Flood Warning as China Opens Floodgates on Mekong River Dams
Villagers living near the Mekong River in Chiang Rai Thailand and Laos are finding it difficult to cope with sudden releases of water from dams upstream in China.
More than 200 families living in Laos’ Bokeo province have suffered because of sudden increases in the height of the river, threatening their livelihoods.
“Water levels along the Mekong have increased enormously after China released water from their dams in the north. It causes flooding,” said a local official from Bokeo in an interview with RFA’s Lao Service.
“Local people are then unable to fish, and seaweed that they have been raising for food or income gets destroyed or otherwise disappears because the water current is abnormally strong,” the official said.
