Mekong River, Asia: August 8th, 2004 |
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A five day detour to the Zongdjian horse racing festival gave our bodies
some time to recover and one last glimpse of the rich Tibetan cultural
heritage before entering a new cultural realm of Lisu, Bai and Han farmers.
As expected the Mekong rose several feet in our absence and was less than 2
meters below the high water mark when we set off from the Lincang bridge. As
the water volume increased so too did the level of chaos encountered class
IV - V runs were followed by class IV - V boils, whirlpools and surges. It
was an awesome section of whitewater and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
For a change we actually had a fair idea of what we were in for over the
next 160km due to some detailed accounts from previous expeditions posted on
the informative shangrila river expeditions web site. There were long and
detailed descriptions of one particular rapid called dragons teeth. It was
located in a sheer sided canyon and was supposedly extremely difficult to
portage. Previous boaters had graded it as almost off the scale and at lower
water levels it had flipped most of the rafts that dared to run it. With
approximately 3 times more water currently in the river we wondered whether
dragons teeth would turn into a suicide run.
Late on the first day we noted a large avalanche scar on river right where
the northern face of a hill had slid into the river. Peculiarly there was no
debri at the base of the scar. The debri had been flushed down stream by
flood waters for more than two kilometers, plugging up the entrance to a
canyon. It was dragons teeth. From 200 meters upstream we could see the
horizon line drop away significantly and mist rise up from the violence. We
eddied out on river right just above the drop to inspect the rapid and to
our relief it looked runnable but with the light fading fast it was best
left until the next day. Camp was set in the scenic gorge and we settled in
for a night under the stars.
The white water was huge over the next two days but loads of fun.
Occasionally we would be lashed by gales that always seemed to blow
upstream. At one point we were forced to stop above a long rapid because the
winds whipped up so much mist off the surface of the waves and holes that we
could no longer visually make out the features to avoid. Suddenly the river
stopped dead.
We had arrived at the controversial Manwan Dam. The Chinese are in the
process of planning and constructing a cascade of 9 dams across the Mekong
mainstream in Yunnan, two of which have been completed and another 4 are
currently under construction. The dams on the Mekong combined constitute one
of the largest engineering feats ever undertaken. To give an impression of
the scale, the Xiowan dam due to be completed in 5 years is about the same
size as the Hoover dam in the United States and will back up the water for
170km through the gorges, forests and villages we had just paddled.
The pros and cons of large scale hydropower dams can be debated
indefinately with advocates citing a long list of benefits while opponents
cite an arguably longer list of negative environmental and social impacts.
In most cases where inequities are obvious and clearly defined dam advocates
will attempt to mitigate the situation by offering benefits to the peoples
and environments most at risk. Although mitigation attempts associated with
the highly publicised 3 dams project on the Yangtze were widely considered
by the international community to be inadequate the Chinese authorities did
in fact devote hundreds of millions of dollars to relocating the most
affected people to purpose built cities.
The most striking contrast between the Three Gorges Dam project and the
Mekong Cascade Dam Project is that the majority of negative impacts from the
Mekong Dams will not be felt by the Chinese population but instead will be
shouldered by the rural people of downstream nations including some of the
most impoverished on earth. Far from offering to build entire cities to
assist the worst affected, as yet there has not been any formal attempts at
mitigation with the downstream nations. Interestingly, an environmental
impact assessment of the dams on downstream nations was not undertaken by
the Chinese until after the Manwan was completed in 1993. The controversy
continues as does construction.
On a personal level I was deeply sadenned to see such a great and powerful
river subdued into a flat and lifeless lake. Over the preceeding months I
had the great privelidge to become the first person to experience the entire
upper section of the Mekong from ground level. I had studdied it's
temperament from its playful folly across the Tibetan Plateau to the violent
mood swings that eruped periodically when obstructions attempted to divert
the flow. I had gaped in awe at kilometer after kilometer of gigantic gorges
and attempted to calculate approximately how many billions of tons the river
had eroded away along a sinlge 100 kilometer stretch. My calculator did not
contain enough digits!
