Mekong River lifeline at risk

Looming threat: A view of the canal at Prek Takoe village, eastern side of Phnom Penh. — AP

The Mekong River is a lifeline for millions in the six countries it traverses on its way from its headwaters to the sea, sustaining the world’s largest inland fishery and abundant padi fields on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

Cambodia’s plan to build a massive canal linking the Mekong to a port on its own coast on the Gulf of Thailand is raising alarm that the project could devastate the river’s natural flood systems, worsening droughts and depriving farmers on the delta of the nutrient-rich silt that has made Vietnam the world’s third-largest rice exporter.