As investment in hydropower and construction projects ramp up, ecosystems and communities along Southeast Asia’s longest river are paying the price.
At more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), the Mekong is Southeast Asia’s longest river. It runs through six countries, providing food and income for more than 70 million people.
But the integrity of the river, and therefore of the livelihood of the people who depend on it, is under threat — particularly in the lower Mekong basin in Cambodia and Vietnam. Its banks are being dug up and sand taken away for use in construction projects, and its waters are increasingly being dammed for hydropower.
“I believe that in just a few centuries, the whole delta is going disappear from the map,” ecologist Nguyen Huu Thien, who has been researching the river’s ecology for more than 20 years, told DW.
Sediment — the fine soil particles found at the bottom of the river — is carried by the current and deposited at the delta. This sediment provides fertile ground for plants and animals, including farming.
But over the past decades, the sediment is being carried away faster than it can be deposited. As a result, riverbanks have become unstable, leading to landslides in the lower Mekong basin.