The Vietnam National Mekong Committee will meet to discuss Laos’ plans to build the Xayabury hydropower dam on February 22, which are said to harm Vietnam\'s aquaculture and ecosystem.
The 1,285 MW dam on the lower mainstream of the Mekong River will be 820 m long and 32.6 meter high. It will have an effective reservoir capacity of 225 million cubic meters of water.
If built, the dam will destroy the life environment and, the ecosystem of the Mekong River, endangering many faunas and floras in areas affected by the dam, said Ky Quang Vinh, director of the Can Tho Province Natural Resources and Environment Observation Center.
With such length, the dam will certainly affect aquaculture and when it reserves water, it will have impacts on the use of river water by countries located in the river’s downstream area, Dr. To Van Truong, an expert in irrigation, said.
He also said the dam will also cause impediments to waterway traffic and salt-water encroachment to the river’s downstream area – the Mekong Delta.
The Secretariat of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) has requested Laos to provide it with all relevant information in accordance with the Commission’s procedures, Dr. Truong said.
MRC is consulting with the countries through which the river runs and expects to complete the consultation in April 2011, he said.
But since the basic information on the construction of the dam is still limited, Vietnam’s competent agencies must request Laos to provide more information in order to comprehensively assess the potential impact from building the dam, Dr. Truong said.
Vietnam should rely on the 1995 Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin to put forward specific requirements for the common interests of all the relevant countries, he said.
Today’s meeting of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee in Ha Long Bay is aimed at collecting comments of experts on the potential impact of the dam on Vietnam, he added.
From the Tibetan Plateau, the 4,800-km Mekong River, one of the world\'s great rivers, runs through China\'s Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before flowing to the East Sea.
