The Nation
Bangkok
Thursday, November 14, 2002

MEKONG NAVIGATION: Blasting should start soon - official
by Pennapa Hongthong

Thailand should begin blasting rapids in the Mekong River next year as part
of a project to develop commercial navigation on the river, a senior
government official said yesterday.

Despite strong protests from conservationists and the fishing communities
of the Mekong River, the removal of rocky hazards along a 886-kilometre
stretch of the river should go-ahead next year, said Suphot
Tovichakchaikul, director of the Water Crisis Prevention Centre, Department
of Water Resources.

Suphot recently attended a summit of Mekong-basin countries in Kunming.

Thailand, Laos, Burma and China's Yunnan province last year signed the
Mekong Commercial Navigation Agreement, allowing the blasting of at least
13 rapids - two or which are in Thai territory - to allow 150-tonne vessels
to navigate the river from Yunnan to Chiang Rai.

The agreement claimed that the blasting was needed for cargo and passenger
transportation between the four countries.

Two rapids in Yunnan province have already been blasted.

In Thailand, the removal of rock should begin in April at the rapids in
Nong Khai province, Suphot said.

Blasting will take around six months because of the extent of the rapids,
which cover about 200 square metres.

To allow large vessels to freely navigate the Mekong, a six-metre-deep
river channel is needed, said Suphot.

He insists that the project does not conflict with the Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA), as environmentalists have claimed.

Suphot added that the governments of the four countries had approved the
EIA, which has been criticised by environmentalists as being substandard.

The latest ministerial meeting of the Mekong River Commission - a
coordinating body for the utilisation, management and conservation of the
river - did not believe the issue warranted further discussion.

Premruadee Daureang - from Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional
Alliance (Terra), an international non-government organisation which
opposes the project - voiced her concern that the blasting would damage the
river's ecology and devastate the livelihood of fishing communities in
Thailand and Laos, both on the lower Mekong.[End]