Cambodia hopes the new canal will boost trade. But it risks harming the Mekong, which feeds millions.

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PREK TAKEO, Cambodia (AP) — The Mekong River is a lifeline for millions in the six countries it flows through on its way to the sea, sustaining the world’s largest fishery and the vast rice fields of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Cambodia’s plan to build a large canal linking the Mekong to a port on its coast in the Gulf of Thailand is raising fears that the project could destroy the river’s natural flooding, exacerbate drought and deprive coastal farmers of rich nutrients. mud that made Vietnam the world’s third largest exporter of rice.

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Cambodia hopes the $1.7 billion Funan Techo canal, built with Chinese aid, will support its desire to export from factories along the Mekong without relying on Vietnam, linking the capital Phnom Penh with Kep province on Cambodia’s southern coast.

At the opening ceremony on August 6, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said the canal would be built “no matter what the cost.” By reducing transportation costs in Cambodia’s only deep seaport, Sihanoukville, the canal will enhance, “national pride, territorial integrity and the development of Cambodia,” he said.

Along with those promises comes danger. Here’s a closer look.

The threat of the Mekong

The Mekong River flows from China through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It supports a fishery that accounts for 15% of the world’s fisheries, worth more than $11 billion a year, according to the non-profit World Wildlife Fund. Flooding during the rainy season makes the Mekong Delta one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

The river has been disrupted by dams built upstream in Laos and China that limit the amount of water that flows downstream, while rising seas erode the southern edge of the climate-vulnerable Mekong Delta.

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Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program, in Washington, warns that high dams along the 100-meter (328 feet)-wide, 5.4-meter (17.7 feet)-deep canal will prevent silt-laden water from flowing downstream. . to Vietnam. That could exacerbate drought in Vietnam’s rice bowl and floods in Cambodia, an area of ​​about 1,300 square kilometers (501 square miles).

A view from a Vietnamese rice bowl

The extremely dry Mekong Delta worries Vietnam’s agricultural sector, which accounts for 12% of its economy. The southwestern provinces of An Giang and Kien Giang would be most affected. Rivers flowing through green fields are essential to Vietnam’s plans to grow “high-quality, low-emission rice” on one million hectares of farmland by 2030. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gases that warm the earth, reduce production costs and increase farmers. profit.

The water from the river is “vital” not only for Vietnam’s more than 100 million people but also for global food security, said Nguyen Van Nhut, director of a rice exporting company in Hoang Minh Nhat.

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Vietnam’s exports of 8.3 million metric tons (9.1 US tons) of rice by 2023 accounted for 15% of global exports. Most grew in the Mekong Delta. The silt deposited in the river has already subsided and further disturbances will impair the salinity in the area, harming agriculture, said Nhat.

“This will be a big problem for the agricultural sector in the Mekong region,” he said.

A Cambodian perspective

Cambodia says the canal is an “accessory project” that will connect to the Bassac River near Phnom Penh. President Hun Sen said on social media X that this means “there will be no impact on the flow of the Mekong River.”

But the plans show that the canal will connect to the Mekong river and in any case the Bassac contains all the water from the Mekong, said Eyler.

Cambodian authorities are downplaying the potential environmental impacts of the project. “This is their main reason for not saying anything about the Mekong River,” he said.

A document sent in August 2023 to the Mekong River Commission – an organization created to cooperate on issues related to the Mekong River – does not mention the use of water from the irrigation canal, although Cambodia has said it plans to do so. The Stimson Center added that it is “reasonable” that irrigation would be needed during the dry months, but that would require negotiating an agreement with other Mekong countries.

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The Mekong River Commission told the Associated Press that all major projects on the Mekong River “must be checked for transboundary potential.” It said it was providing technical assistance “to increase transparency and cooperation between the countries concerned.”

Sun Chanthol, Cambodia’s deputy prime minister who oversees the project, did not respond to a request for comment.

Nationalist rhetoric and tense neighbors

Cambodia has rejected criticism of the canal, which is widely seen as an attempt by ruling officials in that country to gain the support of Prime Minister Hun Manet, who succeeded his father Hun Sen, who led Cambodia for 38 years.

The canal will be built jointly by China’s state-owned construction giant China Road and Bridge Corporation and Cambodian companies. But it is overshadowed by nationalist rhetoric. The canal will give Cambodia a “breathing space” by reducing its dependence on Vietnam, Hun Sen said.

Vietnam has avoided criticizing its neighbor openly, instead speaking about its concerns quietly. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said at a press conference in May that Hanoi had asked Cambodia to share information and assess the project’s environmental impacts to “ensure the harmony of interests” of the Mekong countries.

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Many Cambodians remain suspicious of Vietnam’s intentions, believing it may want to annex Cambodia’s territory. Given the contentious past between the two countries, large and wealthy Vietnam is careful not to appear to interfere with Cambodia’s sovereignty, said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Although in Vietnam, there is great concern,” he said.

The loss of Cambodia’s national identity is a concern for people like Sok Koeun, 57, who may lose her home.

The tin-roofed hut he has lived in with his family since 1980 is where the canal is supposed to be built. The river provides him with fish to feed his family while he struggles by selling sugarcane juice and recycling plastic cans.

No one has contacted him, he says, to answer his growing questions: Will he be compensated? Will you find the world? Or money? Where will they go?

“I only read about it (the canal) right now,” he said.

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