Mekong Dams a Long-Term Risk to Food Security
The momentum toward large-scale dams on the Mekong River may be unstoppable, but governments must work fast to mitigate their effects on fisheries and biodiversity or risk long-term food insecurity for millions of people whose lives depend on the river and its tributaries, leading academics said at a conference in Phnom Penh on Monday. The conference, organized by the Cambodia Development Research Institute, the U.N. Development Program and the Stockholm International Water Institute brought together academics, NGOs and government officials to highlight the fish production challenges Cambodia and Vietnam will face as upstream dams block migratory fish populations and dramatically reduce fish stocks. … It has long been decided by the governments of the Southeast Asian countries lying along the Mekong River that damming the 4,400-km waterway for hydropower is the best way to meet increased electricity demands, with 11 major dams planned on the Lower Mekong alone, including seven in Laos and two in Cambodia. But swift and effective policy responses are needed if Cambodia and other dam-building countries are to offset the imminent risks of those goals. “Normally, governments take environmental impact assessments. However, they normally don’t take account of specific supplies and nutrition lost in its cost-benefit analysis,” said James Pittock, senior lecturer at the Australia National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society, whose research examines the loss of protein in Cambodian diets that depleted fish stocks would incur, since protein is more difficult to replace than calories. “Cambodia will need to replace 340,000 tons of lost fish protein [yearly] as a result of the 11 planned upstream dams…. So what is the answer to loss of protein?” Mr. Pittock asked. …
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mekong-dams-a-long-term%E2%80%88risk-to-food-security-48415/
