Tangled nets of discourse and turbines of development: Lower Mekong mainstream dam debates

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 33, Issue 6, 2012, Pages 1037-1058

  Yong, Ming Li ^a   Grundy Warr, Carl ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DAM CONSTRUCTION; DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE; HYDROELECTRIC POWER; KNOWLEDGE; POWER GENERATION; SUSTAINABILITY;

MEKONG BASIN; MEKONG RIVER;

EID: 84861918092     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2012.681501     Document Type: Article

References (167)

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23. A whole plethora of community-based organisations has been very active in particular parts of the Mekong Basin system, such as 'Villagers Committee for Rehabilitation of Life and Community in the Mun River Basin', which was influential in the establishment of, and later facilitated by, the national Assembly of the Poor; Rak Chiang Khong (Love Chiang Khong) on the upper Mekong River between Chiang Khong in Thailand and Houayxai in Laos; Sesan, Sekong, Srepok Protection Network (or so-called 3SRN-3'S' Rivers Network) operating in a transnational basin (Cambodia- Vietnam) of three Mekong tributary rivers affected by hydropower dams.
24. Two regionally influential groups emerging out of Thailand were the Project for Ecological Recovery, which emerged from a growing environmentalist movement involving academics, activists, rural and social development workers, artists, journalists, and others, and Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance, which was founded in 1991 as a response to regional power shifts towards greater economic integration in the Mekong being spearheaded by the Asian Development Bank. Campaigning specifically on issues relating to river developments was the Southeast Asia Rivers Network, founded in March 1999, later becoming Living River Siam.
25. See http://www.livingriversiam.org.
26. For example, the Mekong Program on Water, Environment and Resilience (M-POWER) is a regional network of organisations and individuals describing themselves as a 'knowledge network' aiming to achieve livelihood security, human and environmental health in the Mekong region through improved water governance. M-POWER is concerned with all forms of water development (irrigation, diversion, flood controls, hydro-power, fisheries and water works), and adopts a critical but independent scientific stance in its efforts to create space for participatory dialogue, debate and policy inputs.
27. See http://www.mpowernetwork.org.
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32. One dam thing after another', The Economist, 12 November 2011.
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39. D Coates, O Poeu, U Suntornratana, N Thanh Tung & S Viravong, Biodiversity and Fisheries in the Lower Mekong Basin, Mekong Development Series, 2, Phnom Penh: Mekong River Commission, 2003.
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44. Namely, transport infrastructure, transport and trade, telecommunications, tourism, human resource development, agriculture, the environment and investment.
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47. AUSAID White Paper, at http://www.ausaid.gov.au/.
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49. AUSAID, The Greater Mekong Subregion: Australia's Strategy to Promote Integration and Cooperation, 2007-2011, Commonwealth of Australia, September 2007, at http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/mekong.pdf.
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51. ADB, 'Proposed Technical Assistance Greater Mekong Subregion Power Trade Coordination and Development', November 2005, at http://www.adb.org/documents/tars/reg/39594-reg-tar.pdf.
52. Mekong River Commission, 'Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower (ISH): 2011-2015 Document', October 2010, at http://www.mrcmekong.org/download/free_download/hydropower/ISH-2011-2015-Initiative-Final-version-30Oct.pdf.
53. A Symon, 'Analysis: Mekong visions', Power in Asia, 1 February 2007.
54. C Middleton, J Garcia & T Foran, 'Old and new players in the Mekong region: agendas and strategies'.
55. ADB, 'Strategy and Action Plan for the Greater Mekong Subregion Southern Economic Corridor', 2010, at http://www.adb.org/documents/strategy/gms/sec/gms-action-plan-south.pdf.
56. UN Conference on Trade and Development, 'Direct foreign investment in LCDs: lessons learnt from the decade 2001-2010 and the way forward', May 2011, at http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/diaeia2011d1_en.pdf.
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59. Mekong River Commission, 'Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower'.
60. Mekong River Commission, 'MRC SEA on hydropower on the Mekong mainstream', December 2009, at http://www.mrcmekong.org/ish/IR_VOL1_final.pdf.
61. Contreras, 'Synthesis: discourse, power and knowledge'.
62. M Käkönen & P Hirsch, 'The anti-politics of Mekong knowledge production', in Molle et al, Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region, pp 334-355.
63. Y Santasombat, The River of Life, p 8.
64. T Forsyth & A Walker, Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008, p 12.
65. P Hirsch, 'The politics of fisheries knowledge in the Mekong River Basin', 2003, at http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad526e/ad526e0a.htm.
66. C Sneddon & C Fox, 'Rethinking transboundary waters: a critical hydropolitics of the Mekong basin', Political Geography, 25(2), 2006, pp 181-202.
