Where Have All The Fish Gone? Killing The Mekong Dam By Dam

Directed by Tom Fawthrop

51 mins | English | 2006

Where Have All the Fish Gone? (Eureka Films) looks at the four Chinese hydropower dams that have been already built on the Lancang (The Chinese name for the upper Mekong), but its main focus is on the Lower Mekong basin shared by Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

The Mekong, one of world’s great rivers, sustaining the lives of 65 million people, is under dire threat from a cascade of hydro-electric dams. Four have already been built along the Chinese stretch of the Mekong. 11 more dams have been mapped out downstream in Laos and Cambodia. Rare species such as the Giant Catfish and the Irrawaddy Dolpin will almost certainly be wiped out if all these dams go ahead.  The unique ecosystem of the Mekong, the flood pulse that in rainy season produces the ‘miracle’ of the Tonle Sap changing course and reversing its flow to and from the great lake, is unlikely to survive the impact of dams slated from Xayaboury in Laos to Stung Treng and Sambor in Cambodia. The Mekong is the world’s largest freshwater fishery. Dams are a threat to fish migration, and will produce devastating losses to food security in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

This film looks at the risks and dangers of this headlong rush into dams and asks key questions about who really benefits from this so-called development. A Cambodian NGO activist asks who will benefit from the dam construction …. “development for who?”