How to know the best facts on Mekong River Dam

It's no surprise that Southeast Asia is blessed with a huge number of rivers. Those who live by these rivers earn their living thanks to these rivers, and the case is the same when it comes to the Mekong River as well. It's the longest river in Southeast Asia, and this article discusses the Mekong River and its dams.

                                                         Img by: Jakub Hałun via Wikimedia Commons

The river

The facts that it's the longest river in Southeast Asia and the seventh longest in Asia are some things that you must be already knowing. But did you know that it's the twelfth longest river in this whole world? Yes, it is! Starting from the Tibetan Plateau, it flows through the countries of China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Finally, it marks its end to the South China Sea.

Exploring the beauty of the river

There's a whole lot of culture to be explored in the Mekong River. If you get lucky enough to book a Luang Prabang cruise offered by trusted agents, the likes of Mekong Kingdoms you can explore every detail about the river and its dams while also enjoying its priceless beauty. This is also a great way to understand the lives lead by the locals around the river, and how joyful and awful (at the same time) their everyday lives are.

Damming the river

Although damming the main stem of the river was attempted by many from the 1960s, it was in the 1990s that China did it first. But experts say that the need for dams in the Mekong today is greater than ever before, because of the hydropower potential the river has. Generating electricity in Cambodia and Laos has already become a problem, and whatsoever the solution suggested, the Mekong River is somehow related to it.

Mekong River Commission (MRC)

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is believed to be the main party responsible for dam construction. There are 4 member nations in this, namely Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. It's also funded by many other international development agencies.

The Xiaowan Dam

It's the sixth tallest dam in the world. How can it not be when it's 958 feet tall? This dam was completed in the year of 2010, however, displaced around 40,000 people. But, on a positive note, this dam generates power to most of the major cities and industries around it.

People who live by this river

Just as how you would expect it to be, the majority of people who live along the Mekong River are engaged in agriculture and fishing. When it comes to agriculture, rice is their main crop and their cultivations are mostly located in the delta and on the Khorat Plateau. Because of the construction of dams that have already happened, and the ones that will happen in the future, it's surely these people who will suffer the most. They often have issues with the compensations that they are getting, and they are regularly upset over these matters.

Dams and the fishing industry

Another industry, in addition to the cultivation industry, that gets severely affected by the dam construction is the fishing industry. Although the Xayaburi dam has not yet affected the fishing industry based upon the rivers such as Tonle Sap yet, experts believe that the upcoming ones, may, however, create a hindrance especially for the migration process of the fish. They also pay a greater focus on the hindrance that happens to the habitat of Irrawaddy dolphins which is considered as an already threatened species with not more than a hundred in the Mekong.