67. F Molle, T Foran & P Floch, 'Introduction: changing waterscapes in the Mekong region-historical background and context', in Molle et al, Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region, pp 1-19.
68. M Imamura, 'Introduction: water governance in the Mekong region', in Lebel et al, Democratizing Water Governance in the Mekong Region, pp 1-8.
69. Of particular note here are the international, extra-regional and regional bodies. For example, International Rivers, at http://www.internationalrivers.org.
70. Australian Mekong Resource Centre, at http://www.mekong.es.usyd.edu.au, and the Southeast Asian Rivers Network.
71. Living River Siam, at http://www.livingriversiam.org.
72. See also C Greacen & Chuenchom Greacen, 'Thailand's electricity reforms: privatization of benefits and socialization of costs and risks', Pacific Affairs, 77(4), at http://www.palangthai.org/docs/PA77.3Thailand.pdf.
73. Other valuable reports are found at http://www.palangthai.org.
74. P Hirsch, 'Where are the roots of Thai environmentalism?', TEI Quarterly Environmental Journal, 2(2), pp 5-15.
75. T Foran, BP Resurreccion, C Kansantisukmongkul, W Wirutskulshai, K Leeruttanawisut & K Lazarus, Sustainability Assessment of Thailand's Electricity Planning, co-sponsored by AUSAID, MPOWER and CGIAR Challenge Program on Water & Food, November 2010, at http://www.mpowernetwork.org/Knowledge_Bank/Key_Reports/PDF/Research_Reports/HSAP_Rapid_Assessment_Thailand.pdf.
76. J Dore & L Lebel, 'Deliberation and scale in Mekong Region water governance', Environmental Management, 46, pp 60-80.
77. RE Grumbine, J Dore & J Xu, 'Mekong hydropower: drivers of change and governance challenges', Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, doi: 10.1890/110146, at http://www.frontiersinecology.org.
78. P Sokhem, D Gyawali, M Unkulvasapaul & TP Tuong, Review of the Mekong River Commission's Basin Development Plan Programme: Phase 2, Vientiane: M-POWER, 2010.
79. This research was carried out through the following key methods: semi-structured interviews, secondary data, and discourse analysis. These interviews were either conducted face-to-face (with Eric Baran and Carl Middleton), through video conferencing (with Ian Baird) or through an email questionnaire (with Trang Dangthuy). While there were certain core questions, the interviews were tailored to each respondent in order to draw upon their respective positions, knowledge(s), expertise and experiences. Discourse analysis was then used as a methodological tool in order to interpret and to cross-reference both the interview data and the secondary data in tandem. Since then, we have also examined the pro- and anti- Xayaburi dam discourses available in publications, online reports, and from relevant Mekong agencies. The interpretations and conclusions drawn from this research are entirely those of the authors.
80. For example, the coalitions of local, provincial, national and regional interests, with extra-regional support, that campaigned in 2001-02 against the blasting of rocks and reefs by Chinese engineers in the Upper Mekong Navigation Improvement Scheme.
81. See Southeast Asian Rivers Network (SEARIN), Project for Rivers and Communities, and Love Chiang Khong, Mekong Rapids Under Fire, supported by Oxfam America, October 2002.
82. Hirsch, 'The politics of fisheries knowledge in the Mekong River Basin'.
83. Mekong River Commission, State of the Basin Report 2010, Vientiane: Mekong River Commission Secretariat, April 2010.
84. E Roe, 'Development narratives, or making the best of blueprint development', World Development, 19(4), 1991, pp 287-300.
85. R Friend, R Arthur & M Keskinen, 'Songs of the doomed: the continuing neglect of capture fisheries in hydropower development in the Mekong', in Molle et al, Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region, pp 307-332.
86. RM Friend, Securing Sustainable Livelihoods through Wetlands Management: Reflections on Experience under the Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity and Sustainable Use Programme (MWBP), technical report, Vientiane: IUCN/MWBP, 2007.
87. IG Baird & B Shoemaker, People, Livelihoods, and Development in the Xekong River Basin, Laos, Bangkok: White Lotus, 2008.
88. IG Baird, 'Local ecological knowledge and small-scale freshwater fisheries management in the Mekong River in southern Laos', in N Haggan, B Neis & IG Baird (eds), Fishers' Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management, Paris: UNESCO, 2007, pp 247-266.
89. S Bush, 'Contextualising fisheries policy in the Lower Mekong Basin', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 39(3), 2008, pp 329-353.
90. RM Friend, 'A people-centred fishery: socio-economic perspectives', in Siphandone Wetlands, Champasak Province, Lao PDR, Bergamo: CESVI, 2001.
