Green Options

17 dams recently built on the Mekong River in Southeast Asia are threatening fisheries, destroying a vast ecosystem, and starving millions. And 11 more dams are currently in the planning process.

The dams already in place are blocking fish from traveling upstream to spawn, and the new dams– many of which will sit nearer the river’s headwaters– could threaten the entire river ecosystem. 65 million people currently live and rely upon the Mekong for their sustenance and livelihood, and about 80 percent of their protein intake comes from the river’s fisheries.

A new study finds that there is a 50-50 chance all of the Colorado River reservoirs — in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona — will run completely dry by the year 2057 if currents trends and practices continue.

A new drilling study has definitively dated the Amazon River at over 11 million years old, and it has held its current form for at least the last 2.4 million years.

The Amazon is one of the two longest rivers in the world, and its flood basin is home to one third of all the species on Earth. Discovering the river’s age is a stark reminder of just how ancient and intertwined the Amazonian ecosystem is, including the immensely rich biodiversity which calls it home.

We already know about the myriad of problems around the world caused by drought, water delivery restrictions and inadequate access to clean water. And we’ve already heard the argument that global warming is to blame for such water shortages. A report recently released by the advocacy group Transparency International provides another reason for the global water crisis: corruption.

In a press release issued by the global coalition against corruption, Chair Huguette Labelle was quoted, “Water is a resource without substitute. It is paramount to our health, our food security, our energy future and our ecosystem. But corruption plagues water management and use in all these areas.”

The organization’s report which was published last month, entitled Global Corruption Report 2008: Corruption in the Water Sector, argues that corruption plagues all segments of the water sectors, from water resources management to drinking water services, irrigation and hydropower. The report’s analysis of corruption in 35 countries from different world regions cites examples, such as bribery in water delivery and procurement-related looting of irrigation and hydropower funds, and focuses on the gravity of the situation and urgent need for reform.

Researchers turn to international cooperation to save Asia’s 7′th longest river.

Urbanization, growing slums, intensive farming, damming, and warring political ideologies are just a few of the hurdles that researchers from Helsinki University of Technology will need to overcome to protect the Mekong River, one of the most important water sources in Southeast Asia.

Luckily, they have a plan. To save the river, researchers have developed what they are calling the ‘3E principle’: the idea that “waters should be used to provide economic well-being to the people, without compromising social equity and environmental sustainability.”

Putting this principle into practice means working closely with each of the countries that benefits from the Mekong River (China and Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) to safeguard the river’s life-giving water.