If you'd like to follow the situation across the Mekong River live, I'd highly encourage you to check out the Mekong Dam Monitor from the Stimson Center here: monitor.mekongwater.org/home/?v=_376766c8a9498a0e8a0c_fadc72f They helped out a tremendous amount with the research for this video and this is a fascinating tool they've made available.
OK I accept that the weather has changed and the water has dropped, I accept that another country, China in this case has built holding tanks/dams on a useless piece of the river and flattened out the river to make shipping possible, but once the Dams are full, they don't just drink it all the dams also release in a controlled manner. I can understand an American based program would object to that but but americans want to keep using and selling oil stolen by the USA.
Keeping water backed up behind dams not only alters the natural cycles of the river, but also increases evaporation... build enough dams and you can get a river to literally dry up before it reaches the sea. (This happens naturally in some places around the world - there is a river after rainfall, but it never makes it to any great body of water before evaporating)
@@slamyourheadin9449 God, I sometimes feel so helpless when the despotic regimes of Russia and China are barely any worse than your own free democratic nation. What the hell are we bleeding for here, if not to be better than this??
@@ieuanhunt552 I used to live in Mexico right across the border, by the time the river crossed into Mexico the Colorado was a glorified irrigation canal. A pathetic, dirty trickle of water packed with sewage and fertilizers from our wonderful neighbors to the north so yeah.
It's one thing that's so funny with people wanting to build more and more dams, particularly in hot areas. You can evaporate 20%+ of a reservoir's water volume per year.
As a Vietnamese highschooler just 2 years ago, in school we were taught about the drought crisis happening in the Mekong Delta. We did research and project with most updated data. I'm really glad that people around the world are becoming more aware of this problem. The drought affects not only multiple countries' stability, economy, it also making devastating impact on nature. I hope in the near future, this issue can be resolved through the cooperation of everyone on the globe.
I grew up in the Mekong region south Vietnam, 15 years ago we have fish, crap, shrimp, snail, etc... in the river right in front of my house. Now you can't find a single one of them in the river anymore.
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
@@欧阳清风-k2d be proud, dude. You are hated because you're a bully. And it's better to be a bully than being a victim, because there's only those 2 types in big games, nation to nation 🙄 And there is nothing anyone can do about that.
The international community needs to create rules about the creation of dams and canals on cross border rivers. Just because you own the land doesn't mean you get to destroy the river for everyone downstream.
It is a great problem to share rivers with neighbours. The same thing is occuring now with Egypt-Sudan/Ethiopia, and Iraq-Syria/Turkey! It is obvious these countries will taste thirst, for the first time! And probably, would be slaves for other countries, that possess dams upstream
yeah although it's also important who you have to share it with. I mean here in Europe we have the Danube that goes through a lot of countries but I haven't heard of anything like this happening. China is just a greedy self-centered country (I'm mainly talking about the government). These comministic dictatorships don't care about others. The rulers don't even care about their people.
This kind of things have happened for ages. Usually the consequence is not becoming slaves, but initiating a war against the other country. I guess China feels confident about this not happening to them, but only time will say.
Turkey is also doing the exact same thing to Iran and Iraq. But their actions does not just result in drought and power and electricity shortages ,but in severe dust and sand storms and other massive environmental problems that are effecting millions of people and compromising the region of middle east. It would be intresting if you made a video similar to this one discussing that as well
we aren't doing that because we love to deprive anyone of their water but we literally have near to no coal oil and gas reserves we need everything we can use to feed our large population and growing industry's energy needs and those dams do exactly that we wanted Northern Iraq way back when and if we had it and its oil reserves this many dams wouldn't be necessary so water wouldn't be an issue on top of it if Kuwait wasn't separated Iraq wouldn't be landlocked and would export its oil way more easily and could have a Saudi level economy if anyone's at fault it's definetely the Brits
I think the problem is the same for rivers flowing in a single country. Cross country complicates management and lowers responsibility, but it's not the root cause of the problems. The root cause is that hydro power is considered 100% clean, when its impact on the environment is in fact huge.
My fav part of this channel is how he uses random units of measurement for dramatic effect that means absolutely nothing to the majority of us. "This river is 3000km long, which is longer then stacking 4million deck of cards made by Hasbro on a calm Sunday afternoon in May before you eat lunch".
@@bababababababa6124 lmao good point. A guess when you refuse to use the metric system anything is fair game. Measuring things in buffalo's probably makes more sense than using yards 😂
@@bababababababa6124 yup lol. "This dam has 130,000 tons of concrete, which is the equivalent weight of 400 billion adult bald eagles after eating a Big Mac and putting on their size 5 Jordans."
I remember riding down the Mekong river in Laos, a lot of small cities and towns around that river, can't imagine how many people will get hurt if it's killed of
As a Cambodian, back in early 2019 to late that same year there was a very frequent lack of electricity. From Monday to Friday, you black out for about 6-8 hours on average a day from around 8am to 5 pm
This must be how Mexico feels about the Colorado River. That no longer flows over the boarder. You should cover what's happening at lake Mead and lake Powell
@@quack9694 There is a difference between a pathetic trickle dribbling over the border and any amount of water that is useful for large scale agriculture or industry.
There really needs to be a new international treaty governing what you can and can not do with rivers that flow into other nations. Otherwise water wars are looking more and more inevitable.
@@KumarNikhils The only way they stop is if Indo China region, the Philippines and all of those other smaller countries around China, just decide too all gang up and declare war cause they’re going to just die and be in economic turmoil anyways
Political perspective: USA have a dog name “English” , and English have a pup name “Australia & Canada” China have a friend name “Russia” who have multiple crushes in “Eastern Europe” And many big countries namely India, Brazil, African nations have ties with either of this country either a bond, debt or investment money. So there you have it the world power who have “The pen” is gone. DISCLAIMER: Animals in this message is only for interpretation for better understanding and are not mean for insulting respective countries.
