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Lifestyle Environment Sunday, January 12, 2020

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Lifestyle Environment Sunday, January 12, 2020 Established 1961 21 Lifestyle Environment Sunday, January 12, 2020 This picture taken on Sept 20, 2019 shows fisherman Kome Wilai (center) fishing from his boat along the Mekong River between Chiang Rai province in This aerial photo shows a giant Buddha on the Thai side of the Golden Triangle in Chiang Thailand and the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos (in background). — AFP photos Rai province, with Myanmar in the background. inety-seven kilometres of rocks in Thai Laotian colonial-era jewel of Luang Prabang. waters stand between Beijing and The vision is to festoon both banks of the Ndominance over the Mekong, a mighty waterway with Special Economic Zones river that feeds millions as it threads south (SEZs) replete with condos, ports, rail and from the Tibetan plateau through five coun- road links. tries before emptying into the South China Chinese tourists disembark from a sightseeing boat along the Mekong River on the Thai side of Sea. China has long wanted to dredge the The bend in the river - Chiang Sean, the Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai province. riverbed in northern Thailand to open passage Kilometre 10: for massive cargo ships - and potentially mili- A short drift downstream, Kome Wilai and face water,” says China Water Risk, a Hong are confused by the shallow waters at tary vessels. his friends putter out midstream on long boats, Kong-based consultancy. The “Western press spawning season, while nutrient packed Ultimately a link could be carved from returning to polish off beers and measure the has a pre-determined view of China which has algae - favored food of the critically endan- Yunnan province thousands of kilometres river’s changes in their nets. The catch has spilled into how it approaches transboundary gered giant Mekong catfish - grows later and south through the Mekong countries - been pitiful for a fortnight, says the 38-year- water,” it says, arguing downstream dams less prolifically. Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and old Kome, after a sudden drop in water level in including in Laos, where the Thai-owned Vietnam. There, the river emerges into the the middle of the monsoon season. “I’ve laid Xayaburi has just come online, cause the The final holdout - Chiang Khong, South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest Wilai holds a fish he caught at his settlement my nets twice today and got nothing. It’s the biggest impacts. Kilometre 67: shipping lanes and the centerpiece of Beijing’s on the Thai side of the Mekong. Chinese dam.... there is no water for the fish to It’s festival time and elders with big smiles trade and security strategy for its Asian neigh- swim or lay their eggs,” he explains. The Rapids - Khon Pi Long, and elegant hand-woven skirts sit in front of borhood. The dam - the Jinghong - is one of 11 in Kilometre 45: the Golden Phaya Naga - fire-breathing ser- Under the tagline “Shared River, Shared The Golden Triangle - Sop Ruak village, China’s portion of the river, established as part If anyone has reasons for optimism about pents of river lore - presiding over the Future” China insists it seeks only the sustain- Kilometre 1: of a hydro-electric power drive to help wean the river’s future it should be Niwat Roikaew. entrance to a Buddhist temple decorated Zhang Jingjin’s tour group run through a able development of the river and to split the the country off coal. Laos, through which a The ponytailed conservationist leads ‘Love with frescos of Mekong life. “Our culture and catalogue of selfie poses in front of the spoils of a trade and energy boom with its third of Mekong flows, plans many more Chiang Khong Group’ which fought an unlikely history is linked to the water,” says Samai “Welcome to The Golden Triangle” gate. Mekong neighbors and their market of 240 across key tributaries. A thicket of agreements 20-year rearguard defence against the blast- Rinnasak after kneeling for blessings from Below swirls a few hundred muddy metres of million people. But squeezed for value by the encourage upstream countries to announce ing of the rapids. In March, 2019, the Chinese the assembly of monks. Economic growth the Mekong. It is the ‘Golden Triangle’, the dams lacing China’s portion of the river - and when they plan to store or discharge large government formally shelved its plans after his and environmental change have long been intersection of northern Thailand with further downstream - the Mekong is already amounts of water from their dams. Still, in campaign led the argument that both the reshaping that relationship. Eventually China Myanmar and Laos, notorious for conflict and changing. Chiang Saen the water often drops by 1.5-3 m unique ecology of the river and Thailand’s sov- is “going to do what it