UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Saving the Mekong [Bangkok, 19 February 2020]

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19.00 - 21.00, Wednesday, 19th February 2020 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Will the “mighty Mekong” be the first of the planet’s great rivers to be destroyed by development?

Dramatic changes to the Mekong’s water flow, caused by dozens of dams built over the past 30 years on its upstream reaches in China, Laos and Cambodia, are threatening an ecosystem of unrivalled diversity outside the Amazon basin. More dam projects are underway or in planning stages, even as fish stocks are falling sharply. In late 2019 the lack of sediment, held back by the dams, turned the river from its usual brown to a startling blue colour, a worrying indication of further environmental degradation. China insists it manages the flow from its dams responsibly, but Chinese companies continue to fund and/or build new dams in Laos and Cambodia, with agreement from regional governments.

Leading environmental experts believe the true economic impact of over-development on the river and its resources has not been properly calculated. A recent decision by the Thai government to scrap approval for a Chinese proposal to blast and dredge a 90km kilometre stretch of the river to enable access for larger vessels is a rare victory for civil society groups opposing destructive development, but may point to greater resistance by affected communities in the future.
 
List of expert panelists: 

  • Brian Eyler, author of Last Days of the Mekong and director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program, who traveled along the river from China’s Yunnan province to its delta in southern Vietnam to explore its modern evolution. (via Skype)

  • Pianporn Deetes, Thailand Campaigner for International Rivers, which led the campaign against blasting rock shoals in the Mekong.

  • Pou Sothirak, Executive director of Phnom Penh-based CICP, a think tank focusing on regional issues, and a former Cambodian ambassador to Japan.

  • Carl Middleton, lecturer in International Development Studies and deputy director for international research in the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University, where he focuses on environmental issues in Southeast Asia.

For more information, please visit FCCT’s website here.