Yep for example: How the chinese government destroys countries by replacing governments with worse dictators and destabalize various regions by funding terror groups..oh wait!
This is what the USA did with the Colorado River, it destroyed the delta and changed dramatically the environment of northern Baja California, Mexico. Could you make a video on how this happened? I believe not many people know this.
We have talked about “water wars” my entire life. I kind of thought this would never happen in my lifetime though. Been thinking of moving to Thailand for many years, but I may stay put next to the great lakes instead. I may be called on to defend lake michigan.
This also happens in the Tagus river, between Spain and Portugal, where Spain built a canal and several dams to connect it to the Guadalquivir river in the south in order to water the southern cultivations fields they have all across Andalucía. In Portugal this created lack of sand and we are losing/lost our beaches near the rivermouth, that in less than 50 years lost more than 100 m of dunes.
My man I'm from Córdoba one of the cities where the Guadalquivir river passes through, the Tagus river aka Tajo doesn't even passes through the south, i'dont know if you are talking about another river, if that's not the case you have to review your map. The river Guadalquivir is born in Jaén (Sierra de Cazorla) and ends in Cádiz (Golfo de Cádiz). No se que quieres quitarnos la poca awita que tenemos mi hijo que en Andalucía tenemos sed tus muertos
@@crazyoung007 i read it again and searched for it again, the only thing that came up was the canal de guadarrama a proyect that was never realise to connect the manzanares, tajo and guadalquivir in madrid, and repeat never realise, don't come up to me with orgullo hermano hispano
So basically, what the US did to Mexico with the Colorado River. Go to river delta, there isn't one anymore. The many dams built in the US dry up the river before it makes it into Mexico.
@@VictorDeveze LMFAO. Evaporation? The total evaporation is negligible comparing to the water amount. It's not Colorado River that flow accross deserts.
Just to clarify - Yangtze Yellow and Mekong are NOT the 3 longest Asian rivers. Yangtze is the longest, IF you count it with earlier parts (which are NOT included in the graphics here). However next one is mostly Russian Yenisei, then Yellow, then its another 3 mostly Russian Ob,Amur and Lena and only in 8th place Mekong river.
This channel goes over interesting topics currently happening in the world today and I've learned quite a lot by watching your videos. Keep up the amazing content!
Forwarded msg: There is no comparison. Flows from China account for only 13.5% of the total flow of the Mekong. To measure the impact of China's dam construction on the Mekong, you need to know what percentage of the 13.5% China has blocked. In fact, the Mekong is not drought, but seasonal drought. In some cases, the flow in the dry season is only 1/48 of that in the flood season. China is building hydropower stations, and the downstream flow will be reduced only during the water storage period. When the hydropower station is in stable operation, the water inflow and outflow are balanced. The root cause is that the global climate has become more extreme, with less precipitation in the dry season and more precipitation in the rainy season. By the way, a lot of Mekong research institutes are funded by the US and Australia, and you can hardly see any credible data. Their purpose is to spread distrust in China among ASEAN countries.
The author of this video fundamentally doesn't understand how dams work. Dams obviously don't "clog up" anything in terms of how much water will flow down the river... except in the very beginning (while they are filling up storage upstream) after which things will be back to normal (actually better due to flow control) or during extended draughts (which are caused by nature and climate change, climate change you can blame on the Western capitalist world). Explanation: Dams generate electricity by letting water run through them. They also have a maximum capacity and once that is filled they will let through ALL excess. Dams aren't magic black holes that make water disappear. There will not be "less water" flowing down the hill due to dams. The same way there will not be less wind due to windmills or less sunshine due to solar panels. He also abuses the word "significant" here to put blame on Chinese dams. Yes. Dams always have a "significant" negative impact on a whole range of things. Just like everything else anyone builds anywhere. Significant just means that something can be scientifically measured and attributed to a specific cause. For example, 0.01% less water due to dam storage would already be "significant". It would, however, not be an important contributing factor.
@@Marc-. hey, I see u defend chi-na and Rus in other comments. Anything more interesting to add? The amount of water dammed by PRC on Mekong is more than Colorado River. Also, hardly any Mexicans live in that small area of Mexico between US border and where the river runs into the gulf of California
It's Lan Tsang, not Lan Kang. My country is having the same issues: Spain is damming all the west flowing rivers, and our country of Portugal is seriously drying up
This is exactly what happened to my region when they built the Hoover Dam, it turned the Delta at the end of the colorado river from a swamp into a desert and then reduced the flow of water even further when they made even more dams close to the border
Please add information on the historic flow volume of river at the border with China and what it is now. I think that’s the critical information to separate the effects of Chinese dams versus the effects of climate change. So strange that China will not even discuss cooperation.
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
@@leonardoherrera9059 intensive irrigation in California and other Western states means the Colorado no longer reaches its mouth in the Gulf of California. That's the short version.
I would argue while similar it's also different because as far as I'm aware Mexico isn't as reliant on the Colorado River as the US is. This does not mean the river hasn't been mismanaged just pointing out that while comparable it's still a very different situation. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
@@quintinpelley8710 it's the same situation for the people in the region, it went from a swamp before the Dam construction (they blocked the entire flow of water for 2 years to fill it) into a arid desert, doesn't help that the flow got smaller in recent years because they built another dam just north of the border and the mexicali valley is drying up even more
One of the other rampant problems along the Laos portion of the Mekong is that illegal logging takes place and the wood is sent to China. The thing is, it's difficult see. That's because the corrupt government of Laos got together with the loggers to try to only cut the trees down from behind the hills. Therefore, it still looks quite nice for the tourists coming down the river, but it's decimated on the other side.
This is not a bigger problem than US blocking the Colorado river and turning the Mexican part into desert. But I am sure you think that's caused by climate change. Climate change built dams to block the river
I've lived in Laos for a couple years now, locals have actually told me that most of the political powers of Laos are actually Chinese people who changed their names to sound Laotian - it's insane.
