[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
dam-l (Fwd) LS: DEVELOPMENT-INDOCHINA: RECESSION PUTS BRAKES ON MEG
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 18:45:01 -0700
From: Aviva Imhof <aviva@irn.org>
Subject: LS: DEVELOPMENT-INDOCHINA: RECESSION PUTS BRAKES ON
MEGAPROJECTS
To: irn-mekong@igc.org
>
>Date: 04/16/99 20:15 EST
>
>DEVELOPMENT-INDOCHINA: RECESSION PUTS BRAKES ON MEGAPROJECTS
>By Boonthan Sakanond
>
>BANGKOK, (Apr. 16) IPS - Seven years after Asian governments and
>international bodies called it a potential treasure trove of
>economic growth, the Mekong Basin area remains what it has been for
>centuries: abundant but untapped.
>
>While foreign investors blame the slow pace of development on red
>tape and lack of investment, for environmentalists the lack of
>'progress' is a sign of hope that the Mekong can still escape the
>ravages of ecologically disastrous industrialization seen across
>South-east Asia.
>
>At a recent symposium on the 'Comprehensive Development of the
>Greater Mekong Subregion' here, representatives mostly from the
>private sector, government and regional funding agencies complained that
>the Asian economic crisis had further put off chances of rapid growth for
>the Mekong Basin.
>
>The concept of the Greater Mekong Subregion growth area --
>encompassing Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and the
>Chinese province of Yunnan -- was first mooted in 1992 by
>proponents like businessmen and financial institutions.
>
>It was intended to benefit 237 million people living in an area of
>2.3 million sq km.
>
>"The Asian economic crisis has adversely affected Greater Mekong
>development projects since struggling Asian countries -- especially
>Thailand -- are the most active business partners of those
>involved," said Peter Warr of the Australian National University and
>a expert on the Indochinese economies.
>
>Thailand's per capita income is roughly 10 times that of most
>Indochinese countries, which are heavily dependent on it in trade
>and investment.
>
>The investment and demand for imports from Thailand have fallen
>dramatically since the crisis began in mid-1997.
>
>Thai banks, now in deep trouble over non-performing loans at home,
>have been the main source of financial liquidity for businesses
>in Laos, Burma and Cambodia since the early nineties.
>
>"ASEAN (the Association of South-east Asian Nations) accounts for 70
>percent of the total investment in Vietnam and 60 percent of Vietnam's
>total trade," pointed out Dao Tuan Dung, manager of the ASEAN
>department at the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
>
>He says the Asian crisis has already cut Vietnam's exports, whose
>growth plunged to slightly more than 2 percent in 1998 from more
>than 20 percent in the previous year.
>
>Those attending the Bangkok symposium expressed fears that crisis'
>effects threaten to impede much of the progress in economic
>cooperation among the six Greater Mekong countries.
>
>Due to political instability and civil war in much of Indochina in
>the 1970s and 1980s, its economic potential has been recognised
>only since the early nineties.
>
>The Asian crisis has also affected the long-term projects planned
>in the Mekong Basin. Much of development potential there lies
>around the 4,200 kilometer-long Mekong river, whose vast waters can be
>tapped for a variety of large projects.
>
>The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (AsDB) has been a major
>force behind the grand plans to develop infrastructure in the
>Mekong basin, viewing it as one of the last economic frontiers in
>the region.
>
>Since 1992, it has invested more than 300 million dollars in
>studies and projects for developing tourism, agro-industries,
>export processing zones and small-scale businesses.
>
>Reflecting keen interest in the Mekong area, the Japanese
>government too has between 1993 and 1997 poured in more than 3.8
>billion dollars in aid to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
>
>But environmentalists worry about the emphasis of donor agencies,
>governments and banks on mega-projects that take little
>consideration of their negative impact on the region's pristine
>ecology and livelihood of ordinary people.
>
>Particularly controversial are a series of massive hydro- electric
>power projects planned along the Mekong, which activists say will
>displace thousands of local folk, destroy their way of life and
>disturb the ecological balance irreversibly.
>
>According to the AsDB, by 2010 the Greater Mekong area will need
>an additional 57,000 megawatts of energy that can be raised at an
>investment cost of 100 billion dollars.
>
>AsDB studies have already identified eight hydropower and two oil
>and natural gas energy generation projects that have been endorsed
>by the six countries in the Greater Mekong.
>
>"Fifty million residents and countless river and floodplain biota of
>the Mekong Basin depend on the Mekong's annual flood- drought cycle and
>all the natural functions driven by this process," said Aviva Imhof
>of AID Watch, an international NGO that monitors the activities of large
>donor agencies.
>
>"Planned water resource developments threaten the integrity of this
>system on a grand scale," she added.
>
>Environmentalists argue that the cumulative impact of the various
>dam projects could cause drastic alterations of natural flow
>patterns along the Mekong.
>
>They say the frequency of floods will decrease, affecting thousand
>of hectares of agricultural land which depend on annual flooding
>for irrigation and deposits of fertile soil.
>
>"Fisheries are the most vulnerable aspect of the Mekong river
>ecology. The proposed dams will block fish migration and cause a
>dramatic decline in fisheries throughout the lower Mekong river,"
>added an activist with Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance
>(TERRA), a Bangkok-based NGO.
>
>He says the resulting disruption could plunge large numbers of
>people into total poverty and negate any economic gains accruing
>from the large hydropower projects.
>
>In ecological terms too, the dams are considered disastrous.
>
>The $1.2 billion Nam Theun 2 dam project in Laos, for example, is
>expected to flood more than 450 sq km in the Nakai Plateau in the
>highlands near Laos' border with Vietnam.
>
>But what has really been stalling governments from going ahead with the
>megaprojects is lack of funds due to the Asian crisis.
>
>With the collapse of South-east Asian economies, the neo- socialist
>governments in Indochina are having second thoughts about rushing into
>unsustainable development projects.
>
>Several large dam projects have already been pared down or put on
>hold due to falling energy demand in Thailand, the region's main
>market for the product.
>
>Surprisingly at the Mekong symposium here, a word of caution
>against rushing development projects came from Thailand, long been
>accused by NGOs of imposing its own model of free-wheeling
>capitalist development onto Indochina.
>
>"Development must be pursued in a balanced way such that politics,
>social welfare, environmental concerns are given equal attention as
>economic performance," said Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.
>
>
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
Dianne Murray, Coordinator/Webmistress
Dam-Reservoir Working Group; Ottawa, Canada
Dam-Reservoir Impacts and Information Archive
http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/dams