{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Environmentalists fear effects of new Mekong River dam' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54cb12d8eafeecae1a1069' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54cb12d8eafeecae1a1069' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nEnvironmentalists fear effects of new Mekong River dam\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eWORLD ASIA DAMSOURCE: AP HORIZONS, LIFESTYLE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY RESTRICTIONS: HORIZONS CLIENTS AND AP LIFESTYLE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY CLIENTS ONLYLENGTH: 3:59 SHOTLIST:AP TelevisionChiang Khong, Thailand - 24-25 June 2016 (exact...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eWORLD ASIA DAMSOURCE: AP HORIZONS, LIFESTYLE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY RESTRICTIONS: HORIZONS CLIENTS AND AP LIFESTYLE, HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY CLIENTS ONLYLENGTH: 3:59 SHOTLIST:AP TelevisionChiang Khong, Thailand - 24-25 June 2016 (exact date unknown)1. Wide of boat at sunrise on Mekong River where it forms border between Laos and Thailand with Lao town of Huay Xai in distance2. Moored boat on side of riverAP TelevisionDon Sahong, Laos - 20 June 20163. Tracking shot from moving boat of temporary \"coffer dam\" built across a major channel of Mekong River inside Laos to create dry conditions for construction of Don Sahong damAP Television FILE: Kratie, Cambodia - 12-13 May 2016 (exact date unknown)4. Various of Irrawaddy dolphins in Mekong RiverAP TelevisionDon Sahong, Laos - 20 June 20165. Wide of coffer dam AP TelevisionChiang Khong, Thailand - 24-25 June 2016 (exact date unknown)6. Wide of meeting of conservationists and villagers at Thai river town of Chiang Khong7. Mid of man picking up papers at meeting8. Mid of back of woman wearing 'Stop The Don Sahong Dam' t-shirt9. Mid of Niwat Roykaew, Founder of Chiang Khong Conservation Group, joining meeting10. Various of map showing China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam dams built, under construction or proposed for main channel of Mekong River11. SOUNDBITE (English) Niwat Roykaew, Founder of Chiang Khong Conservation Group: \"Dam is very dangerous for the river. It's very dangerous because dam changes everything. Change ecology, change level of the river water, change way of the water. So I think have problem. Big problem.\"12. Wide of abandoned fishing boat covered in vegetation13. Close of abandoned fishing boat14. Wide of man fishing as tourist boat passes15. Setup shot of Pianporn Deetes, Rivers International Campaigner, walking up steps with river in background 16. SOUNDBITE (English) Pianporn Deetes, Rivers International Campaigner:\"Every single community uses this vast piece of land along the Mekong River or on the sand dune for at least four or five months of the dry season to grow watermelon, lettuce and all the other crops that they need.\"17. Wide of woman working in riverbank vegetable garden18. Mid of woman working in riverbank vegetable garden19. Close of bucket of vegetables harvested from riverbank garden20. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Kampai Bunmee, Laotian-Thai villager:\"I'm worried. The riverbank is 20 percent of the land for farming. All this could be inundated.\"21. Fisherman on boat at Chiang Khong22. Various tracking from boat at river23. Passengers getting off boat AP TelevisionPreah Rum Kel, Cambodia - 20 June 201624. High shot of boats on Mekong River near Cambodian-Lao border and close to area in Laos known as Four Thousand Islands25. Wide of tourists travelling on boat26. Mid of Cambodian tourist boat operator walking down stairs to river27. High shot of boats28. Mid of boat operator steering boatAP TelevisionChiang Khong, Thailand - 24-25 June 2016 (exact date unknown)29 . Wide of Pianporn Deetes walking along riverbank at Chiang Khong30. SOUNDBITE (English) Pianporn Deetes, Rivers International Campaigner:\"What we are really looking for now is the mechanism to regulate and to manage all of the river as a river, not as each section owned by different companies. Because this Mekong River feeds million people.\" AP TelevisionPreah Nimith, Cambodia - 20 June 201631. Pan right of Preah Nimith rapids and waterfall on Mekong RiverLEADIN:The landlocked state of Laos is building a dam across the Mekong River that its neighbours say will threaten the livelihoods of millions of Southeast Asia's poorest people. The government plans to build nine dams in total across the river, which experts warn will damage precious inland fisheries and affect rice production in the Mekong delta. STORYLINE:Sunrise in Chiang Khong, a sleepy town perched on the side of the Mekong River in Thailand. Once bustling with hundreds of fishing boats, it's now mainly a point for petty border trade and where backpackers cross to Huay Xai in Laos for a boat trip downriver to Luang Prabang, a World Heritage city. But this area could soon be feeling the impact of a dam under construction in neighbouring Laos.Laos is rapidly building a Mekong River dam that neighbouring countries say threatens fisheries crucial to millions of Southeast Asia's poorest people.The site of the Don Sahong dam, less than 2 kilometres (1 mile) from the Lao-Cambodian border, is in an area famous for spectacular waterfalls and deep pools that is among the few habitats of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. A \"coffer dam\" blocks one of the