@@Rune_Full_Helm possible, but i really think it's just them being racist. Not all chinese are disguised as villains. Unless they have evidence, just saying that out of the blue is malicious.
Same that Arizona did to the Colorado river. Ethiopia destroys the Nile. Congo is destroying the Congo river. It is so sad. I can only sigh of relief when I will be dead and nothing of this will affect my consciousness any longer.
But really you cannot blame people trying to escape poverty. Congo has 9% electricity coverage yet they have the river with the strongest rapids in the world. Would you blame them for wanting to use this resource to get electricity. The nile on the other hand is complicated. All countries deserve to use the water but historically Egypt has bullied other riparian states to how they could use the water instead of finding equitable ways of watersharing which is now biting them in the back
@@somi6683 yes. but you see everything just from the specio-centric perspective,. What about the habitats that are destroyed and species that are lost? You know, people actually care about this -- why is it not possible to use an alternative source of electricity? damming every darn major river in the world is somewhat boring. There are other ways. Ideally, one needs to tackle the political system. with political stability you could do photovoltaik. in the foreseeable future we have nuclear fusion. but species are lost forever. easiest is always the destruction of nature. this is deeply disturbing to the environmentalist.
@@somi6683 Congo is sitting on trillions of dollars worth of wealth but the country is a mess. Hydro electrical power isn't their issue but it is an issue if they are screwing over the environment for all affected.
My country doesn't share rivers with other countries so I'm forever grateful for that. Same thing is happening at Nile too with Egypt, the country with lowest annual rainfall suffer the most.
i'm frmo Australia and same however our largest river has one of the largest floodplain/food areas in the world and farmers upstream are holding water back, like creating massive man made lakes purely to divert water in and starving off the river, killing communities and rying up the river downstream. We are literaly destroying ourselves, not another nation doing it.
@@peepeetrain8755 not entirely true, it only looks worse during drought times, and right now we are having an abundance of water. We have cycles mate which we work around but food still needs to be put on the table yr round.
@@jayebuss5562 literally look up floodplain harvesting lol. Massive cotton farms and other companies are keeping hold of the flood waters, selling it for a high price downstream. This is not a drought/no drought issue.
The difference is China is a huge nation with a huge military and Ethiopia is a small nation losing to rebels and cant fight Egypt who is gearing up for war cuz of the dam
@Dejan Nincic Militarilyspeaking i dont think Ethiopia is necessarily weak , from what i have read "the rebels" are actually the ex-government of Ethiopia and had most of ethiopias military assets plus the US likes the old Ethiopian government so their current government gets alot of sanctions more over the current government still controls like half of fhe rebellious region (the region is pretty tiny btw ) so idk man ethiopia was able to invade somalia and force a regime change that takes some military capability Ethiopia is also a very mountainous country (has 70-80% of africas mountains ) so maybe they'll use it against egypt( since the country is a giant fortress it would be a nightmare to invade so egypt wont be able to secure thwir interests using an invasion
Earth needs a rule: no country can own a river. Kill anyone that tries to draw water from it. Sure, 4 or 5 billion people will die, but it's for the good of the species.
This is the same thing with ground water, air pollution, destruction of habitats like forests and human rights violations. "Who are you to tell Spain how they use THEIR ground water on THEIR side of the border, or the USA how they need to handle THEIR coal power plants or Brazil & Indonesia to preserve THEIR tropical rainforest or china how to treat THEIR citizens in Xingjiang?"
Cambodia decide to completely abandon the dam project on Mekong river to save the river. The main problem for our country is that we have the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia ( the Tonle Sap lake) which grows 4 times the size and 7 times of depth in rainy season and these water are basically comes from the Mekong River which flood upstream. This lake will then flood the surrounding rainforest and giving favorable breeding ground for fishes and wild bird species. Now as the water is lower than it had ever been, the tonle sap and its used to be balanced ecosystem is now vulnerable. It houses 30% of total protein source of Cambodia, a natural nutrient recycler, a shipping pathway. Please Save Mekong. Edit: it’s also home to the nearly extinct Irrawaddy Mekong Dolphin and largest freshwater fish ever caught(the Mekong Giant Stingray)
@@DugrozReports the water flows into tonle sap lake every year during the rainy season, in dry season the water flows back to the Mekong. 6 months of inflow and 6 months of outflow. Edit : Tonle sap lake is one of Mekong ecosystem, so if the Mekong dies, so does tonle sap lake.
@@b7076-y7x they didn’t even build it yet. Even if it is built without consequences,people could’ve been more responsible for their lives because the government actually responsible for their home and giving them farmland in the case of Dong Sahong, they just wouldn’t want to abandon their mother’s land and grab sth new. I understand the pain. But the government promised never build a dam on the Mekong main stream, there’s nothing to complain. The problem is the upper Mekong region itself.
Totally fascinating. Would be really amazing if you had a "recommended further reading" section in your descriptions as you always leave us wanting to learn more..
Can you make a video about how the Nile River and other rivers are also being killed and how a war about water can happen 🙏🏻. Btw, thanks for the great video, love from VN.
This is probably a stupid question, but... Doesn't China have to allow the water to flow through its dams to actually produce power? Assumedly water continues to flow downstream from its sources, so it must eventually get to the lower basin regardless of the dams along the way...yes? What am I missing?
Yes, that's true, but its a massive dams, and to fill 1 dams takes a long time maybe years, so during those refilling years downstream level would be much lower than usual. Now what if there's 2 or more of such dams? Sure maybe in 10-15 years downstream levels will be back to normal, but how about the millions of people who depend on the the river to survive? And how about the water biosphere? Not to mention Vietnam is a major rice exporter, and to grow rice you need "tons" of water.. If their farms are destroyed, that means no rice for china too, because china itself still need to import rice and other food stocks to feed her 1.4 billion people
You are missing that the author did not tell that the total storage of water in tributary system of Mekong was 37.2 billion cubic meters and the predicted amount would increase to 100 billion till 2030. Furthermore, the frequency of droughts had been increasing in the last 6 decades while China did not built these dam then. Furthermore, I believe that it was a problem of coordination and cooperation instead of China intentionally blockading the down-stream.
