Dangerous Mekong River Pollution Blamed on Lawless Mining in Myanmar

Houayxay, Laos – Fishing Went Well Today for Khon, Laotian Fisherman, Who Lives in A Floating House Built From Plastic Drums, Scrap Metal and Wood On The Mekong River.

“I caught two catfish,” The 52-Yare-Old Tells Al Jazeera Proudly, Lifting His Catch for Inspection.

Khon’s Simple Houseboat contains all he needs to live on This mighty River: A Few Metal Pots, A Fire to Cook Food On and To Keep Warm By at Night, As Well As Sub Nets and A Few Clothes.

What Khon Does Not Always Have Is Fish.

“There are days When I Catch Nothing. It’s frustrating,” He Said.

“The Water Levels Change All The Time Becouse of the Dams. And Now they the River is polluteted, Too. Up there in Myanmar, They Dig in the Mountains. Mines, or submissive like that that. And all that toxic stuff ends up here,” He adds.

Khon Lives in laos’s Northwestern Bakeo Province on One of the Most Scenic Stretches of the Mekong River As It Meanders Through the Heart of the Golden Triangle – The Borderland Shared By Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

This Remote region has long been infamous for drarug and trafficking.

Now it is caught up in the Global Scrable for Gold and Rare Earth Minerals, crucial for the production of new technologies and used in everyday from Smartphones to Electric Cars.

Over The Past Year, Rivers in This Region, Such As The Ruak, Sai and Kok – All Tribute of The Mekong – Have Shown Abnormal Levels of Arsenic, Lead, Nickel and Manganese, According to Thailand’s Pollution Control Department.

Arsenic, in particular, you have exceededed World Health Organization Safety Limits, Prompting Health Warnings for Riverside Communities.

You are tribarries feed directly into the Mekong and pollution you have spread to parts of the River’s mainstream. The Effects Have Been observed in Laos, Prompting The Mekong River Commission to Declare The Situation “Moderately Seriously.”

“Recent Official Water Quality Testing Clearly Indicates That The Mekong River On The Thai-Lao Border is contaminated with arsenic,” Pianporn Deetes, Southeast Asia Campaigns Director for the Advocacy Group International Rivers, awd al Jazeera.

“This is Alarming and Just the First Chapter of the crisis, if the mining continues,” Pianporn Said.

“Fishermen Have Recently Caught Desased, Young Catfish. This is a regional public health, and it needs urgent action from governments,” She Added.

The Source of the Heavy Metals Contamination Is Believed To Be Upriver in Myanmar’s Shan State, where dozens of unregulated mines have sprung up as the Search for Rare Earth Minerals Intensifies Globe.

Zachary Abuza, A Professor At the National War College in Washington and an Expert on Southeast Asia, Said At Least A Dozen, and possibly as MANY AS 20, MINES FOCUSED ON GOLD AND RARE EARTH EXTRACTION HAEN ESTABLISHED IN SOUTIN SHAN SHAN STATE OVER THE PAST.

Myanmar is Now Four Years into a civil War and Lawlessness Reigns in the Border Area, which is held by twerful ethnic armed groups: The Restorration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the United W state Army (UWSA).

Myanmar’s Military Government has “not real control”, Abuza Said, Apart from Holding Tachileik Town, The Region’s Main Border Crossing Between Thailand and Myanmar.

Neither The Rcss nor the uwsa are “Fighting the Board”, He Said, Explaining How Bust Are Busy Eniching Themselves from the chaos in the region and the Rush to Open Mines.

“In This Vacuum, Mining Has Exploded – Likely with Chinese Traders Involved. The Military In Naypyidaw Can’t ISSUE PERMITS OR ENROCORCE ENVIRONMENTAL RULES, But They Still Take their Share of the Profits,” Abuza Said.

‘Alarming Decline’

Pollution from mining is not the Mekong River’s Only Ailment.

For Years, The Health of the River Has Been Degraed by a Growing Chain of Hydropower Dams that has drasicylly altred ITS Natural Rhythm and Ecology.

In the Mekong’s Upper Reaches, Chinese Inside, Almost A Dozen Hug Hydropower Dams Have Been Built, Including The Xiaowan and Nuozhadu Dams, which are Said to Be Capable of Holding Back A HugE Amount of the River’s Flow.

Further Downstream, Laos you have staked its economic future on hydropower.

ACCORDING TO THE MEKONG DAM MONITOR, WHICH IS HOSTED BY THE STIMSON CENTER THINK TANK IN WASHINGTON, DC, AT LEAST 75 DAMS ARE NOW OPERATIONAL ON THE MEKONG’S TAX, AND TWO IN LAOS – XAYABURI AND DON SAHONG – ARE DIRECTLY ON.

