Mekong River and Delta
The Mekong, the twelfth longest river in the world, shapes both the land and the politics of the Greater Mekong subregion. Known as the Lancangjiang or "turbulent river" near its beginnings in China's Yunnan Province, the Mekong originates 5,467 meters high in the Himalayan ranges of the Tibetan plateau. From there, it flows 4,425 kilometers southeast through the rain forests of Xishuangbanna in China, Myanmar, Thailand, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Cambodia.
The Mekong River moves south past the Khone Falls on the Laos-Cambodia border. The area surrounding the Khone Falls, considered the Mekong River's most amazing natural wonder, contains some 4,000 small islands (Si Phan Don), Irrawaddy water dolphins, and giant catfish. The amazing rapids and waterfalls became an obstacle for the French whose dream it was to navigate the river, which they hoped would become the transportation gateway to China.
From the Khone Falls, the river then continues south for nearly 500 kilometers past Tonle Sap or "Great Lake," the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and moves toward Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. At Phnom Penh, with its alternative arms, the Basak River from the south and the Tonle Sap River from the northwest, the Mekong proceeds further southeastward toward Vietnam and the Mekong Delta, a distinctly flat area also known as the Mekong Plain, before emptying into the South China Sea. In Vietnam it is known as the Cuu Long (Nine Dragons) because there the river splits into several rivers. The Tonle Sap acts as a buffer against Mekong River system floods and the source of beneficial dry-season flows. During the rainy season (July–October), the Mekong and Basak Rivers swell with water to the point that the delta cannot handle the enormous volume. At this point, instead of overflowing their banks, the floodwaters force the Tonle Sap River to reverse its flow and to enter the Tonle Sap or Great Lake, increasing its size from approximately 2,600 square kilometers to 10,000 square kilometers, and raising the water level by an average of seven meters. When the floods subside, water begins rushing out of Tonle Sap, increasing mainstream flows by 16 percent and thus helping to reduce saltwater intrusion in the lower Mekong Delta in Vietnam. This particular trait makes the Tonle Sap River the only "river with return" in the world.
Because the Tonle Sap and the Mekong Rivers reverse direction seasonally, they are vital for Cambodia, producing 100,000 tons of fish per year and 80 percent of the protein consumed within the country. The delta is equally critical for Vietnam, enabling it to produce and harvest 14 million tons of rice each year, of which 4 million tons are exported, making Vietnam the second-largest rice-exporting country in the world. Consequently, Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong Delta are life-supporting organs for the Cambodian and Vietnamese economies.
With a 790,000-square-kilometer catchment area, the Mekong is reputedly the world's second richest in terms of biota, carrying 475 billion cubic meters of runoff and 250 million tons of sediment each year during the monsoon season from Yunnan Province to the Mekong Delta or Cuu Long (Nine Dragons). These nutrients provide irrigation for the region's myriad rice fields and a livelihood for the approximately 60 million residents of the Mekong Basin, including almost all of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Cambodia, one-third of Thailand, and one-fourth of Vietnam.
Primarily fishers and farmers, the inhabitants of communities along the Mekong River and Delta have survived the natural floods for thousands of years, dependent on the river and the annual flood-drought cycle for their existence. Fully aware that any change in the river flow or sediment load will trigger immediate impacts on their environment and undermine their food security, the people who live along the Mekong rely on the large volume of floodwater to leach, flush, and control acid in their soils. On the banks of the mighty Great Lake and the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers, the Khmer people have celebrated the changing river flow for more than two hundred years. Likewise, the residents of the lower delta have learned to tolerate the floods and appreciate the many benefits associated with the floods: the nutrient-rich sediment and the water for their paddies, and the feeding and spawning ground for their fish in the seasonally flooded forests.
In addition to the direct socioeconomic and ecological benefits to humans, the Mekong River system provides essential support for a diverse range of animals and plants. Among the endangered wildlife species that inhabit the riverine forests are leopards, tigers, and the near-extinct ko prey or jungle cow, which was named the national animal of Cambodia in 1963. In addition, elephants still roam the hills of the Mekong subregion, while monkeys and snakes abound in its forests and mountains. Yet, the Mekong's hydrologic cycle and ecological processes are now threatened by increasing pollution, deforestation, and several massive upstream developments, including a total of twenty-three dams between Yunnan Province and Cambodia. Among the projects already under way are a total of 37,000 megawatts of hydropower projects in China and the Lao PDR and 8,800 cubic meters of water diversions in Thailand. In 1994, the Mittaphap (Friendship) Bridge was also completed between the town of Nong Khai in northeastern Thailand and one of the outlying districts of Vientiane municipality, which includes Laos's capital city of Vientiane some twenty kilometers up the river. The first span ever constructed across the entire river, it signaled a new era of cooperation between two Mekong neighbors. Collectively, these activities are intended to use the power of the Mekong to produce energy for industry in Yunnan, to support agricultural production in northeastern Thailand, and to produce an economic windfall for the national government of Laos. Farther downstream, the inhabitants of the Mekong Delta have been promised that they will benefit from control of the floods and the possible initiation of cruise tourism between Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam and Phnom Penh. Still, there is great concern that, if these development projects are completed, the vibrant Tonle Sap fisheries would be diminished, the Mekong Delta would turn into an acid plain, the groundwater would be diluted by the intrusion of salt water, and the coast would be inundated by the South China Sea. Furthermore, due to the multiple uses of the Mekong, all types of waste are discharged into the water. As a consequence, the water quality has become very poor over the years, adversely affecting both the human environment and the natural. As of July 2001, however, no government agencies or international organizations have undertaken an analysis either of changes in water purity or of the cumulative effects of the proposed projects on the viability of the Mekong. There are signs, though, that the Mekong River Commission and the Asian Development Bank will do so in the near future.
Greg Ringer
Further Reading
Barker, Randolph, Robert W. Herdt, and Beth Rose. (1985) The Rice Economy of Asia. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.
Brown, Frederick Z., and David G. Timberman. (1998) Cambodia and the International Community: The Quest for Peace, Development, and Democracy. Singapore: Asia Society.
Chandler, David P. (2000) A History of Cambodia. 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Dutt, Ashok, ed. (1985) Southeast Asia: Realm of Contrasts. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Hoskin, John, and Allen W. Hopkins. (1991) The Mekong: A River and Its People. Bangkok, Thailand: Post Publishing Company.
Pham, Long P. (1998) The Existing Challenges and Future Dangers to the Tonle Sap and the Mekong Delta. Bangkok, Thailand: Mekong Forum.
Ringer, Greg, ed. (1998) Destinations: Cultural Landscapes of Tourism. New York: Routledge.
Ringer, Greg. (2000) "Tourism in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar: From Terrorism to Tourism?" In Tourism in South and Southeast Asia: Issues and Cases, edited by C. Michael Hall and Stephen Page. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 178–94.
Stensholt, Bob, ed. (1997) Developing the Mekong Subregion. Clayton, Australia: Monash Asia Institute.
This complete Mekong River and Delta contains 1,302 words. This
article contains 1,330 words (approx. 4 pages at 300
words per page).