@@zeinwahab9986 it actually only takes hours to fill it. You have no idea how much water is going along the river and actually how little the water can be stored
I don't struggle to figure out what to eat for dinner. After watching this video about Asia's longest rivers, I've determined that I should immediately begin raising small fish such as sardines and herring in my backyard to ensure many nutritious dinners in the future. I should also work to dam up my local creek to ensure that my backyard is sufficiently flooded throughout the year. While this may deprive many downstream of salmon and swimming whatnot, I have learned from China that I should only care about my own food supply unless I'm hungry, in which case, I need to find a way to divert more water into my backyard. (or conquer my neighbors to get their backyards.)
Thank you for covering this, nobody ever really knows what happens down in SE Asia. still a lot of corruption and people who are being taken advantaged of.
Forwarded msg: There is no comparison. Flows from China account for only 13.5% of the total flow of the Mekong. To measure the impact of China's dam construction on the Mekong, you need to know what percentage of the 13.5% China has blocked. In fact, the Mekong is not drought, but seasonal drought. In some cases, the flow in the dry season is only 1/48 of that in the flood season. China is building hydropower stations, and the downstream flow will be reduced only during the water storage period. When the hydropower station is in stable operation, the water inflow and outflow are balanced. The root cause is that the global climate has become more extreme, with less precipitation in the dry season and more precipitation in the rainy season. By the way, a lot of Mekong research institutes are funded by the US and Australia, and you can hardly see any credible data. Their purpose is to spread distrust in China among ASEAN countries.
@@emhgarlyyeung I really don’t think you watched the video…. Though, the distrust of China is not abnormal. Quite common because China is a government not to be trusted. Imo.. worst than the US. Though I do understand what you are saying with with the seasonal drought. Still doesn’t justify the end of the river itself drought level along with the Species/specimens going extinct/endangered that travel through the Mekong such as the Mekong catfish
@@emhgarlyyeung Didn't the video say that Mekong's flow account for over half of the water supply of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand during the dry seasons between November and April?
@@AkshatSharma1505 Do not believe everything from a propaganda video, but even it's really half, it's only reduce half the water, what cause the dry is because of weather and earth environment getting climate change, it happened many time repeatedly in history before China build the dams. What people should do is learn from China experience, every countries build their dam and try to store some water, and use those fresh water during dry season, not go to blaming everyone else but your self. Even if China remove all the dams, when dry season come, it will still dry, and what worst is even China also dry together.
China is really annoying all of its Asian neighbors. They have territorial disputes with Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India. And now they are killing the rivers of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. Maybe we should all just join together against the common enemy that is the CCP.
This is what happened to the Colorado and Grande rivers 30 years ago, the Colorado doesn't reach the Gulf of California anymore, as all the water is extracted in Arizona and California, and the Rio Grande doesn't carry any water when reaching El Paso anymore due to all the dams in New Mexico, the Rio Grande does carry water down stream as other small tributaries add to it later on.
Compare to Japan releasing its nuclear waste to the Pacific Ocean, it's nothing. Forwarded msg 1: The video is misleading. The dried out pictures are not the Mekong. I have seen Mekong river many times i Thailand and the river is Massive. It is more than 1 km wide. Forwarded msg 2: What about to the upstream dam to generate electricity? The stored water still has to be put downstream, should it be stored until it explodes or drinks it up? Don't you not understand the law of conservation of mass? Slow release of water can also slow down flooding downstream which is good thing. What an ignorant objection! Forwarded msg 3: Fresh water is precious, it is better to stay in the dam than to flow out of the sea... As for the flow, it cannot be controlled by manpower, but it must be a little more controlled than if there is no water storage. Forwarded msg 4: Why does this video mention that "The Mekong River Commission (MRC) began working with China and Myanmar in 1996 when these two countries agreed to become Dialogue Partners."?????
@RealLifeLore Great Video as always! But 2 things I want to correct on the video: 1. The source of the Yangtze river/Chang Jiang is far more east than shown at 0:55 2. The Mekong river is not the 3rd Longest River in Asia it the Ranking: 1 Yangtze river/Chang Jiang ~6300 km 2. Yenisey ~5500 km 3. Ob ~ 5400 km 4. Amur ~5000 km (some sections dont not carry water all over the year!) 5. Yellow rvier Huáng Hé 4845 km 6. Lena ~4600 km 7. Mekong ~4500 km Since the leght of a river/( or the longes flow path in its riversystem) is not well defined and can't be messured exactly, there can be some variance to this list. The Yangtze river, the Yenisey and the Ob are considerably longer than the Mekong. There for the Mekong is "at most" the 4th (5th if you put the Yellow river above the Mekong) longest river in Asia.
Sooo many Chinese people in Thailand too. The Native Thai peoples hospitality was returned with Chinese stranglehold on high paying jobs and complete exclusion of the native Thais and other country descended Thai people. But I feel like native Thais can also share the blame due to this weird attitude of ไม่ต้องห่วงเยอะ and ไม่เป็นอะไร. The Chinese help us occasionally but there is always a condition as we all know and the Thai governments policies do not reflect the needs or wants of the next or current generation of Thai people. We buy tons of weapons from other countries but even a blind man knows that it will be better used to help the people. Not to mention Thailand is it’s in infancy stage of the coming race politics. There is already a significant Chinese, Indian and Burmese populous and stereotypes are unaddressed and rife. And now after this video we got water problems too. The exclusion here regards to media representation and beauty standards which ultimately led to a very strange mindset of fair is more beautiful.