Until now the river had twice shocked me with lessons in my own mortality
and instilled me with a million moments of wonder. Constantly alive and
relentlessly transforming the world through which I travelled, the Mekong, to
my mind, is in fact a living, evolving entity.
In front of us lay a motionless body of water, devoid of character and
strength. It was fed by the Mekong yet it contained none of the traits that
I had come to know and deeply respect throughout the journey. On the web
news we encountered just before starting this section we read that down
stream nations were experiencing some of the lowest Mekong water levels on
record, negatively affecting millions of local farmers and fishermen. Yet
where we were, just a few hundred kilometers north of Thailand, Laos and
Myanmar the river was nearly full. The unfortunate fact was that the
majority of the water was being withheld in China to fill the two
operational hydropower dams.
I discussed it with Brian and we decided that as a sign of protest against
the construction of dams across the Mekong mainstream that will in turn
enforce un measured and uncompensated hardships on local peoples in
downstream nations, we would not paddle across the man made Mekong Lakes of
Yunnan.
At the base of Manwan dam the river sprang back to life. The dam had just
started to overflow so the water levels below this particular dam were the
same as above. The white water was awesome. Four meter plus wave trains were
followed by ginormous whirlpools and boils that would surely render a
kayaker unconcious should he bail from his kayak. After 6 more hours of
paddling the river again started to back up as we approached the Xiowan Dam.
It was the biggest man made monstrosity I have ever seen. Both sides of a
huge canyon were thoroughlly cemented up to a height of 500 meters.
Hundreds, if not thousands of construction workers toiled throughout the
site. BANG!! A powerful blast of dynamite scared the hell out of both of us
as a section of the gorge wall was blasted into the river.
About 300 meters up the gorge wall on river left a large excavator nudged
boulders the size of 40 foot shipping containers into the the river. They
tumbled, half rolling, half airborne down the near verticle cliff crashing
into the river below sending water high into the air. It was an awesome
sight. Dozens of workers downed their tools to watch a couple of crazy
kayakers sneak along the river right bank above a long class VI rapid caused
by the thousands of tonnes of rock that had been blasted and dumped into the
flow.
We rapidly made our way through the site concerned that falling rocks or
dynamite blasts may put a swift end to the expedition. The sheer scale of
the construction site was something that will remain etched in my mind for
years to come. We had been warned about photography in the site and could
not get our cameras out.
The next day we arrived at the second operational dam in China called the
Dashaoshan. We were greeted with a surprise in that US $600.00 had been
stolen from my bag while we paddled the previous leg. Brian was forced to
make a long and frustrating drive to retrieve more funds from the bank
and ultimately did not manage to return to the river for the final stretch
in China leaving me to do the last 140km of previously unboated white water
solo.
After a nights rest in Dashaoshan village we drove to the put in at the base
of the dam to find that only a fraction of the water entering the lake was
being released down stream. The Mekong became a new , medium to large volume
river instead of extra large volumes we had previously paddled. We estimated
that water flows below the dame were about 75% less than could be found
above. I spent the next 2 days paddling various sets of previously unboated
rapids including two challenging class V's. After 140km the waters relaxed
and for the first time I came across commercial cargo boats just north of
Simao. I took the opportunity to surf their stern and bow waves but the
captains were not as fond of the experience as I was.
I also started to notice the locals interacting with the river rather than
avoiding it. In most of the Tibet and China sections the Mekong is seen as a
dangerous obstacle that should be avoided. Yet now, children swam and played
while their fathers fished and women came down to the rivers edge to wash
clothes. I had crossed into the Dai area of Southern Yunnan. The Dai are the
ancestors of modern day Thais and Laos and are as at home in a hardwood
pirogue on the river as they are on dry land.
Finally after nearly 3 months in China I was about to enter the South East
Asian lands of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos and a new, exciting leg of the
journey.
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