Cambodia 'most exposed' to dams threat
 |
| Men retrieve fish from a tank on their boat yesterday on the Tonle Sap river. The pair act as middlemen, buying fish from fishermen along the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers and selling them in the capital. (Photo by: Sovan Philong) |
Will Baxter
The Phnom Penh Post
Cambodia will have a difficult time coping with the enormous loss of fish and fisheries-based livelihoods if a proposed set of hydropower dams is constructed on the lower Mekong River – according to a recently released impact study, even if it adheres to expert recommendations.
According to the strategic environmental assessment authorised by the Mekong River Commission and released last month, “Cambodia is the country most exposed to fish losses” among the MRC’s member countries, which also include Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The document says “more than 1 million fisheries-dependent people could lose their livelihoods” in Cambodia due to impacts from mainstream Mekong dams, and that the country would have difficulty generating alternative protein sources to make up for the loss of an estimated 300,000 tonnes of fish per year.
“The implications of these [fish] losses could be severe for many fishery-dependent families and for the whole food security of Cambodia, since more than 50 percent of all protein consumed in the country are from Mekong fish,” said Eric Baran, senior research scientist at the WorldFish Centre in Cambodia, a key consultant on the environmental assessment.