I think Thai-Chinese has noting to do with PRC, Thai Chinese has been in Thailand for GENERATIONS most of them had been assimilated into Thai culture. Most of 3th generation Chinese cannot even speak Chinese or known anything about Chinese culture. Thai Chinese are as Thai as natives at this point.
@@varotjutaviriya1808 Yes that is an undeniable fact. Their ancestral contributions are not to be turned a blind eye to but I still feel like aspects of Thai media is heavily skewed in their favor.
should do a video of the Colorado river - how may dams, and how much water Mexico can enjoy, and whether there is a single drop of water reaches the sea.
The Mekong River Commission, which was jointly established by Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in 2017, has said that the drought in the lower Mekong is not caused by dams in the upper reaches, and in some cases helps to replenish the drought.
@@coraltown1 This is said by the Mekong River Commission. If you don't agree with this, show me your proof and let your country quit this organization, thanks.
@@jingyangzhang1234 doesn't make any difference what any commission did or did not say, China is killing the Mekong watershed and that will cause drought. The CCP is pure evil.
@@coraltown1 You can see that at the Jinghong hydropower station on the Chinese border, the flow into the reservoir is 40.02 billion cubic meters in a full year, and the flow out of the reservoir is 51.89 billion cubic meters. In 2010 and 2014, the two largest hydropower plants in the Chinese basin, Xiaowan and Nuozadu, started working. 42.9 billion cubic meters of outflow from the Lancang River in 2010, higher than the previous year, and 50.4 billion cubic meters in 2014, up 24% from the previous year's flow. This suggests that the construction of hydropower plants in China has no significant impact on the overall runoff of the river.
All the data taken for this video comes from the Mekong-U.S. Partnership, rather than the Mekong River Commission. The Mekong-U.S. Partnership is an international body which conducts studies which regularly get scientifically refuted and which has no effect on how the Mekong is actually managed (involving all Mekong countries except China, but including the U.S., for obvious propaganda reasons). The Mekong River Commission involves all Mekong countries, they exchange data on water management, conduct their own studies, and are the reason why Mekong countries are not constantly complaining about one another.
So, the Mekong River Commission consists of China too. What makes you think it won't be arm-twisting the other weaker countries? Sorry to express it so blantly, but I don't trust anything where the Chinese government is involved.
@@YakuzaSRC Simply because many of these other countries along the Mekong, such as Vietnam and Thailand, are massive economies and important for trade with China. China cannot simply dominate them. As to your other point - there seems to be a kind of dichotomy in the international sphere at this point, where you have the U.S. and China seeking to have their voices heard and others trying to pick sides. So, on the one hand, you have a meritocratic government which has demonstrated the most peaceful rise of a great power in the history of humanity; one which does not seek conflict with other countries and trades with everyone; a country which, single-handedly raised 700 million people out of poverty. On the other hand, you have a genocidal state, representing the world's only remaining colonial empire, which has not brought democracy to 4.1 million of its citizens, and which just spent the last 20 years destroying two countries, one of which, Iraq, they lied to their own people and the international community about Weapons of Mass Destruction being the primary reason for invading, leading to the deaths of as many as 1.3 million Iraqis. So, yeah, be careful who you trust.
@@jasonjean2901 Did you talk about "raising 700 million people out of poverty" where about 55 million people died? Yeah, I tend to not talk about it. And "doesn't seek conflict with other countries"? LMAO, why don't you ask India about it.
@@normanclatcher Euphrates ending seems like a omen about what is to come. The fertile crescent allowed the first civilization to happen, so it's fitting that the end of the Euphrates should be the dawn of the end of human civilization
I am in Shock. In Spain government wanted to divert the Ebro River so as to give the drought Spanish communities were barely getting water, even in Winter there are drought in the Spanish Levante. Demonstrations against this Government decision took over the streets in the communities where the Ebro runs with enough powerful stream. So, we are talking about neighbor communities. Stingy people with the natural resources that belong to all the Spanish Levante have been gripping ( giving too much water) the stream. I can picture how will be the feeling in Cambodia, Thailand, and so on.
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
Great job! Hope you could insert English subtitles on your videos. It's helpful and easy for audiences to get almost your informations. Thank you very much!
That issue would be a matter of national security for the countries of the lower Mekong, that could even be justification for a war , because it is practically a life or death issue for those countries.
War is not needed due to a drought. People need to calm down, talk, communicate and investigate to solve problems. WAR is not a way to solve problems except the USA which needs wars to sell weapons to survive. People in "3rd world" countries need to improve their education in science and technology so that they can't be misled by video like this one. Science and technology will give you knowledge and solve problems in your country such as drought.
@@hyc1266 I think that that is very reasonable thinking but it is 50% wishful thinking , because half of the reality of the situation is that people are not alway reasonable , and also , China has a vested interest in weakening those countries of the lower Mekong as much as it suits her interest in doing so . The United States does not foster wars as a matter of policy just so that it can keep it armaments industry flourishing . Its armaments industry may benefit, yes , just as the armaments industry of France , the U.K. and Russia benefit from these wars , but that does not mean that it creates them Also , we are not talking about a mere drought , but of a PERMANENT never ending lack of water in those countries of the lower Mekong . A drought is a temporary phenomenon.
Some very basic fact: the upstream in China only contributes 15-20% of the water in Mekong, because there are much more tributaries in the lower basin and rainfall than in China.
One thing you didn't explain, is where the water goes. I understand dams and secret flood releases mess up the seasonal cycle. And filling basins will of course hold water up. And in some configuration, some basins can increase evaporation. But water held by dams don't overall magically disappear, it has to be released sometimes, doesn't it?
It is just simply locked away in the many upstream dams. And each river is different in that there are many sources that can supply the river. Because no one country is measuring or looking into how much the river should flow, each country upstream will just lock more and more of the river away. Saving it for a rainy day. Rivers have their natural flows and Man can lock it indefinitely away. Possibly in 100 years, there can be enough build up in each dam to eventually re-supply the river. But no one knows. When they dam up the river upstream, sometimes they can pipe that water over to other areas as drinking water or irrigation. So it isn't simply that they've built a dam in order to generate electricity. And that they will release it periodically and that way it will refill the river. They also will divert much of the excess away to other areas. For farming or consumption. Look at the former Aral Sea to see what they can do to an entire body of water. The water was diverted to farm cotton.