91. Friend, Securing Sustainable Livelihoods through Wetlands Management.
92. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), 'Mekong-protecting the river of life from source to sea', 2010, at http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/mekong/.
93. WWF, 'A wave of developments', 2010, at http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/greatermekong/challenges_in_the_greater_mekong/infrastructure_development_in_the_greater_mekong/.
94. MR Bezuijen, R Zanre & M Goichot, 'The Don Sahong Dam and the Irrawaddy dolphin', 2007, at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/dolphin_don_sahong__en___high_res_.pdf.
95. WWF, 'Conservation programme of WWF Cambodia', 2008, at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_cambodia_program_info_sheets__dec08.pdf.
96. WWF, 'Science-conservation science', 2010, at http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/index.html.
97. WWF, 'Greater Mekong close encounters: new species discoveries 2008', 2009, at http:// www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/mekong/WWFBinaryitem13786.pdf.
98. WWF, 'Greater Mekong', at http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/greatermekong/.
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104. E Baran & B Ratner, 'The Don Sahong Dam and Mekong fisheries', 2007, at http://www.terraper.org/articles/DonSahong%20science%20brief.pdf.
105. Interview with Eric Baran, 20 January 2010.
106. WWF, 'WWF -science-conservation Science'.
107. RP Cronin, 'The security dimension of trans-boundary natural resource management in Southeast Asia', 2008, at http://kms2.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/ESDP/95162/ichaptersection_singledocument/F84A9110-3C13-4BA8-A976-B97B362C6435/en/13.pdf.
108. Käkönen & Hirsch, 'The anti-politics of Mekong knowledge production'.
109. Interview with Carl Middleton, 26 January 2010.
110. J Dore, 'Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSP): unfulfilled potential', in Lebel et al, Democratizing Water Governance in the Mekong Region, pp 197-226.
111. Käkönen & Hirsch, 'The anti-politics of Mekong knowledge production', p 350.
112. International Rivers Network, 'Trading away the future'.
113. International Rivers Network, 'Mission', 2010, at http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/mission.
114. N Khamin & C Middleton, 'Case study eleven: Don Sahong hydropower project', in S Lawrence (ed), Power Surge: The Impacts of Rapid Dam Development in Laos, Berkeley, CA: International Rivers, 2008, pp 80-86.
115. Ramsar is a non-UN international convention that obliges member countries to maintain the ecological character of their Wetlands of International Importance and plan for the sustainable use of all wetlands in their territories. www.ramsar.org, accessed 5 February 2012.
116. Keo Boonavat, a fisherman living along the Hou Sahong Channel, near Don Sahong in Laos, quoted in World Rivers Review, 24(3), September 2009, p 10.
117. International Rivers, 'Trading away the future'.
118. International Rivers, Power Surge: The Impacts of Rapid Dam Development in Laos, Berkeley, CA: International Rivers, 2008.
119. International Rivers, 'Mekong mainstream dams: threatening Southeast Asia's food security'.
120. C Sneddon & C Fox, 'River-basin politics and the rise of ecological and transnational democracy in Southeast Asia and South Africa', Water Alternatives, 1(1), 2008, pp 66-88.
121. Khamin & Middleton, 'Case study eleven', p 82, emphasis added.
122. C Middleton, 'Don Sahong Dam could affect millions of people: report-open letter reveals widespread concern amongst scientific community', 2009, at http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/Don_Sahong_PR_International_Rivers%2027.8.09_0.pdf.
123. Khamin & Middleton, 'Case study eleven', p 80.
124. International Rivers, 'Mekong mainstream dams', p 3.
125. There are several detailed studies of how essentially grassroots Mekong politics have become regionalised and globalised.
126. For instance, L Thim, Planning the Lower Mekong Basin: Social Intervention on the Se San River, Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn.
127. B Missinghan, The Assembly of the Poor in Thailand: From Local Struggles to National Social Movement, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.
128. S Lawrence 'The Nam Theun 2 controversy and its lessons for Laos', in Molle et al, Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Basin, pp 81-113.
129. Interview with Ian Baird, 8 March 2010.
130. Interview with Carl Middleton, 26 January 2010.
131. MJ Watts, 'Development I: power, knowledge, discursive practice', Progress in Human Geography, 17(2), 1993, pp 257-272.
132. Interview with Carl Middleton, 26 January 2010.
133. IG Baird, 'Integrating community-based fisheries co-management and protected areas management in Lao PDR: opportunities for advancement and obstacles to implementation', Evaluating Eden Series, Discussion Paper No 14, London: IIED, 2000, p 4.
