Excessive dam construction and other major causes contribute to record low Tonle Sap levels

Besides climate change and other major environmental factors, a huge number of dam constructions on the upstream Mekong River, especially in China and Laos, has caused a sharp decrease in water levels of Tonle Sap Lake this year, according to experts.

Brian Eyler, a senior fellow and director of the Washington-based Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program said that the upper Mekong was being affected by the drought due to the dams’ development.

Eyler posted on this Facebook recently that there are hundreds of upstream dams in different countries such as Laos (100+), China (100+), Vietnam (16+), Thailand (9+) and, Cambodia (2).

“China’s major upstream dams at Nuozhadu and Xiaowan have already turned off their taps and are in the process of restricting around 20 billion cubic meters of water – at a time when the downstream needs that water,” reads his post.

Moreover, according to Eye on Earth and Global Environmental Satellite Applications in April, based on satellite data from 1992 to 2019 and daily river level data from Thailand, the river level with the height of 126 meters has been missing from the river for the past 28 years.

Experts also expressed that this drop in water level will cause trouble to the annual Tonle Sap reverse flow, which could severely affect Cambodian fisheries that depend on the Tonle Sap lakes.