The whole point of dams is to not "hold up the water forever" -- it's to release it into a generator in order to generate electricity. This video makes it sound like China is making 13 dams just to screw with the countries down stream when in reality, it's just fearmongering and blaming the effects of climate change into dam building. It makes 0 sense to build electric dams and not release the water since you can't generate any electricity without releasing the water. People who make these videos are tricking brainless sheeples that don't understand the basics of gravity based energy generation.
@@pianobench6319 this is the most braindead comment I've ever seen. You don't spend billions of dollars to generate 0 electricity in order to "save it for a rainy day" -- that whole region isn't populated or a farming powerhouse either. The main point of those dams is to generate electricity for the industrial base of the south in a clean and renewable fashion.
Great video! I was wondering if you could perhaps make a video on why the capital of Equatorial Guinea (Malabo) is on an island off the coast of Africa and not in mainland Equatorial Guinea. I would really appreciate it if you could make a video on that.
van33 11 8 hours ago The author of this video fundamentally doesn't understand how dams work. Dams obviously don't "clog up" anything in terms of how much water will flow down the river... except in the very beginning (while they are filling up storage upstream) after which things will be back to normal (actually better due to flow control) or during extended draughts (which are caused by nature and climate change, climate change you can blame on the Western capitalist world). Explanation: Dams generate electricity by letting water run through them. They also have a maximum capacity and once that is filled they will let through ALL excess. Dams aren't magic black holes that make water disappear. There will not be "less water" flowing down the hill due to dams. The same way there will not be less wind due to windmills or less sunshine due to solar panels. He also abuses the word "significant" here to put blame on Chinese dams. Yes. Dams always have a "significant" negative impact on a whole range of things. Just like everything else anyone builds anywhere. Significant just means that something can be scientifically measured and attributed to a specific cause. For example, 0.01% less water due to dam storage would already be "significant". It would, however, not be an important contributing factor.
@@emhgarlyyeung ... if you place a bowl of water that is 10% full, it's going to evaporate at a rate much faster than if you were to place a water that is 100% full out in the sun. If the 10% full water evaporates completely in 1hr; that 100% full water is not going to disappear in 10 hours. That's the concept for the water drying up here; you're overall reducing the amount of water flowing and speeding up the evaporation process so the water doesn't last very long in the river.
@@emhgarlyyeung You are either misinformed or lying. A dam takes energy from the river, makes it flow more slowly, and causes more evaporation. The CCP is a gang run by psychopaths who don't even care about the Chinese people.
@@windsorus Let's use simple numbers to make it easier to imagine: If 10 tons of water flow down from the mountains in summer, and only 5 tons of water in winter... If the dam is full... there will be 10 tons that overflow from the dam in summer... and if the dam is still full in winter... 5 tons of water will overflow from the dam in winter... so... the flow should still be the same? (unless they pump the water elsewhere to use, but don't dump it back into the same river)
@@MeowO_O the dams create a large surface of water (1000s fold) that increase evaporation significantly and that's just one that easy to understand of many major reasons
Video producers need to figure out why humans need hydropower plants to exist . In 2016, affected by the strong El Niño, the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam suffered a once-in-a-century drought, and the dry delta experienced seawater intrusion two months earlier than usual, threatening 30% of the 1.15 million hectares of winter and spring crops. Vietnam asked the Chinese government to increase the discharge flow to alleviate the drought downstream. So China Jinghong Power Station first began to dispatch emergency downstream.
When you say north pole then don't you mean the ice sheet on Greenland. That covers 80% of Greenland and as far i know there only exist two ice masses big enough to be categorized as ice sheets the Antarctic ice sheet that is the biggest and then the Greenland ice sheet.
What we don't understand[or maybe refuse to accept] is such decision impacts not just the South-East Asian countries but actually the whole world. As stated in the video twice , "20% of world's freshwater fish THAT WE EAT comes from MEKONG ALONE." This is also why dictatorship is never the ideal path for any nation as it eventually starts to impact the entire world IN A VERY VERY BAD MANNER.
This sadly happens all over the world. Source countries controlling flow of water with little to ne fucks given to people down stream. Look at the Colorado River. Hell it happens on tiny scales here in NY.
China did not annex Tibet, Tibet was effectively managed by the Chinese government 300 years ago, no China realized the importance of Tibet at that time, so you can't say that China controls Tibet for water, because no country would voluntarily give up a territory that originally belongs to them.
@@alchemist7412 Who told you that the Qing Dynasty was not part of China? The land of Manchuria and the Manchu people are all within China, and China is a multi-ethnic country. The Manchus have the same rights as any other ethnic group, including the right to participate in politics. If Manchuria was not China, then there would be no need for India to exist as a nation. For with the departure of the British, India should revert to being dozens of independent nations, just as it was before the British occupied the Indian subcontinent. India as a nation is even less legitimate because the British do not even live with the Indians.
The Colorado river doesn't even reach the ocean anymore, dams in USA allow using all the water for agriculture and human consumption. At the delta in Mexico all the water is from the ocean and the water used in Mexico it's what little drains, but farmers in USA are demanding to use that little remaining too, a powerful neighbor won't hesitate to hoard everything. The good part is there's a lot of rain in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam so they don't depend directly of the river source. Still the biome is probably suffering a lot and dying.
This has to stop, keeping rivers hostage is not only gonna cause environmental problems it also cause, humanitarian problems ranging from climate refuges to angry rebels.
