Dam disaster on the way
It is now early on in the rainy season and the water volume on the Mekong River should have been high. But water levels on certain stretches of the international river, which runs from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, have reached their lowest points for 57 years.
While this year’s dearth of rain partly explains the sharp drop in water volume, man-made factors — dams built on the river in China and Laos — must also take the blame for stopping water from flowing freely along the river.
The latest rapid decrease of water in the Mekong shows how the cascade dams on the river have exacerbated the impacts of the changing climate on people and the river’s ecology. But worse is yet to come.
