A controversial plan to dam one of the longest and most economically significant rivers in the humankind will have a withering ecological impingement on the waterway and the wildlife it support , according to a report leaked toThe Guardian .
The theme on the proposed Sambor dam in Cambodia warns that if construction goes ahead , it will “ literally kill ” the Mekong River . It get going on to submit that the localisation chosen is one of the worst possible lieu for a dam , as it will prevent the tumid freshwater Pisces migration in the world and peril the survival of the fittest of the rarefied Irrawaddy dolphin .
Commissioned in 2014 by the Cambodian government , the use of the report was to expect at the impact that the massive hydropower flora would have on the river , before it was kept hugger-mugger and hidden from the world . This raised worry that those in world power might simply brush aside the damaging findings and go ahead with construction .
The dam task is back by a Chinese Energy Department company , who want to construct a 56 - metre - gamey ( 183 - foot - high ) , 18 - km - wide ( 11 - Roman mile - wide ) dekameter at the Sambor land site . This is expected to create a reservoir in the region of 82 kilometers ( 51 miles ) long with a surface area of 620 square kilometers ( 240 solid naut mi ) , flooding vast tracts of land anddisplacing many peoplein one of the most biodiverse regions on the satellite , 2nd only to the Amazon .
However , blocking the migration of the fish is the existent fear here . The Mekong River is one of the most generative inland fishery in the cosmos , add Pisces to an guess 60 million people who go along the river ’s 4,350 - km ( 2,703 - mile ) length . This piscary is thought to be deserving a staggering$17 billion annuallybetween Thailand , Laos , Vietnam , and Cambodia .
The time to come and sustainability of this system of rules bank heavy on the annual migration of Pisces up this incision of the river , which the dam falls bang in the middle of .
“ A dam at this site could literally kill the river , unless sited , designed and operated sustainably , ” the authors ofthe leaked report write . “ The Sambor range is the bad possible position to build a major decametre . ”
As if risking the demolition of a fishery that supports tens of 1000000 of hoi polloi was n’t enough , the dekameter will also likely have a significant impact on the rare Irrawaddy dolphin that subsist in the Mekong .
Once present along much of its distance , its act have been dramatically reduced . Only last month , conservationist announce that for the first time in 20 years , theMekong Irrawaddy dolphin numbers have risen , with just 92 of the cetacean recollect to be clinging on .
Whether or not the government will heed these frightening admonition is yet to be see .
