Environmental Criteria for Hydropower in the Mekong Region - WWF

The Current Status of Environmental Criteria for Hydropower Development in the Mekong Region: A litterature compilation
Foreword
Population growth, economic development, and associated increases in personal
wealth are causing growth in electricity demand across the Greater Mekong region, if
not uniformly within the different countries, still at an overall rapid rate for the region
as a whole. Different sets of options are open to meet this demand – each with unique
advantages and disadvantages - all of which become entangled in the complex play of
diverging priorities supported by different interest groups. In the mean time, the
recent recognition of the role of human activities on climate change is leading to
rethinking of the entire energy sector.
As a result, a complex paradigm lies in front of decision makers, touching on crucial
issues such as global sustainability, national security/autonomy and key economic
strategies. GMS electricity markets will obviously end up relying on a combination of
solutions. A spatial mismatch between resources and demand brought the
development of a regional power grid, allowing further movements within the region
to share large urban centres, peak loads, and opening energy export channels to
Eastern China and Malaysia; thus adding even more complexity to the overall
situation, and shifting the thinking further from a national to a regional scale.
The unharnessed hydropower potential of the region stands high on the options list,
and is therefore earmarked in national strategies to contribute an important share of
the prospective demand. Yet, examples throughout the world have shown the
environmental impacts of hydropower are difficult to ascertain and are therefore at
risk of being underestimated. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and local economies will
have to pay a dear cost for wrong choices. While the World Commission on Dams
report allowed an important step forward in the understanding of those issues, there is
still a pressing need for more practical answers tailored to the specificities of the GMS
context.
Three organisations, -ADB, MRCS and WWF - have joined forces, to attempt to
address some of these gaps. The aim of this initiative for Environmental Criteria for
Hydropower Development (ECHD) is to provide interested stakeholders with
information, knowledge and tools to better manage hydropower so that the ecological
functions of rivers, the natural resources they provide to other economic sectors, and
the livelihoods of people that depend on them are maintained acceptably and
appropriately.
The present technical document gathers the background information and sets the
basis, for the three current partners involved to undertake a consultation process with
a broader range of stakeholders.
It is hoped that this is a useful start that will contribute to an improved understanding
and, in the end, inform decision making for a more sustainable future for the people of
the Mekong.
Mr Urooj Malik
Director,
Southeast Asia Department
ADB
Dr Olivier Cogels
CEO
MRC
WWF Greater Mekong
Representative
Eric Coull
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