Mekong Subsistance Peoples of Cambodia
No nation depends more heavily on the natural vitality of the Mekong River than Cambodia. Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in Asia and the world with well over half of all Cambodians surviving on a subsistence basis. More than 45% of Children under the age of 5 in Cambodia are malnourished. On average Cambodians consume around 40 kilo’s of fish per year, any serious decline in the availability of this vital survival resource could quite viably send millions of fisheries dependent Cambodians into a state of famine. Fisheries experts in Cambodia point out that China’s Mega dam cascade on the Mekong mainstream poses the single greatest external threat to the food security of the Cambodian nation.
Although it is not possible to precisely predict the impacts of the Mekong cascade on the food security of the Cambodian nation until after the dams are fully commissioned, events on the Mun River, a major tributary of the Mekong could help provide some insights of what to expect. When the Thai government dammed the Mun, despite installing a ‘fish ladder’ to help migratory fish species bypass the dams, dozens of species of fish disappeared from the river completely and fish stocks declined by between 40-70%. If the 8 exponentially larger dams of the Mekong cascade, none of which possess fish ladders result in a similar decline in fisheries on the Mekong mainstream, the result for millions of impoverished Mekong dependent Cambodian fishermen would be catastrophic.
To date China’s dam builders have not allocated a single dollar towards helping the Mekong Dependent peoples of Cambodia to cope with the negative impacts of their dams despite the fact that they intend to generate tens of billions of dollars in profit from hydropower generation that will directly compromise the rivers vitality and the food security of down stream peoples.
