Mekong dams disastrous for Cambodia's food security

The construction of dams in the Mekong has major implications for Cambodia's food security, nutrition and health.

A study by the Cambodian Fisheries Administration (FiA), funded by the Danish development organization Danida, Oxfam and WWF, shows that the combined effects of dam construction and population growth have reduced fish consumption from 49 kilograms per person per year to a measly 22 kilograms by 2030, which is disastrous because the Cambodian population depends on fish for three-quarters of its protein intake.

The bad news about the effect of dams is not new. Various reports have already referred to the consequences for fish stocks. But the FiA's study is different for three reasons, writes Ame Trandem, Southeast Asia director at International Rivers, in Bangkok Post.

• Twelve hundred Cambodian families were surveyed about their diet and fish consumption.
• High-resolution hydrological models have been used to estimate future fish catches and the response of fish to habitat fragmentation and changes in hydrology.
• Trends have been measured in the fish supply from aquaculture, the use of small fish as fish feed and the import and export of fish.

“Given the stakes,” writes Trandem, “regional leaders and people who depend on the river must come together to address this dangerous link between dams, fish and food before it is too late. '

And perhaps it already is. Laos has begun preparatory work on the Don Sahong dam, which will form an impassable barrier to fish migration during the dry season, and Cambodia is already preparing land for the construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam at the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers. A 2012 study showed that this dam alone will reduce fish catches across the entire river basin by 9 percent.

To see how wrong things can go, the region need only look at Vietnam. The Song Thanh dam has caused a number of earthquakes, destroying villages and scaring the population. The Dak Mi 4 dam has cut off the water supply to Da Nang, Vietnam's third largest city. Some dams have collapsed.

The Vietnamese government has now decided to scrap numerous projects and the National Assembly has declared that hydropower and its consequences are priority issues in 2014.

(Source: Bangkok Post, October 7, 2013)