I think it's safe to say that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and I have very little in common. But, for a brief moment on March 29 when our paths crossed at the Phnom Penh Airport, we were on the same wavelength. I was coming from a trip up the Mekong to Khone Falls. Mr. Sen was going to Ventiane to determine the fate of Khone Falls. I had spent the previous week traveling up the Mekong River with aquatic ecologist Zeb Hogan who's on a mission to document the world's megafish. A megafish is any freshwater fish that grows to at least 6.5 feet in length or more then 220 pounds.
We were searching for giant fresh water stingray, and Zeb had heard rumors of a monster near Khone Falls. We spent the week talking to local fishermen and sitting around drinking lukewarm beer waiting for them to call with news of a ray. They didn't, which is not that surprising. Stingrays are very difficult to catch and are rare - technically, they are listed as vulnerable. The Mekong and the stretch just below Khone Falls in particular, is home to more megafish then any other river in the world. Along with stingray, the list includes the Mekong Giant Catfish (critically endangered) and Irrawaddy Dolphin (critically endangered). Life for these rare fish doesn't look to be getting any easier if Laos builds the Don Sahong Dam at Khone Falls, only two kilometers from the Cambodian border. That is bad news for fish living below the falls, and for Cambodians who get two thirds of their protein from fish caught in the Mekong and its tributaries, as well as relying on the river's annual floods to fertilize their fields with nutrient rich sediment. This, presumably, is why Hun Sen was on his way to Ventiane.
The Mekong River starts high in the Tibetan plateau, and makes its way through 6 countries, over a course of more then 3,000 miles. It is the 11th longest river in the world and approximately 90 million people rely on it. One of those is Sok Long, a fisherman we spoke with who lives with his family just north of Kratie not far from a dolphin pool. He is a reserved, serious man with a beautiful wife, a young daughter with wide toothy smile, and an even younger son who followed his daddy everywhere he went, and will no doubt be a fine fisherman himself when he gets older, assuming there are still fish in the river.
China has already built 6 dams on the upper Mekong, and it has resulted in depleted fish stocks and lower water levels below the dams. The Don Sahong Dam could prove particularly harmful to fish stocks in Cambodia because 87% of fish species in the Mekong, whose behavior is known, are migratory, according to The Worldfish Center. The Don Sahong Dam would prevent those fish from completing their lifecycles. The dam would almost certainly reduce water levels below it affecting Tonle Sap river and Lake, tributaries of the Mekong, which supports nearly half of Cambodia's 13 million citizens.
There is no doubt that Cambodia and its neighbors need affordable energy, but at what cost? The Don Sahong Dam is just one of many more dams planned for the lower Mekong. Another in the planning stage is the Sambor Dam to be built just above one of the last remaining Irrawaddy Dolphin pools, and Sok Long's home. The dolphins almost certainly would not survive the dam. As for Sok Long and his family, I wonder what will happen to them.
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