wants,” according to drugs-but now getting plump on Chinese Fish stocks have collapsed say Thai fisher- without warning. “When they close the gate at ereignty will be hollowed out by China’s Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of the Institute of investment. “If more boats can pass there will man, and nutrient-rich land in the Vietnamese the dam it affects everyone along the river,” dredgers. Security and International Studies, be more visitors, more trade and more busi- delta is sinking as the sediment flow shrinks. says Prasong La-on, Chiang Sean district “This is the egg-laying area for fish and Chulalongkorn University, citing the build-up ness,” Zhang, a jovial elevator salesman from The river is rivalled only by the Amazon for chief. “We have to accept it.” birds,” Niwat says, gesturing to the boulders of dams, SEZs and cultivation of allies Laos Beijing, says. “Business is good for everyone.” its biodiversity, environmentalists say, but The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok insists it at Khon Pi Long, where water rushes as the and Cambodia. “This is China’s way of pow- First the shoal at the Golden Triangle will now endemic species like the giant Mekong does not hold back water for its farmers or river tightens up. er,” he adds. An hour downstream in Huai have to go - one of 15 sets of rocks, rapids and catfish and river dolphins are facing extinc- turbines and “pays great attention” to the “This key ecosystem used to be seasonal. Luek (km 90-97) where pomelo plantations sandbars impeding ships’ progress along the tion. Environment versus big business. needs of its neighbors. Meanwhile other ana- But now the river levels depend on the open- roll down to the river bank, the final kilome- river. Once removed and dredged, deep-hulled Geopolitics throttling a lifeline to 60 million lysts say the finger is pointing in the wrong ing of the dam gates and the ecosystem can’t tres of rocks block Beijing’s decades-old boats carrying 500-plus tons of cargo could people - big themes are playing out on a direction. “The reality is that China only function,” he says. “And they want to blast aspiration. — AFP make the 600 km journey from Yunnan to the slow-moving river. accounts for 12 percent of the Mekong’s sur- the rapids too? You’d kill the Mekong.” Fish ater has been a source of death 50 filters and offered safe drinking water to as well as a source of life for a some 100,000 families. “Before we installed Wgeneration in Shenqiu, a region the filters, a few villagers who could afford fed by a tributary of China’s heavily pollut- it were spending nearly 14 yuan ($2) a day ed Yangtze river and pockmarked with to buy bottled water,” said Huo. “The others notorious “cancer villages”. Residents often were still drinking the discolored, smelly faced a bitter choice: drink dirty, discolored river water,” he added. water and risk sickness, or pay high prices for bottled water and risk poverty. But ‘Buried my neighbors’ artist-turned-environmentalist Huo Yalun Shenqiu sits on the Huai river basin, a has been on a mission to change that, major tributary to the Yangtze the country’s installing filters to purify groundwater in the “mother river” which stretches 6,300 km area in a bid to offer a safe alternative for from Tibet to Shanghai. The major causes of ordinary people. water pollution in the region were factories “We have seen many people in villages producing MSG, paper, and leather, with get cancer and skin diseases because of toxic industrial run-off pouring into the drinking the polluted water. But I wanted to waterways. The county has more than a This aerial view taken on Sept 6, 2019 shows the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province. ... actually find a solution to the villagers’ dozen cancer blackspots, including drinking water problems,” he told AFP. It Huangmengying village that sits on the doctor only started telling us not to drink factories, while authorities in Hunan have recent months to save the Yangtze. But has been a monumental task. Decades of Shaying river, which feeds into the Huai. the river water several years ago. By then I been using drones with infrared cameras to many of them are patchwork solutions rapid development has left the world’s third Here ponds and streams, traditionally had already helped bury my three neigh- spot factories dumping unprocessed waste that don’t address core issues” said Ma longest river and its tributaries choked with sources of drinking water, turned rust-red. bors,” recalled local Wang Shiying. Most water into the river. Central government is Jun, a Beijing-based environmentalist. Lax toxic chemicals, plastic and garbage, threat- Little survived in the waterways and the residents have died or moved away to pro- also considering stricter laws to punish environmental standards and tampering of ening the main drinking water source of birds all but disappeared.
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