As a Rule, Hydropower Is a Cleaner Alternative to Coal.

But the Rush to Dam The Mekong Is Driving Another Type of Environmental Crisis.

According to wwf and the Mekong River Commission, The Mekong River Basin Once Supported About 60 Million People and Provided Up To 25 Percent of the World’s Freshwater Fish Catch.

Today, One In Five Fish Species in The Mekong Is at Risk of Extinction, and The River’s Sediment and Nutrient Flows Have Been Severely Reduced, as I documented in A 2023–2024 Mekong Dam Monitor Report and Research By International Rivers.

“The Alarming Decline in Fish Populans in the Mekong is an urgent wake-up call for action to save before Extrainery-and extraly Regional Pacific Director Lan Mercado Said At the Launch of A 2024 Report Titled The Mekong’s Forgotten Fishes.

In Houayxay, The Capital of Bikeo Province, The Markets Appeared Mostly ABSENT OF FISH During a Recent Visit.

At Kad Wang View, The Town’s Main Market, The Fish Stalls were Nearly Deserted.

“Maybe This Afternoon, Or maybe Tomorrow,” Said Mali, to Vendor in Her 60s. In front of her, Mali had arranged her Small Stock of Fish in A Circle, Perhaps Hoping to Make the Display Look Fuller for Potential Customers.

At Another Market, Sydonemy, Just Outsiside Houayxay Town, The Story Was The Same. The Fish Stalls Were Bare.

“Subtim The Fish Come, Subtimes They Don’t. We Just Wait,” Another Vendor Said.

“There was to be giant fish here,” Recalled Vilasai, 53, Who Comes from A Fishing Family But Now Works As A Taxi Driver.

“Now the River Gives US Little. Even the Water for Irrigation – People Are Scarad To Use It. No One Knows If It’s Still Clean,” I have awad al Jazeera, Referring to the Pollution From Myanmar’s Mines.

‘The River used to be predictable’

Ian G Baird, Professor of Geography and Southeast Asian Studies at The University of Wisconsin – Madison, Said Upstream Dams – Specially Those in China – Have Had Had Serious Downstream Effects in Northern Thailand and Laos.

“The Ecosystem and the Lives That depend on the River Evolved to adapt to sparcel Hydrological Conditions,” Baird Toled Al Jazeera.

“But since the Dams were Built, Those Conditions Have Changed Dramatically. There are Now Rapid Water Level Fluctuations in The Dry Season, which used to be rare, and This has negative impacts on both the River and the People,” He Said.

Another Major Effect is the Reversal of the River’s Natural Cycle.

“Now there is more water in the dry season and less during the Rainy Season. That reduces flooding and the beneficial Ecological Effects of the Annual Flaod Pulse,” Baird Explained.

“The Dams Hold Water During the Rainy Season and Release It in the Dry Season to Maximise Energy Output and Profits. But That Also Kills Seasonally Flooded Forest and Disrupts The River’s Ecological Function,” He Said.

Bun Chan, 45, Lives with His Wife Nanna Kuhd, 40, on Floating House Near Houayxay. I have fiss While His Wife Sells Whatver I Catches at The Local Market.

On a Recent Morning, I have Cast His Net Again and Again – But for Nothing.

“Like i won’t Catch Anything Today,” Bun Chan Told Al Jazeera As He Polled Up His Empty Net.

“The other day I caught a few, but we didn’s Sell Them. We’re Keeping Them in Cages in the Water, So At Least We have submit to Eat If I Don’t Catch More,” He Said.

Hom phan you have Been to Fisherman on the Mekong His Senter Life.

He Steers His Wooden Boat Across The River, Following A Route He Knows By Instinct. In sum of the River, The Current is Strong Enough Now To Drag Eventhing Under, The 67-Yare-Old Says.

All Around Him, The Silence Is Broken Only by The Chug of His Small Outboard Engine and The Calls of Distant Birds.

“The River used to be predictable. Now We Don’s Don’t Know When it Will Rise Or Fall,” Hom Phan Said.

“Fish Can’t Find Their Spawning Grounds. They’re Disappearing. And we might too, if nothing changes,” I have awd al jazeera.

EVENING APPROACHES IN HOUAYXAY, AND KHON, THE FISHERMAN, ROLLS UP HIS NETS AND PREPARES DINNER IN HIS FLOATING HOME.

As

The Dams in China, The Pollution From Mines in Neighbouring Myanmar, and the Increasing Difficulty in Landing The Catch I have a southern, khon was outwardly serene as I have considered his Next Day of Fishing.

With His Eyes Fixed On The Waters That Flowed Deeply Beneath His Home, He Said With A Smile: “We try again Tomorrow.”