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The construction of Xayaburi Dam on the lower Mekong River is already creating

negative effects in areas such as fishery and agriculture. If it is completely built and

operating, it will do worse damage to the habitats of people in the Mekong River area.

The Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia. It is the 7th longest in Asia,

and the 12th longest in the world about 4,350 kilometers. The origin of the Mekong River is

the Tibetan Plateau or the Himalayan Plateau and Qinghai, before it passes Myanmar, through

Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and the end of the river flows out to the South China Sea in

Vietnam. Moreover, the Mekong River is the richest area of biodiversity in the world cause of

surrounding areas of the Lower Mekong River are full with species of fish that more than six-

hundred species and resource of minerals. The big aquatic which is important and can find in

the Mekong River is Pangasianodon gigas or known as Mekong giant catfish. At the present,

the Xayaburi Dam, which located on the lower of the Mekong River was approved by Laos.

It is being built by Thai company and Thai money and expects that it will go to finish at the

end of 2019. According to Ministry of Energy, it believes that if the Xayaburi Dam is fully

constructed, then the people in that area will get both positive and negative impacted more

than nowadays definitely. The background of the Xayaburi Dam project, it was occurring due

to the economic growth of Thailand. Thus, the people in the country would like to use the

electrical increasingly every year. Department of Energy and the Electricity Generating

Authority of Thailand have an important mission to provide the source of electrical

production to accommodate the electrical requirement sufficiently and permanently.

Including, the rate of the electricity bill has to constant and has a minimal environmental

impact. Moreover, Department of Energy and the electricity generating authority of Thailand

have a great plan to develop the power of the electricity. First, it has to determine the

electrical production within country, which consist of the combined cycle power plant that

use a clean energy. For example, the natural gas, the high quality coal, and the pumped
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storage hydropower plant, etc. There is a distribution of fuel to produce many kinds of

electricity in order to make the stability with the electricity system. In addition to the supply

of electric power production in the country. It has another important way that is the purchase

of electricity from neighboring countries to promote the production of electricity for sale in

Thailand under the memorandum of understanding between the government of Thailand and

Laos.

Agreement deal with cooperation for sustainable development of Mekong River. The

government of Cambodia, The Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam have an equal desire for the

cooperation in form of constructive and mutually beneficial manner for sustainable

development. According to the Thai National Mekong Committee-Information System

(TNMC-IS). It said that the main purpose of the 1995 Mekong Agreement is to facilitate

cooperation in the Development of the Mekong River, which in the positive way that is

environmentally sustainable. It has some problem occur in the 1995 Mekong Agreement

which is Laos violated the 1995 Mekong Agreement. This problem is the Lao People's

Democratic Republic did not push forward the construction of Xayaburi Dam.

(TransborderNEWS, 2012). Thats a breaking the law agreement with another three countries.

It may causes of the conflict that will going to be happened in the future in both internal and

external conflict. Internal conflict is the people who live around the Xayaburi Dam and

Laoss government will have some problem. For external conflict is another three countries

will ban Laos because of the affective that they will get. In 2014, Cambodias fishermen on

the Mekong River called for Laoss government to stop building dam on the river between

countries for doing some research the adverse effects which will impact to the people

surrounding Mekong River. Fishermen on Mekong River promised themselves that they will

fight more to stop building of Mekong Dam and its the way that can protect their

community. According to Bangkok Post, Long So Jaz, who is the fishermans leader at Shore
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of Tonle Sap in Cambodia said that they were able to fishing only. People, who live in area

around Mekong River, understood that the electric energy is the one of the important thing for

them, but they can live without the construction of Xayaburi Dam. Thats mean they did not

want energy anymore. Thus, they just would like to say clearly that the government of Lao

People's Democratic Republic should discontinue the poor dam project and financial

institution should stop to give money to us. Finally, infringement of the 1995 Mekong

Agreement was happened by Laoss responded non-governmental organization (NGO) that

Laos did not advance the Xayaburi Dam project, but Laos did. Therefore, Laos was violating

1995 Mekong Agreement.

Impact of the Xayaburi Dams to the environment in Mekong River. Firstly, it affected

the quality of water because the Xayaburi Dams is kind of run-of-the-river which means it

does not has a reservoir. Although, it does not has a reservoir, but it has to store water around

forty-nine square kilometers for reduce drought problem. It affects to seedling because they

absorb water unnecessarily and the seedling will cause of the obstruction that make the fish

cannot migrate. Furthermore, water stream will going to pass slower than before, including it

has to use for a long time to digest by themselves. Therefore, it will going to be affect to

quality of water directly. In addition, the Xayaburi Dams affected migration of species of fish,

for example Mekong giant catfish, and barramundi or known as white perch. There are a lots

of species of fish are going to become extinct or they have lived endangered condition due to

the construction of Xayaburi Dam. Including, it affected to the large amount of fish in

Mekong River. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) evaluated the impact to the area that

has a building dam. From the calculation throughout of the year, EIA found that there have

not been enough evidence to prove the problem which affects to Xayaburi Dam. Even

though, Xayaburi Dam creates a lot of impacts, but it has advantages. Firstly, if the Xayaburi

Dam has constructed completely, then it will return electrical energy to Thailand from the
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origin of Thai-Laos border in a number of 1,220 megawatts for twenty-nine years. It will start

since 2019 from now on. Average of electric bill is about 6,929 million units per year.

Besides, buying electronics from adjoining countries is the one that permit a great relation

between Thailand and neighbor countries which have a border connect with the Xayaburi

Dam and Mekong Basin River. (Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, 2013)

Lastly, there is a lot of cons cause of the construction of Xayaburi Dam. It affects to

animals, especially fishes because of the quality of the water and the trees that fall over block

the way that the fishes are going to migrate to another place. Also, people who living around

the Mekong River get affection as well. Nowadays, the problems of the Xayaburi Dam,

including the Laos violated the 1995 Mekong agreement, do not solve it successfully.

References

S. Liu; P. Lu; D. Liu; P. Jin; W. Wang (2009). "Pinpointing source and measuring the lengths

of the principal rivers of the world". International Journal of Digital Earth. Retrieved

January 9, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

Mekong River Commission (2010). "State of the Basin Report, 2010" (PDF). MRC,

Vientiane, Laos. Retrieved January 10, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong

BBC (2012, November 6). Laos approves Xayaburi mega dam on Mekong. BBC Asia.

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20203072

Xayaburi hydroelectric power project. (2016). Retrieved January 11, 2017, from

http://www.eppo.go.th/index.php/en/energy-information-services/xayaburi-hydroelectric-

power-project
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EIA WWF.

Retrieved January 30, 2017, from http://www.seub.or.th/index.php?

option=com_content&view=article&id=996:seubnew

s&catid=5:2009-10-07-10-58-20&Itemid=14

Rivers, I. (2013). Xayaburi dam: How Laos violated the 1995 Mekong agreement. Retrieved

January 11, 2017, from https://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/267/xayaburi-dam-how

laos-violated-the-1995-mekong-agreement

. (2016).

. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.tnmc-is.org/ma1995/

PCL, P. P. (1996). Laos urged to halt Mekong dam work. Retrieved January 30, 2017, from

http://www.bangkokpost.com/archive/laos-urged-to-halt-mekong-dam-work/432811

TransborderNEWS. (2012, July 6). . Retrieved

January 30, 2017, from http://transbordernews.in.th/home/?p=1269