China and the Mekong Delta: Water Savior or Water Tyrant?

Blaming the drought on irregular weather, without acknowledging the impacts of upstream dams and climate change, is an act of intentional misinformation

The Mekong Delta in Southeast Asia is facing its worst drought in recent history, causing food and water shortages for over half a million people living along the Mekong River.

photo of Nuozhadu DamPhoto by International Rivers The Nuozhadu dam is the largest dam on the Mekong River.

The Chinese government has made headlines amidst the disaster for its decision to release water from upstream dams on the Mekong that lie within China’s borders.

Chinese ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a news briefing last month that China “hopes it can be of help in alleviating the drought downstream.” The water will be released until mid-April from the Jinghong dam, with the stated purpose to benefit the lower Mekong delta nations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Originating in the remote Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong flows 3,000 miles through China’s Yunnan province, northeast Myanmar, and parts of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia before merging with the South China Sea in southern Vietnam. The river has the world’s most productive inland fishery and is a major source of livelihood for millions of people.

The Chinese ministry and media blame El Niño weather for the massive drought that has damaged 160,000 hectares of rice paddies in the Mekong Delta, left 600,000 people facing drinking water shortages, and will result in losses up to $2 million. But Vietnamese officials say while El Nino is partly to blame, the real cause of the water shortage is excessive construction of more than 10 hydropower dams on the upper stream of the river.

Little reporting on the issue has linked the drought to the dams, despite such comments by Vietnamese officials. Mekong River conservationists, on the other hand, have been quick to draw connections. Niwat Roykaew, chair of Chiang Khong Conservation Group, believes the drought is caused by the six major man-made reservoirs on the upstream portion of the Mekong that lie within China’s borders.

“The Mekong River has a cycle. Rainwater in the monsoon season refreshes the snowpack and raises water levels,” Roykaew said. “Snow melts in the dry season when the water levels are low. We don’t need more water from dams in the dry season. We need to sustain the natural circle that feeds the ecosystems and our livelihoods.”.

Drought in the Mekong Delta is nothing new. In 2010, a similar buzz was generated when the Mekong was facing it’s then worst-drought-in-history. Back then, China had just begun a campaign to counter the perception that its dams were hijacking the Mekong’s water. At several news conferences, they made their case that the drought is purely a natural phenomenon.

China has good political reason to turn blame away from its dams. In an aggressive game of water diplomacy, China has gained enormous leverage over downstream countries by taking control over their primary water sources.

Geostrategist Brahma Chellaney describes how China could use its leverage to deter downstream countries from challenging its broader regional interests. “Smaller downriver countries in Southeast and Central Asia now use only coded language to express their concerns over Chinese dam building,” he says. “For example, calling for transparency has become a way of referring obliquely to China, which smaller states are wary of mentioning by name.”

An analysis of Mekong water levels from 2014-2016 done by the Mekong River Commission — an advisory body formed in 1995 by the four lower Mekong countries to promote sustainable development in the Lower Mekong Basin — shows water levels consistently increase from the beginning of February to the middle of March. This period is usually a rainy season and not usually a time of drought for this delta region. The analysis also shows that the Mekong water level started at 1,000 cubic meters per second in early March, and shot up to 2,000 cubic meters per second in two weeks. Under these conditions, operators of the upstream dams would need to release water to prevent overflowing or damage to the dams, regardless of downstream drought. Which means that China had to release this water anyway and is touting what is basically a regular release as a magnanimous gesture towards the lower Mekong nations.

Aside from leveraging control over downstream countries, China also has support for its own projects to gain from its efforts at water diplomacy. With its fingers spread across national boundaries, China is investing heavily in hydropower projects slated for construction along the lower Mekong. These projects threaten to greatly compound the impacts already being felt from upper Mekong dams within China. As the furthest downstream country, Vietnam, stands to bear a significant brunt of the impacts of these dams.

Blaming the drought on irregular weather, without acknowledging the impacts of either dams or climate change, is an act of intentional misinformation.

Since China began damming the Mekong and its upstream tributaries in the early 1990s, scientists predicted the kinds of droughts we’re seeing today. Several scientific studies now link extensive silt retention behind upstream dams to the drying up of Asia’s big deltas.

The fall in freshwater disgorged by rivers into the seas also increases water salinity in estuaries and rice paddies, endangering freshwater species and the livelihoods of rice farmers. According to the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Asian delta regions have become “much more vulnerable” to the effects of climate change and sea-level rise.

Meanwhile, major headlines such as “China to release water from dam to alleviate SE Asia drought” give the impression of China as a benevolent water savior to the region it has dammed. If China is concerned for the well-being of the quickly drying Mekong delta, and the millions of people and animal species that inhabit it, it should take lessons learned from these historical droughts into consideration before going ahead with current plans to build further dam cascades along the Mekong and its tributaries.

Get the Journal in your inbox.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

You Make Our Work Possible

You Make Our Work Possible

We don’t have a paywall because, as a nonprofit publication, our mission is to inform, educate and inspire action to protect our living world. Which is why we rely on readers like you for support. If you believe in the work we do, please consider making a tax-deductible year-end donation to our Green Journalism Fund.

Donate
Get the Journal in your inbox.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The Latest

Land and Love in Melbourne

An Australian referendum to provide a political voice for First Peoples may have failed, but the push will continue.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis

A Canadian Corporation is Poisoning My Argentinian Community

We, the people of Jáchal, are fighting for the right to safe and clean water.

Saúl Zeballos

Climate Comedy Works. Here’s Why.

We all need some refreshing levity nowadays – especially during this politically heavy year.

Maxwell Boykoff Beth Osnes

Court Halts US Effort to Monitor Crypto Mining Energy Use

New requirement would cause 'irreparable injury' to industry amid surging electricity usage, federal judge rules.

Oliver Milman The Guardian

Saving the Bears of Abruzzo

In Italy, efforts to build a viable population of Marsican brown bears are underway.

Monique Gadella

River Guardians

Grassroots groups have taken it upon themselves to protect waterways in the southeastern US — and elsewhere around the world.

Melba Newsome Photographs by Madeline Gray