At ASEAN People’s Forum, 23,000 Signature Petition to Protect Mekong
River from Mainstream Dams sent to Region’s Leaders

Media Advisory: 19th October 2009

[Cha-am, Thailand] Today, at the ASEAN People’s Forum, the Save the
Mekong coalition sends to the Prime Ministers of Cambodia, Lao,
Thailand and Vietnam a 23,110 signature petition urging the Mekong
region’s leaders to abandon plans for hydropower development on the
Mekong River’s mainstream and to work together to protect the river
and to pursue less damaging electricity options.

The petition is signed by 15,282 people from within the Mekong region,
including 352 people from China, 30 from Burma, 616 from Laos, 7,797
from Thailand, 2,682 from Cambodia and 3,805 from Vietnam. Many of
these signatories live alongside the Mekong River. The remaining 7,828
signatures came from people from fifty countries around the world.

The governments of Cambodia, Lao and Thailand are considering plans by
Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Russian and Chinese companies to build
eleven dams on the Mekong River’s mainstream. These plans are
inconsistent with the ASEAN charter, including commitments to protect
the environment, to use natural resources sustainably, and to preserve
cultural heritage. They are also inconsistent with ASEAN’s commitment
to sustainable development and attaining the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG), especially MDG1 on eradicating extreme hunger and poverty
and MDG7 to ensure environmental sustainability.

At the ASEAN People’s Forum, civil society groups will call for a new
ASEAN Strategic Pillar on Environment that commits the member states
to place international best practices on environmental sustainability
at the center of decision-making. Proposals to build dams on the
Mekong River’s mainstream epitomize an out-dated and unsustainable
mode of development that violates affected people’s rights and fails
to ensure equitable and sustainable development. Yet, with revised
energy policies in place, ASEAN could leapfrog the 1950s-era of big
dams and start growing sustainable, modern economies without losing
the benefits that healthy rivers bring.

The Mekong River is the world’s most productive inland freshwater
fishery. Wild fish and other aquatic resources harvested from the
Mekong are worth up to US$9.4 billion per year taking into account
secondary industries. The fisheries contribute significantly to the
region’s economy and secure the incomes and livelihoods of millions of
local fishers throughout the region, which include many of the
region’s poorest people.

Building mainstream dams would block the migratory fisheries that
constitute around seventy percent of the total commercial catch,
consequently jeopardizing regional food security, nutrition and health
and seriously setting back other initiatives aimed at alleviating
poverty and meeting development targets. Experience around the world
demonstrates that there is no way to mitigate the fisheries impacts of
such large dams.

On 18 June 2009, representatives from the Save the Mekong coalition
met with H.E. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Prime Minister of Thailand, who
agreed that ASEAN has a role to play as a forum to discuss issues
related to plans for dam development and impacts.

Despite the limited space for public debate, the Save the Mekong
petition aims to make heard the people’s voices for protecting the
Mekong as a giant food chain and cultural lifeline for millions of
people.