Don Sahong

Today, the Mekong River Commission is holding its first regional public consultation on the Don Sahong Dam in Pakse, Laos. We believe the Don Sahong Dam poses an unacceptable risk to regional fisheries, food security and the future of the Mekong, and as such, should be immediately cancelled. The Don Sahong Dam imperils a critical and ecologically unique area of the Mekong River. The Hou Sahong Channel, on which the Don Sahong Dam would be built, is one of the main pathways in the Mekong, used year-round by fish migrating between Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Blocking the Hou Sahong Channel will have an irreversible impact on fish migration and, consequently, on food and livelihood security throughout the Mekong. The environmental impact assessment for the Don Sahong Dam failed to properly address the threat to regional fisheries. Despite the project being located less than 2 kilometres from Cambodia, the transboundary impacts of the project were not adequately considered or assessed. Construction and operation of the Don Sahong Dam will require significant change in the hydrology of the area, increasing the Mekong River’s dry season flows through the Hou Sahong Channel from 4 per cent to 50 per cent. Such changes would affect the renowned Khone Phapheng Falls and threaten the globally protected wetlands at the Stung Treng Ramsar site in Cambodia. The proposed mitigation measures, upon which the project’s success hinges, have never been tested in the Mekong region, and regional experts have expressed fears that these measures will not be sufficient to mitigate the loss of the Hou Sahong Channel for fish migration. The decisions that have been made about the design and operation of the Don Sahong Dam are based on assumptions which gamble with the future of the Mekong River and her people.