134. Baird, 'Local ecological knowledge and smallscale freshwater fisheries management in the Mekong River in southern Laos', in N Haggan et al, Fishers' Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management, pp 87-99.
135. Interview with Ian Baird, 8 March 2010.
136. T Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004, p 39.
137. Contreras, 'Synthesis', p 231.
138. Ibid, p 231
139. S Bush, 'Conserving livelihoods through biodiversity', Mekong Update & Dialogue (Australian Mekong Resource Centre), 8(3), 2005, p 4. [Author's emphasis]
140. Hirsch, 'The politics of fisheries knowledge in the Mekong River Basin'.
141. Baird & Flaherty, 'Beyond national borders
142. A Poulsen, W Hartman & N Mattson, 'The role of local communities in the generation of fisheries information based on the ecosystem approach', paper presented to the Second International Symposium on the Management of Large Rivers for Fisheries, Phnom Penh, 2003.
143. IG Baird & M Mean, Sesan River Fisheries Monitoring in Ratanakiri Province, Northeast Cambodia: Before and after the Construction of the Yali Falls Dam in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Ban Lung, Ratanakiri: Sesan Rivers Protection Network, 2005.
144. Wyatt & Hirsch, 'Negotiating local livelihoods'.
145. M Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995, p 65.
146. M Hajer & W Versteeg, 'A decade of discourse analysis of environmental politics: achievements, challenges, perspectives', Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, 7(3), 2005, pp 175-184.
147. D Featherstone, Resistance, Space and Political Identities: Mobilization for Global Justice, Oxford: Blackwell, 2008, p 58.
148. J Sarkkula, M Keskinen, J Koponen, M Kummu, JE Richey & O Varis, 'Hydropower in the Mekong region: what are the likely impacts upon fisheries?', in Molle et al, Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region, pp 227-249.
149. Friend et al, 'Songs of the doomed'.
150. Grumbine et al, 'Mekong hydropower'.
151. I Campbell, C Poole, W Giesen & J Valbo-Jorgensen, 'Species diversity and ecology of the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia', Journal of Aquatic Sciences, 68(3), 2006, pp 355-373.
152. D Lamberts, 'The Tonle Sap Lake as a productive ecosystem', International Journal of Water Resources Development, 22(3), 2006, pp 481-495.
153. A Poulsen, 'Floods are vital for fisheries', Catch & Culture, 9(2), 2003, pp 7-11.
154. TJ Warren, GC Chapman & D Singhanouvong, 'The upstream dry-season migrations of some important fish species in the lower Mekong River in Laos', Asian Fisheries Science, 11, 1998, pp 239-251.
155. AMRC, 'What do MRC studies tell us about the implications of Mekong mainstream dams for fisheries', Mekong Brief, 9, November 2008.
156. AMRC, 'Editorial: poverty and biodiversity', Mekong Update & Dialogue, 8(3), July-September 2005, p 1.
157. R Gregory & H Guttman, Poor in All but Fish: A Study of the Collection of Ricefield Foods from Three Villages in Svay Teap District, Svay Riang, Working Paper 5, Bangkok: AIT Aqua Outreach Project, Asian Institute of Technology, 1996.
158. D Massey, For Space, London: Sage Publications, 2005, p 69.
159. AL Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, p 196.
160. Xayaburi dam works begin on the sly', Bangkok Post, 17 April 2011.
161. P Hirsch, 'The changing political dynamics of dam building on the Mekong', Water Alternatives, 3(2), 2010, pp 312-323.
162. International Rivers, 'Media kit on the Xayaburi Dam', at http://www.internationalrivers.org/southeast-asia/mekong-mainstream-dams/xayaburi-dam-decision-date-pending-19-april-2011MRC.
163. MRC, 'Proposed Xayaburi Dam prior consultation process', 19 April 2011, at http://www.mrcmekong.org/news-and-events/consultations/proposed-xayaburi-hydropower-project-prior-consultationprocess/.
164. MRC, 'Further study on the impact of Mekong mainstream dams', press release, 8 December 2011, at http://www.mrcmekong.org/news-and-events/news/further-study-on-impact-ofmekong-mainstream-development-to-be-conducted-say-lower-mekong-countries/.
165. The Save the Mekong Coalition involves various non-governmental organisations, academics, journalists, community based groups, and other concerned agencies in urging regional governments 'to keep the Mekong River flowing freely'.
166. http://www.savethemekong.org
167. Compelling on-site evidence of advanced construction work at Xayaburi had already been publicised by International Rivers and other groups before the 8 December 2011 decision urged by the MRC to halt construction activity. Correspondence with and images taken by independent researchers who visited the Xayaburi site in August 2011 reveal considerable Thai investment in developing the road to the proposed dam.