美国人根本不知道什么是水电站，水电站不吃水OK，水有进有出，OK，美国媒体造谣张嘴就来，哈哈哈 Americans don't know what a hydropower station is. Hydropower stations don't drink water. OK.？ Water flows in and out. American media spread rumors
This will certainly help exacerbate the famines that will start this northern winter and ramp up next northern winter, along with the droughts in Western North America and northeastern Africa. We are poised to see the first drop in global population, year on year, for a long while. All that is left to be seen is how many will die.
They will become colonies of china. Either do what they say or they cut off the water. That's why Egypt is terrified of Ethiopia filling it's dam. They will control Egypt or they will be starved out
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 Too bad it is mostly the American and European who believe their lying incompetent gov't died. Good luck to all the racists.
Solution: Install solar panels floating on water above each dam anchored to the river bed. This will reduce water evaporation and produce electricity without the need for extra land. And solar panels will stay cold therefore more efficient.
Another reason to despise the CCP, they are not just exploit the Sea of Phillipines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, but also the river of Thailand, Laos, vietnam, and cambodia.
There needs to be some kind of international law or pact or overseeing shared water management like this and in other places, to prevent environmental damage and to ensure the greatest sustainable use of the river
The title of this video is misleading. It discusses _how_ China is killing the Mekong, but there is no mention as to _why._ Of course, this is in part due to how secretive the Chinese government is on the matter, but including it in the title anyway induces a pretty skewed expectation for what the video will actually be.
As an Indonesian, never have I ever thought about other countries yoinking our water like this. I'm glad we're on a separate island, even tho we may have too much 😂😂😂
indonesian government more like cut the tree and cause massive deforestation instead of worrying other countries took hostage of fresh water, ironic french company hold aqua instead of state owned corporation.
@@Alfha_Robby I tought Aqua was a private company, so I'm not against the owner selling what essentially theirs. I've never heard any country getting rich by state owned corporations, most of them are private.
@@dputra Saudi Arabia own state owned corporation Saudi Aramco, as for aqua which is owned by Danone which is french/spain multinational food corporation, from Mizone to Activia. The most optimum economy system is state owned corporation run strategic resources while non consequences product run on free market, unregulated market led to foreigner stealing resources and extremely low wage and extremely high living standard since businessman would squeeze it's employee and worker yet fully state owned corporation dominate the market led to corruption rampant which is why socialism country went bankrupt mostly.
@@Alfha_Robby And how much impact Danone has towards their nation's GDP? Oil and gas might be Arab and Brunei's major GDP, but is that applicable everywhere and every sector? Just asking.
It's not wise to laugh, when China shut down the Mekong river completely many of us(Asian) will died of Hunger, all the countries around her will turn into Dry lands/Deserts. Living in other Countries and islands in Asia meaning we're Safe? Not Really...🤔🤔🤔 China doesn't have to go to Wars, just shortage of food is just enough to Crippled our Country (ies), Dimas Putra, what do you think or I'm might be Wrong. 🤔🤔🤔😳😲🙄🙄
If you'd like to follow the situation across the Mekong River live, I'd highly encourage you to check out the Mekong Dam Monitor from the Stimson Center here: monitor.mekongwater.org/home/?v=_376766c8a9498a0e8a0c_fadc72f They helped out a tremendous amount with the research for this video and this is a fascinating tool they've made available.
hi
No offense.
Your reliance on the Stimson Center explains your objectivity on this topic.
OK I accept that the weather has changed and the water has dropped, I accept that another country, China in this case has built holding tanks/dams on a useless piece of the river and flattened out the river to make shipping possible, but once the Dams are full, they don't just drink it all the dams also release in a controlled manner.
I can understand an American based program would object to that but but americans want to keep using and selling oil stolen by the USA.
Cool
Wat a load of BS!
I remember hearing about rolling blackouts in SE Asia and never thought about how a water shortage could cause that. Thanks for this video.
Not only that, but read about chinese cyberwarfare..its very potent
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024
Yeahhhhhhhhhh, whoo Jesus is coming back, whoooooo. Black Jesus right, we’re talking about the black Jesus?
@@TryPie256 What are you trying to do Trump
hangover 2
Keeping water backed up behind dams not only alters the natural cycles of the river, but also increases evaporation... build enough dams and you can get a river to literally dry up before it reaches the sea. (This happens naturally in some places around the world - there is a river after rainfall, but it never makes it to any great body of water before evaporating)
Didn't that happen to the Colorado river. Since the 1980 it virtually stopped flowing all the way to the sea.
The Mexicans must be pissed.
@@ieuanhunt552 shhhh that doesn’t matter, America is allowed to do whatever they want while everyone else has to follow the rules.
@@slamyourheadin9449 God, I sometimes feel so helpless when the despotic regimes of Russia and China are barely any worse than your own free democratic nation. What the hell are we bleeding for here, if not to be better than this??
@@ieuanhunt552 I used to live in Mexico right across the border, by the time the river crossed into Mexico the Colorado was a glorified irrigation canal. A pathetic, dirty trickle of water packed with sewage and fertilizers from our wonderful neighbors to the north so yeah.
It's one thing that's so funny with people wanting to build more and more dams, particularly in hot areas. You can evaporate 20%+ of a reservoir's water volume per year.
As a Vietnamese highschooler just 2 years ago, in school we were taught about the drought crisis happening in the Mekong Delta. We did research and project with most updated data. I'm really glad that people around the world are becoming more aware of this problem. The drought affects not only multiple countries' stability, economy, it also making devastating impact on nature. I hope in the near future, this issue can be resolved through the cooperation of everyone on the globe.
These are things you go to war for. I'm sure 20-40 years down the line when things get more drastic, it'll be a huge possibility.
Unfortunately, in the end, it is a geopolitical problem instead of a scientific problem, ideally, humanity should work together to fix it.
@@fractalcat4539 doesnt matter what the problem actually is, anything effecting entire countries become mainly political
Other countries need to put China in its place
qiu fusheng Aussies don’t like China and how they treat other countries
Give it time and you will learn
I grew up in the Mekong region south Vietnam, 15 years ago we have fish, crap, shrimp, snail, etc... in the river right in front of my house. Now you can't find a single one of them in the river anymore.
