting the river's wider ecology.

This would be devastating to Cambodia food security. The country's per capita consumption of inland fish is among the highest in the world and its people depend on fish for nearly three-quarters of their protein intake. According to one estimate, Cambodian fishers pull between 289,000 to 431,000 tons from the Mekong every year.

And impacts would extend beyond those to fish. In addition to providing Cambodia's main source of protein, the Mekong supplies water for the cultivation of rice in an area where irrigated land is scarce. "We can grow rice even in the dry season by pumping water from the river to our rice paddies," [local resident] Puleau explained. "The river is absolutely essential to us."
Full article: https://www.ecowatch.com/cambodia-sambo ... 35128.html
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SmartAston Martin
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Re: Sambor mega-dam threatens local populations along the Mekong

Post by SmartAston Martin »

Danger, danger. Two-edged sword here.

It's a terrible sacrifice people have to make, it's true.

And large fish habitats will be destroyed, then later, built up again. Could be 20 years they say?

Anyhow, every and any major power has had to make these changes. Yellow River, Lake Powell, you name it.

Stable, *clean* power. Self-reliant energy source, too.

Asia is finally coming online. Missing link: Cambodia.
Melvin Udall: Never, never, interrupt me, okay?

Not if there's a fire, not even if you hear the sound of a thud from my home and one week later there's a smell coming from there that can only be a decaying human body and you have to hold a hanky to your face because the stench is so thick that you think you're going to faint.

Even then, don't come knocking...Not for ANY reason.
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Re: Sambor mega-dam threatens local populations along the Mekong

Post by Username Taken »

My in-laws live about halfway between PP and Kpg Cham adjacent to the Mekong river. Every year for 3 or 4 weeks in October the entire area is flooded. The water isn't stagnant it is running as it's part of the Mekong flood plain. Looking out the back of their place it's like an inland sea extending to the horizon. This happens every year since forever. This natural process washes away all the waste and brings along nutrients to keep the plains fertile for the year ahead.

Alas, the flooding of the plains stopped three years ago! What does that mean for the future of areas like this?
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