Global InformationHydropower in the Mekong River Basin information
The estimated hydropower potential of Mekong River Basin about 58,930 Megawatts (MW).[1][2][3] As of February 2024, there are an estimated 167 Hydropower Plants (HPPs) in the Mekong, with a combined installed capacity of some 36,376.3 MW. An additional 20 HPPs are currently under construction and at various stages of completion. These have a combined installed capacity of an additional 4,535.5 MW.
The single most significant impact on the use of water and its management in the Mekong Region is hydropower.[4] These developments in the Mekong River Basin have resulted in substantial environmental and social impacts, which are summarised below. These have fuelled controversy [5] and hydropower is a prominent part of the discussion around the river, its basin, and its management. This debate occurs in both the academic literature, as well as the media, and is a focus for many activist groups.[6][7]
The countries that share the Mekong River Basin have all sought the large-scale infrastructural development of its waters. As part of China's Great Western Development program, large-scale hydropower development in China's Yunnan Province has been substantial,[8][9][10] on the Mekong, the Jinsha, and the Red rivers. Large amounts of Yunnan's hydropower is exported eastwards to energy intensive load centres, such as Guangxi and Guangdong.[11] Yunnan, however, has large electricity over-supply problems, which has led to significant hydropower curtailment.[11][12]
The Lao government has also prioritized hydropower development, primarily as an export commodity. In 2021, almost 82% of Lao electricity was exported, mostly to Thailand.[13] Power production (from all sources, including hydropower) contributed 12.8% to national GDP in 2022, while electricity exports comprised almost 29% of total export values in the same year,[14] and investments in electricity production represented 79% of total foreign direct investment in 2021.[15]
Most of Cambodia's hydropower has been developed in the southwest of the country, outside of the Mekong River Basin.[16][17] Its largest HPP, the Lower Sesan 2 is, however, within the Mekong River Basin, and generates some 20% of the country's electricity.[18] Cambodia has ruled out developing hydropower on the Mekong mainstream,[19] but multiple dams are planned for construction in Mekong tributary catchments. Cambodia also exports electricity directly from the Don Sahong HPP, a southern Lao dam located on the Mekong mainstream.[20]
In Thailand, little technically exploitable hydropower potential remains in its parts of the Mekong River Basin. Most of its HPPs were developed in the 1980s and 1990s, and accompanied by large-scale irrigation infrastructure development as part of the massive Kong-Chi-Mun Project,[21] more recently rearticulated as the Khong-Loei-Chi-Mun Project [22][23] Large-scale energy infrastructure in Thailand has been met with strong resistance - for example, the Assembly of the Poor's opposition to the Pak Mun HPP, the last dam to be commissioned in Thailand. This has forced Thailand to export the social and environmental externalities of hydropower construction and operation to neighbouring states.[24][25]
While there are multiple HPPs planned for Myanmar parts of the Mekong River Basin,[26] years of political instability have generally impended hydropower development.
Vietnam's Mekong hydropower development is concentrated in its Central Highlands. It does not appear as if any technically-exploitable hydropower potential remains. Here, hydropower has also been accompanied by significant irrigation development. Vietnam's hydropower investments in this area includes sizeable dams on two key Mekong tributaries, the Sesan and the Srepok rivers.
- ^ "Mekong Mainstream Dams". International Rivers. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
- ^ Mekong River Commission (2010). "State of the Basin Report, 2010" (PDF). MRC, Vientiane, Laos.
- ^ J. Dore; Y. Xiaogang; K. Yuk-shing (2007). "China's energy reforms and hydropower expansion in Yunnan". In L. Lebel; J. Dore; R. Daniel; Y.S. Koma (eds.). Democratizing Water Governance in the Mekong Region. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. pp. 55–92. ISBN 978-9749511251.
- ^ CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food. "CPWF Mekong". Archived from the original on April 28, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2012.
