Mekong dry | along the Mekong | flovision - photography by Florian Christian | flovision

Mekong dry

Dec-2011

Not an unusual sight along the once mighty river Mekong. The river has extreme seasonal variations in flow with massive swelling during rainy season and again receding during dry season, exposing sandbanks and carved bedrock and leaving plains to dry. The natural cycles however have become interrupted and altered permanently by numerous hydropower dams built over the last years, that have changed the patterns of flow, and further dams are planned and being built that will escalate the situation. Fish migration routes are blocked and lack of water held by dams is missing further down, with more regular draughts and lack of sediments carried by the river causing damage for ecosystems, agriculture and fisheries in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Affected are millions of often the poorest people in Southeast Asia, who live off the nutrient rich environment and fisheries sustained by the river. A social and ecological disaster in the making in plain sight.

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