Amid a series of damage caused by severe heat waves and droughts in Southeast Asia, its lifeline and largest river, the Mekong, is drying up. Around 70 million people depend on the Mekong River for drinking water, agriculture, and fishing, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to farm from the lack of water, or catch any fish due to the depletion of sediments. In regards to the dying Mekong River, the U.S. is criticizing China for abusing the power it holds over the lifeline of Southeast Asia, while China claims the cause behind the droughts is simply a decrease in the precipitation rate due to climate change, not its construction of dams.
Because of the 11 dams China constructed in the Upper Mekong, Southeast Asian countries of the Lower Mekong are suffering from a severe water shortage. Recently, I analyzed satellite images of large dams in the Upper Mekong in China along with the drought situation in the Lower Mekong.
A large dam in Puer City, Yunnan Province, China
This is a large dam built in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County, Puer City, Yunnan Province. Its horizontal length reaches 1.4km, and it is located at the 81km point on the border with Myanmar. China built this large dam to trap water and form a large reservoir at the meeting point between the Lancang and Heihe rivers. As shown on the satellite image, the width of the lower stream heading towards the Mekong has decreased significantly.
The Mekong’s riverbed revealed along the Myanmar-Laos border
The satellite image above depicts a region where the borders of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand meet, an infamous global production site of heroin termed the “Golden Triangle.” As the Mekong is drying up and its width reduced, the riverbed is being revealed in the form of sandbanks.
When this area was previously controlled by the private army of the drug lord Khun Sa, it yielded a million tons of raw opium per year. After the ring disbanded, people started growing green tea or coffee instead of poppies, and the region developed into a casino and tourist resort complex. However, there are still minor gangs that remain in power and continue drug cultivation and trafficking, making it difficult for even the Myanmarese government to regulate this region.
The 4,350km-long Mekong River, which has its source in Tibet and runs through five countries, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and into the South China Sea, is known as the “Mother of Rivers.” It supplies most of the water used for drinking, agriculture, and industrial purposes for these five countries. Since 1995, China has built 11 dams in the upper Mekong River to supplement its insufficient electricity supply and to secure water resources. When a severe drought broke out in 2019, Cambodia, which is located downstream, saw its fish catches plunge. In Vietnam, increased salinity due to reduced river inflows resulted in the destruction of the river ecosystem and the depletion of the agricultural water supply. Critics have continued to point out that the Mekong River drought was caused by China’s indiscriminate dam construction, but China argues that the drought was simply due to climate change while the dam actually helps alleviate droughts by storing water during the rainy season and releasing it during the dry season.
The Mekong’s riverbed revealed along the Laos-Thailand border
The Mekong River basin is well-known for being the final deadly obstacle that North Korean defectors have to cross to ultimately enter South Korea, after risking their lives travelling tens of thousands of miles through mainland China. It might seem that a shallower and narrower Mekong River would make the path toward freedom easier, but this is not the case. According to defectors, man-eating crocodiles live in the Mekong River basin, so they cannot walk or swim across it even if it has become shallower.
According to defector Lee Youmi’s Youtube videos, people in defector groups have lost their lives crossing the Mekong when their boat capsized after an attack by crocodiles. One woman was dragged underwater when the boat capsized, and the local guide explained that the crocodiles followed the smell of blood because she was probably menstruating. After crossing the Mekong, defectors no longer need to run and hide from the Chinese police, but they face investigations by local police in Thailand and other countries before they can be handed over to the South Korea embassy. This defector, however, lost her life to the Mekong crocodiles just before her final step to freedom.
When the Mekong dries up and its riverbed is revealed, defectors have to cross parts of the river by foot because the river is too shallow for boats to cross, but they say this option is much more dangerous. Crossing the river by boat is faster and safer than braving crocodiles and unfamiliar poisonous insects.
China’s selfish greed for water resources draining the Mekong River has not only made Southeast Asian fishermen and farmers suffer, but also threatened the lives of North Koreans living tens of thousands of miles away who try to defect their country.
In the past, Koreans used to farm in rice paddies that were solely dependent on rainfall. During the planting season, farmers would stay up all night guarding their fields to secure water, and conflict would arise between neighbors if people broke the barrier of someone else’s field to supply water to their own fields.
China should have undergone an international negotiation process, discussing and adjusting its plan in tandem with other countries. It should have considered not only its own greed for water resources, but also the perspective of neighboring countries. If China thinks it can completely disregard smaller and weaker countries simply because of its greater strength, it will quickly become an international outcast and a public enemy. The UN and the international community should mediate and negotiate these problems, but since China is unlikely to listen to the UN, this will be hopeless. China is behaving like a rebellious teenager despite its great size; it is a mystery why no one is following the teaching of benevolence (仁) in the birthplace of Confucius.
Translated by Annie Eun Jung Kim. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Daily NK.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