- ^ "Thousands Call for Regional Governments to Save the Mekong". International Rivers. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
- ^ "A Dangerous Trajectory for the Mekong River". International Rivers. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
- ^ Yeophantong, Pichamon (2014). "China's Lancang Dam Cascade and Transnational Activism in the Mekong Region: Who's Got the Power?". Asian Survey. 54 (4): 700–24. doi:10.1525/as.2014.54.4.700.
- ^ Hennig, Thomas; Wang, Wenling; Magee, Darrin; He, Damming (2016). "Yunnan's Fast-Paced Large Hydropower Development: A Powershed-Based Approach to Critically Assessing Generation and Consumption Paradigms". Water. 8 (10): 476. doi:10.3390/w8100476. ISSN 2073-4441.
- ^ Magee, Darrin (2006). "Powershed Politics: Yunnan Hydropower under Great Western Development". The China Quarterly. 185 (2006): 23–41. doi:10.1017/S0305741006000038. S2CID 154714463.
- ^ Tilt, Brian (2015). Dams and development in China: the moral economy of water and power. New York: Colombia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-17010-9.
- ^ a b Liu, Shuangquan; Davidson, Michael (2021). China trading power: improving environmental and economic efficiency of Yunnan's electricity market (PDF) (Report). Environment and Natural Resources Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ Cheng, Chuntian; Chen, Fu; Li, Gang; Ristić, Bora; Mirchi, Ali; Qiyu, Tu; Madani, Kaveh (2018). "Reform and renewables in China: The architecture of Yunnan's hydropower dominated electricity market". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 94 (2018): 682–693. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2018.06.033. S2CID 117337384.
- ^ "Laos: electricity exports". Retrieved February 8, 2024.
- ^ BOL (2023). Annual Economic Report 2022 (PDF) (Report). Bank of the Lao PDR. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
- ^ "Department of Investment Promotion, Ministry of Planning and Investment (Lao PDR) Statistics". Retrieved 28 January 2024.
- ^ Future Forum, Cambodia (April 2021). Chinese State-Owned Enterprises and Infrastructure Development in Cambodia: The Tatay River Hydropower Dam Project (PDF) (Report). BRI Monitor. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ Siciliano, Giuseppina; Urban, Frauke; Tan-Mullins, May; Lonn, Pichdara; Kim, Sour (2016). "The Political Ecology of Chinese Large Dams in Cambodia: Implications, Challenges and Lessons Learnt from the Kamchay Dam". Water. 8 (9): 405. doi:10.3390/w8090405.
- ^ "Hydropower Lower Sesan II". Retrieved 8 February 2024.
- ^ "Cambodian PM Affirms Ban on Mekong Hydropower Projects". The Diplomat. December 1, 2023.
- ^ Thul, Prak Chan (8 January 2020). "Don Sahong hydropower dam in Laos connects to Cambodian grid". Reuters. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- ^ Molle, François; Floch, Philippe (2008). "Megaprojects and Social and Environmental Changes: The Case of the Thai 'Water Grid'". AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment. 37 (3): 199–204. doi:10.1579/0044-7447(2008)37[199:MASAEC]2.0.CO;2. PMID 18595275. S2CID 31229220.
- ^ Wangkiat, Paritta (8 May 2016). "Downstream countries concerned over water diversion". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- ^ Lan, Mai (6 June 2016). "Diverting the Mekong River into Thailand: The Khong-Loei-Chi-Mun project". Mekong Commons. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
- ^ Simpson, Adam (2007). "The environment – energy security nexus: critical analysis of an energy 'love triangle' in Southeast Asia". Third World Quarterly. 28 (3): 539–554. doi:10.1080/01436590701192710. S2CID 154819073.
- ^ Kirchherr, Julian; Pomun, Teerapong; Walton, Matthew J. (2016). "Mapping the Social Impacts of 'Damocles Projects': The Case of Thailand's (as yet Unbuilt) Kaeng Suea Ten Dam". Journal of International Development. 30 (3): 474–492. doi:10.1002/jid.3246.
- ^ IFC (2018). Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Myanmar Hydropower Sector - Final Report (Report). International Finance Corporation. Retrieved February 10, 2024.