Background
- Introduction
- The Mekong under Threat
- Oxfam in East Asia
THE MEKONG UNDER THREAT
The Mekong is the world's 10th largest river. Rising on the Tibetan plateau and passing through six countries, the Mekong defines Oxfam's work in East Asia. Today, the river's life-sustaining resources are being stretched beyond their limits.
Currently, the Mekong’s resources are being jeopardized by a number of factors:
- Rapid population growth—The population of the Lower Mekong Basin is expected to grow from the current 55 million to 90 million in 2025. As people demand higher yields from land, fisheries, and forests, they are inclined to turn to unsustainable farming and fishing techniques, including the use of dangerous pesticides and illegal fishing gear.
- Economic recovery—As larger economies in the region have recovered from the Asian financial crisis, the need for natural resources in the region has grown as well. This need has increased the demand for hydropower and logging.
- Excessive commercial activity—Large-scale logging, mining, and fishing operations are depleting resources at an unsustainable rate. Governments in the Mekong region permit and even welcome such operations to generate much-needed income.
- Aggressive infrastructure development—The erection of dams, expansion or re-direction of waterways, and other large-scale river development projects can affect people miles and even countries away. In the next decade, China alone has 22 dams slated to be built—the effects of which will ripple down the Mekong in the form of erosion, depleted fish stocks, erratic water fluctuation, pollution, and other problems.