Cambodian fisherman Sles Hiet lives at the mercy of the Mekong: A massive river that feeds tens of millions but is under threat from the Chinese dams cementing Beijing's physical - and diplomatic - control over its Southeast Asian neighbours.

The 32-year-old, whose ethnic Cham Muslim community live on rickety house boats that bob along a river bend in Kandal province, says the size of his daily catch has been shrinking by the year.

"We don't know why there are less fish now," he told AFP of a mystery that has mired many deeper into poverty.

It is a lament heard from villages along a river that snakes from the Tibetan plateau through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the South China Sea.

Nearly 4,800km long, the Mekong is the world's largest inland fishery and second only to the Amazon for its bio-diversity. It helps feed around 60 million people across its river basin.

Yet control over its taps rests to the north with China, whose premier Li Keqiang will land in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to lead a new regional summit that could shape the river's future.

Beijing has already studded the Mekong's upper reaches with six dams and is investing in more than half of the 11 dams planned further south, according to International Rivers.

Environmental groups warn the blockages pose a grave threat to fish habitats by disrupting migrations and the flow of key nutrients and sediment - not to mention displacing tens of thousands of people with flooding.

Communities in the lower Mekong countries have reported depleted fish stocks in recent years and are blaming the dams.

Experts say it is too early to draw full conclusions given a lack of baseline data and the complex nature of the river's ecosystem.

But what they do agree on is that China has the upper hand over a resource that serves as the economic lifeblood of its poor southern backyard.

The lower Mekong countries are "not able to stand up to China geo-politically," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a foreign policy expert at Bangkok's Chulalongkron University.

That allows Beijing to keep "undermining habitats and millions of livelihoods downstream."

 

Source: AFP