Mekong's main channels to allow construction of the hydropower project, which will suck in as much as half of the river's water during the dry season.Landlocked Laos is Southeast Asia's poorest state, and all its neighbours far exceed its population of 7 million. But by virtue of geography and burgeoning Chinese influence, its secretive authoritarian leaders wield huge, unaccountable power over a 4,800-kilometre-long (3,000-mile-long) river that begins in Tibet and winds through six countries before emptying into the South China Sea.China has built six dams on its stretch of the Mekong since the mid-1990s, and Laos plans nine. Many dams have been built on Mekong tributaries as well, and dozens more are planned. Experts say they are already damaging the world's largest inland fisheries and degrading a rice bowl delta that helps feed Cambodia and Vietnam, the two countries farthest downstream. Even building a few dams on the lower Mekong will magnify the damage to a river basin that 60 million people rely on, according to scientific models of dam impacts.In Chiang Khong in the far north of Thailand where the Mekong forms the country’s border with Laos, the effects of two decades of dam building are apparent to many. More than a decade ago, a Chiang Khong fisherman's day's catch could be ten or more kilograms. Now, it's one or two kilograms or often nothing. Some species of fish have gone altogether. Fishing as a main livelihood has almost disappeared.\"Dam is very dangerous for the river,\" says Niwat Roykaew, the founder of Chiang Khong Conservation Group.\"It's very dangerous because dam changes everything. Change ecology, change level of the water, change way of the water. So I think have problem. Big problem.\"Rapid progress is being made in nearby Laos on the Don Sahong dam. Research indicates the combined effect of planned Mekong dams will be devastating, turning one of the few major world rivers still relatively untouched by development into a series of placid and sterile lakes. \"Every single community uses this vast piece of land along the Mekong River or on the sand dune for at least four or five months of the dry season to grow watermelon, lettuce and all the other crops that they need,\" says Pianporn Deetes, a campaigner with advocacy group, International Rivers.Most recently, a study by Danish water experts DHI predicted rice production in the lower Mekong Delta would drop steeply because dams would trap river sediments, resulting in large reductions in nutrients flowing downstream. Less sediment downstream would also increase the risk of saltwater incursion that can render land infertile. The study predicts annual fishery and farming losses of more than 760 million US dollars in Vietnam and 450 million US dollars in Cambodia, the two worst affected countries. Fish catches would drop by 50 percent.Unpredictable releases of water from Chinese dams can flood and damage riverbank gardens that line the Mekong throughout Southeast Asia. More than half of riverbank agricultural land will be lost if all proposed mainstream dams are built, according to an Australian study conducted for the Mekong River Commission. \"I'm worried,\" says Kampai Bunmee, a Laotian-Thai villager from a family that's been in the same riverbank village for three generations.\"The riverbank is 20 percent of the land for farming. All this could be inundated.\"Opponents say the Don Sahong dam could be built on another branch of the Mekong with less risk. In an environmental impact study that did not consider effects on neighbouring countries, Laos has maintained that mitigation measures will protect fisheries. Malaysia's Mega First, which is overseeing construction of the dam, but has no experience in hydropower, has repeated those assertions. They are based on deepening the inlet to a small channel near the dam and blasting rapids in a major channel to create new routes for fish to swim upriver. The company has said it is conducting a 10-year study on effectiveness of the mitigation measures, the final results of which will be available long after the dam is built. It has contracted China's SinoHydro Corp. to build the dam for 320 million US dollars.A Mega First spokeswoman declined to provide any data and denied requests to interview company officials. The office of the Lao prime minister, the natural resources ministry and the Lao members of the Mekong River Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The rest of Southeast Asia is powerless to stop the dams. Under an international agreement on protecting the Mekong, Laos is obliged only to notify and consult its neighbours via the Mekong River Commission. Pianporn Deetes says the Mekong will be irreversibly damaged within the next decade if there's no binding agreement in Southeast Asia to control and manage development. \"What we are really looking for now is the mechanism to regulate and to manage all of the river as a river, not as each section owned by different companies,\" she says.\"Because this Mekong River feeds millions of people.\"Once complete the Don Sahong dam will have only a small power capacity: 256 megawatts. Laos has said the power will help fuel development in the south of the country. Overall, however, its hydro plans call for exporting most of the electricity to Thailand and Vietnam, providing 12 percent of Thailand’s future power and about 4 percent of Vietnam’s. ====Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com. 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