Upstream Dams, Downstream Trouble

As examples, Laos broke ground on a new Mekong River dam that’s causing concern bordering on fury in Cambodia and Vietnam. India is enraged about a new Chinese dam going up on the Brahmaputra River. And Ethiopia’s new dam on the Nile is angering Sudan, while Egypt has threatened war. … Perhaps the most egregious example is Laos, which broke ground on a new hydroelectric dam on the Mekong late last year – ignoring the howls of complaint from downstream. Just south in Cambodia, for example, the Mekong provides the livelihood for much of the population because of an unusual natural phenomenon. Cambodia’s Tonle Sap River is a Mekong tributary that flows southeast from a lake of the same name. Each spring, the Mekong swells, and its current grows so strong that it forces the Tonle Sap River to reverse course, carrying tons of rich, fertile mud and millions of young fish back up to the lake. the lake floods, depositing new, rich soil on thousands of acres around its perimeter. the fish provide meals for Cambodians through the year. By potentially restricting the river’s flow, the Laotian dam threatens all of that. …

http://www.hydroworld.com/news/2013/03/12/upstream-dams-downstream-trouble.html