Mekong—The Occluding River

AVIVA IMHOF, Aviva Imhof, Campaigns Director, International Rivers, Berkeley, California. "Dr. Vinh's love of the Mekong River and the life it supports comes through on every page of this book. Part travelogue, part history, part autobiography, Dr. Vinh weaves a compelling story about his travels through the countries sharing the Mekong River and gives the reader a frightening picture of what dam construction in China is doing, and could do, to his beloved river." WITOON PERMPONGSACHAROEN, Publisher Watershed, People’s Forum on Ecology,TERRA It's really great to know that someone tries to do something on his/her capacity to protect the Mekong. It's really true that the Mekong and her people are facing a serious situation "prosperity or destruction"? We need more people like you working to "Save the Mekong for our future generations" by helping to "Stop destructive developments for the Mekong’s sustainability". PHAM PHAN LONG, PE, Chairman , Viet Ecology Foundation Dr. Ngo The Vinh seems to find himself in the midst of one big battle after another through every phase of his life. As a medical doctor, he is destined to be engaged in the fight to save lives and care for his patients one at a time. However, his intellectual sensibility has forced him to be deeply involved with the wider issues in the life of the people he treats. His conscience and courage take him on daring investigative missions in order to write and expose the plight of the Thượng, the minority groups in Central Vietnam, and the American involvement in the corruption of the Saigon government during the Vietnam War. In the last 15 years, Dr. Vinh has intensely focused his attention on the Lancang-Mekong countries. This combat physician took notes of the beneficial economic progress but also took on the governments and destructive developments in the region. Page by page, Mekong the Occluding River - The River’s Tale, becomes his current combat operating theater. To write this book, Dr. Vinh investigated and traveled to the most forbidden reaches: from the high mountains in Yunnan to the dam reservoirs in Laos, to mystic Cambodia and the seasonally inundated Mekong Delta in Vietnam because he wanted to learn first hand of the changes that were occurring in the life of the people on the ground. Readers will benefit greatly from his travel diary, the wealth of facts concerning the cultural and historical backgrounds, and the richness of his observations and perspectives. Dr. Vinh seeks to protect the cultural heritage and livelihood of the 65 million Chinese, Burmese, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese fishermen and farmers living along the banks of this mighty river as well as the future of their children. Dr. Vinh personifies the courage of an independent Vietnamese writer and a Vietnamese-American intellectual of our time. Dr. TRAN NGUON PHIEU, author of “Phan Văn Hùm – A Biography and Accomplishment” I had the honor of befriending Ngô Thế Vinh, a comrade in arms, a colleague and at the same time an author. Though not a native of the South, he is emotionally attached to this river that uncharacteristically has two currents and nine estuaries. His literary career took a new turn when he used his pen to write about this life-giving river in the southern delta. With his book: The Nine Dragons Drained Dry, East Sea in Turmoil”, he was first among the Friends of the Mekong Group to awaken public opinion to this immediate issue which undoubtedly will remain to be so for many decades to come. His spirit of adventure took him to Yunnan in China to see with his own eyes the Manwan hydroelectric dam. To venture into an authoritarian and police state would certainly entail immeasurable uncertainties. After having kept track of the emails he sent to me and his other friends throughout his trip, we all breathed a sigh of relief when he finally informed us that he has safely left China. Bidding farewell to the source of the Mekong, the area where the dams have brought prosperity to the province of Yunnan, Ngô Thế Vinh continued to head south of the current to Northern Laos, the Tonle Sap Lake and finally the Mekong Delta. There, he witnessed the degradation of the Lower Mekong’s eco-system caused by the construction of dams in China. The water abundant sections of the Mekong at Vientiane and Luang Prabang gradually turned into a trickle of a stream with sand bars starting to appear in the middle of the current. There was a time the Mekong was teeming with the legendary giant Pla Beuks. Unfortunately, they have now become a scarcity. This fish species will inevitably disappear from the scene as more and more hydroelectric dams are being built. His journey led Ngô Thế Vinh further south to Cambodia where we can find the Tonle Sap Lake that serves as a natural reservoir for the Mekong during the rainy season. This lake also endows the economy of the land of Angkor with an extraordinarily abundant and valuable source of fish and shrimp. From time immemorial, the Mekong Delta has always been considered the granary of the Vietnamese people. Alas, as China persists in building its hydroelectric dams, sea water begins to encroach into the river mouths then into the fields creating significant difficulties to the cultivation of rice. For millenniums, China has exerted considerable influence on the thoughts and way of life of its neighbors’ intelligentsia. However, with its relentless drive toward material gains and economic development coupled with its efforts to sinicize Tibet, Uyghurs and other minorities this country is now facing increasing protestation from the world community. Its land and sea expansion along with it unfair competitive practices against the economies of its neighbors also bring about the concern and condemnation of those peoples who only wish to live in peace. The natural resources we inherit from our forebears are limited. More than two thousands years ago, Lao Tzu, this great man of China, preached that we should learn to live in harmony with nature. Nowadays, in addition to the four hydroelectric dams it already built, China insists on the construction of 14 more on the Upper Mekong regardless of the damaging impacts they may inflict on the ecosystem and the livelihood of the people living downstream. Ngô Thế Vinh authored “Mekong, The Occluding River” in an apparent attempt to sound the alarm on the dangers facing the Mekong and the East Sea. Those two areas will undoubtedly play a crucial role in the political future of Southeast Asia. Prof. VO TONG XUAN, Rector Emeritus, An Giang University, Vietnam Dr. Ngô Thế Vinh is deeply interested in measures that protect the eco-system of the Mekong and the Mekong Delta. He has collected a wealth of precious data concerning the more than 4,000 kilometer long Mekong current flowing from Tibet to the East Sea. Many of his articles written with a heart felt style have been published to provide readers in Vietnam as well as overseas with useful information concerning not only the early construction stages of the dams in the Mekong Cascades of Yunnan but also about the calamities that the 14 dams in the Cascades may wreak on that river’s ecology affecting the tens of millions of people who inhabit its banks. Dr. Vinh is fully aware of the extremely ominous prospects the ecology of the Mekong Delta is facing due to the construction of gigantic dams upstream the river like the Xiaowan dam, the world tallest, which has been recently completed. Therefore, in his articles he never tires of drawing the attention of the Vietnamese as well as international public opinion to this issue. To add urgency to it, he recently authored a travelogue named “Mekong Dòng Sông Nghẽn Mạch / Mekong-the Occluding River” to record his experience during his travels along the Mekong’s current. Dr. Vinh does not live in Vietnam. Nevertheless his heart and mind are inextricably anchored to the bed of his river.