Reenergize the living space of resettled riverine communities on the Mekong

Abstract

The Mekong River, an important transnational river in Southeast Asia, passes through six counties including China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. About 70 million people live in the Mekong Basin, and the basin provides many resources of people to make a living, and help to sustain the daily life routines of local community. The development of mainstream dams on the Mekong River is a potential major trans-boundary geopolitical issue for the Mekong countries, placing at risk millions of people who are closely linked to the Mekong and the resource it supports. The riverbank gardens and forests are going to be inundated, facing the situation of waterfront change and the land use competition, thus communities are under threats of food security and livelihood. This project is going to explore ways to sustain food security and to enhance the livelihood of local community, to adopt the potential changes raised by the Mekong dams as an opportunity rather than constraints, to improve the food security and enhance the benefit to local communities in terms of their livelihood by taking advantage of the water change to reorganize the riverside community, provide them space and guide the productive activities of local villagers, thus to increase the environmental and social benefit of the whole river system in a regional scale of the Mekong. Through this project a balance will be maintained in terms of the performance of river system and the livelihoods for local community.