River communities in South East Asia are fighting for their very survival in the face of major dam developments. Melanie Scaife met some of the villagers who are trying to save their precious waterways.

Communities along the Mekong use the river not only for fishing but as a transport route as well.
Photo: Sam Hui/SEARIN.

Deep in the forest by the Salween River on the Thai-Burmese border, men and women fall to their knees, arms stretched forward, palms to the earth, and pray. It's the start of the farming season and the Karen are asking the spirits for permission to use the land to grow food for their families.

Nature is deeply revered by this Burmese ethnic minority, who have been using and protecting the forest's and river's natural resources for countless generations. But even the spirits may not be able to help them save the Salween.

Upstream, plans are afoot to construct six hydroelectric dams to increase Thailand's electricity supply and Burma's cash flow. Ko Ko Maung*, a member of the Karen community and an environmental activist, is worried.

"Eighty-five villages, home to 15,000 people, will potentially be affected by these dams and yet we have not been consulted. Fishing in the river, agricultural activities in the flood plains, terrace farming on the flat lands - all of this will be affected," Ko Ko Maung says.

So the Karen are taking action. Drawing on generations of local knowledge and wisdom, communities living on both sides of the river are conducting their own research with the assistance of the South East Asia Rivers Network and Karen Environmental and Social Action Network.

The research aims to document the diverse ecosystems of the Salween River Basin, its animal and plant species and the Karen's agricultural and fishing practices. Research findings will be used to actively engage in the dam development debate and to focus attention on minimising the dams' negative social and environmental impacts.

While the Karen are doing all they can to ensure their rights are respected, Ko Ko Maung concedes they have a big fight on their hands. "As indigenous people, we know that if they build these dams we will be forced to resettle and our livelihoods will be destroyed."

He has reason to be concerned for this has been the fate of many communities throughout East and South East Asia relocated to make way for major infrastructure developments.

Despite the Karen's less than certain future, Ko Ko Maung smiles gently. "We fight hard," he says.

Ko Ko Maung was one of many men and women from dam-affected communities who came together at the Rivers Watch East and South East Asia (RWESA) general meeting, which Oxfam supported, in Cambodia, late last year. RWESA is a network of 35 non-government organisations from East and South East Asia that aims to stop destructive river development projects and restore rivers to the communities who depend on them.

The meeting was attended by 140 delegates from every country in the region and provided important networking opportunities for people from river communities - a key part of our aim to enable communities to advocate for themselves on issues which concern them.

Our support of the RWESA meeting forms part of our ongoing work to ensure the main drivers of infrastructure development, such as development banks, donor governments and commercial interests, adequately acknowledge the rights and interests of local communities. Oxfam also works with river communities directly, supporting the livelihoods of small scale farmers and fisher folk who bear the impact of these developments.

Boon* knows what being 'resettled' can mean for a community. He is an ethnic Nya Heun man from the Paksong district in Champasak province, Laos, and a member of the Nya Heun community resettled to make way for the Houay Ho Dam. As part of the dam development, completed in 1999, 10 villages were resettled to an area far from the villagers' original homeland.

Floating communities like Chong Kneas in Cambodia live along the lowr reaches of the Mekong River system. The livelihoods of these communities rely on healthy fisheries. We support communities like these to have access to information on major developments along the river and to have their voices heard by decision makers.
Photo: Helen Brereton/OxfamAUS.

"We need enough land - this is the basic problem of our people," Boon says. "We don't have access to resources because we have been moved to an area without our own forest or land. The rivers and streams are used by people from other villages and ethnic groups.

"Our livelihoods are dependent on the forests and rivers - we used to live in a very big forest. Then we're put, all of a sudden, in a very concentrated area where all the resources around us are owned by somebody else and it's a huge shock for us, a huge change from what we were used to."

There are no resettlement plans for communities living along the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong Rivers in Cambodia as yet, but they're taking no chances. The three tributaries of the Mekong River sustain the livelihoods of more than 90 indigenous communities living in the north-eastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Stung Treng. Yet the recent construction of large hydropower dams upstream has adversely affected their livelihoods and degraded their rivers. Plans to build a cascade of dams along the three rivers further threaten the region's natural resources and the lives of those who depend on them.

Sin Tong Lao has lived by the Srepok River since she was young. "It used to be easy for my family to earn money - we fished and had a small vegetable garden close to the river," she says. "Every day I collected vegetables and fish to sell in the market.

"Now the water levels always change - sometimes up, sometimes down - making it difficult to grow vegetables along the river or to catch fish."

With the support of the 3 S Rivers Protection Network, a local Cambodian network funded in part by Oxfam America, Sin Tong Lao and her fellow villagers are speaking up about the developments that are directly impacting on their lives and working to find solutions.

"We've set up a six-village working group and we organise meetings with villagers in the district to discuss how to overcome these problems," she says.

"Our community asks us to do whatever we can to restore the natural flow of the river," adds Sai Bunlamb, a villager from Andong Meas district, who lives on the Sesan River and is also a member of the 3 S Rivers Protection Network.

"We request that the government and the dam builders compensate us for what we have lost so far. We ask them to stop new dam construction - these are the requests of the community."

Meanwhile, back by the banks of the Salween, the Karen fall to their knees in prayer seeking Mother Nature's blessing. Further upstream, consultants draft their environmental impact assessments for the dams of the future. And the river, it flows silently on, for now.

Melanie Scaife is Oxfam Australia's Communications Editor.

Find out more about our work helping communities along the Mekong river.

* Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identities of these people.