我的家乡在中国的南部，小时候我家门口的河流也有很多鱼虾，树上很多水果，但是自从1998年开设大批外国工厂公司，河里鱼虾几乎没有了，树上的果子都不能吃，有虫子，这是工业带来的环境代价，现在政府加税，外资工厂全搬到越南印度，现在回家，感觉环境变好了。还有湄公河来自中国境内的水流只占13%，大部分还是各个支流汇入，整条湄公河流域各国都有水坝，各国工业发展增加，人口用水增加，却都在怪中国，不合理控制，以后下游水域会更艰难，中国人在阿联酋长国发言。
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
@@欧阳清风-k2d Don't deny. China is never a g.o.o.d neighbor
@@hnguyen6832 柬埔寨🇰🇭也认为越南🇻🇳不是好邻居，墨西哥也认为美国不是好邻居。网上的越南，印度人都迷之自信，好像全世界都喜欢你们一样😂
@@欧阳清风-k2d be proud, dude. You are hated because you're a bully. And it's better to be a bully than being a victim, because there's only those 2 types in big games, nation to nation 🙄 And there is nothing anyone can do about that.
The international community needs to create rules about the creation of dams and canals on cross border rivers. Just because you own the land doesn't mean you get to destroy the river for everyone downstream.
there is no international community lmao
Right, except China is unlikely to follow those rules and do it anyway
Your naive
Lol international community.
Its might is right on the international arena.
just let the river cross another country border into the sea. how about this.
It is a great problem to share rivers with neighbours. The same thing is occuring now with Egypt-Sudan/Ethiopia, and Iraq-Syria/Turkey! It is obvious these countries will taste thirst, for the first time! And probably, would be slaves for other countries, that possess dams upstream
yeah although it's also important who you have to share it with. I mean here in Europe we have the Danube that goes through a lot of countries but I haven't heard of anything like this happening. China is just a greedy self-centered country (I'm mainly talking about the government). These comministic dictatorships don't care about others. The rulers don't even care about their people.
I think this is fake news
USA dryed out Mexico already and now they are pointing fingers. Corn syrup-filled Coke is cheaper than drinking water in Mexico.
This kind of things have happened for ages. Usually the consequence is not becoming slaves, but initiating a war against the other country. I guess China feels confident about this not happening to them, but only time will say.
@@TryPie256 Shut up
Turkey is also doing the exact same thing to Iran and Iraq. But their actions does not just result in drought and power and electricity shortages ,but in severe dust and sand storms and other massive environmental problems that are effecting millions of people and compromising the region of middle east. It would be intresting if you made a video similar to this one discussing that as well
The heck is happening with the world now. 🤦
They're dictating the flow of nature and we knew how nature take revenge from us.
Wish I can go back in time to Industrialize and Secularize the early-Bronze Age
There is a video about this on this channel. It's called "why Iraq in dying"
The US is doing it to Mexico.
we aren't doing that because we love to deprive anyone of their water but we literally have near to no coal oil and gas reserves we need everything we can use to feed our large population and growing industry's energy needs and those dams do exactly that we wanted Northern Iraq way back when and if we had it and its oil reserves this many dams wouldn't be necessary so water wouldn't be an issue on top of it if Kuwait wasn't separated Iraq wouldn't be landlocked and would export its oil way more easily and could have a Saudi level economy if anyone's at fault it's definetely the Brits
I think the problem is the same for rivers flowing in a single country. Cross country complicates management and lowers responsibility, but it's not the root cause of the problems. The root cause is that hydro power is considered 100% clean, when its impact on the environment is in fact huge.
Exactly! It is still insane that we do not have international laws to protect our most precious natural resources like water and farmlands.
My fav part of this channel is how he uses random units of measurement for dramatic effect that means absolutely nothing to the majority of us. "This river is 3000km long, which is longer then stacking 4million deck of cards made by Hasbro on a calm Sunday afternoon in May before you eat lunch".
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024!
It’s how Americans measure things, they’ll use anything BUT the metric system
“That is TALLER than 85,000 hamburgers stacked on TOP of each other” 😂😂
@@bababababababa6124 lmao good point. A guess when you refuse to use the metric system anything is fair game. Measuring things in buffalo's probably makes more sense than using yards 😂
@@R.B.90 You do know the US uses yards right? It uses metric for everything but daily life of the average citizen.
@@bababababababa6124 yup lol. "This dam has 130,000 tons of concrete, which is the equivalent weight of 400 billion adult bald eagles after eating a Big Mac and putting on their size 5 Jordans."
I remember riding down the Mekong river in Laos, a lot of small cities and towns around that river, can't imagine how many people will get hurt if it's killed of
They can pay china to get water you know
@@planteruines5619 That's such a bad take
@@azarthi it's the tributary nature of the south east asian countries
@@planteruines5619 weak take. They shouldn't have to in the first place.
PlanteRuines has the correct perspective on China's sinister motivations and bad intentions.
As a Cambodian, back in early 2019 to late that same year there was a very frequent lack of electricity. From Monday to Friday, you black out for about 6-8 hours on average a day from around 8am to 5 pm
That is terrible... I wish something could be done internationally
Yeah, I remember those days also
Blame CCP for it. They will destroy everything to fulfil their belt and road initiative
@@neophyte1994 nothing will be done. It’s China.
Those are the peak hours for electricity usage.
Have you done a video on the Colorado River dams an its effects down stream? In Mexico. Would be interesting
Well, It enters into a tiny part of Mexico. It's not even comparable whereas the Mekong is extremely important to Southeast Asia.
Yeah, we cannot do the trending China Bashing with Colorado River. Nah.
他们并不是因为所谓的正义，他们只是为了攻击中国！
Its Its nothing compared to the size of these chinese dams
This must be how Mexico feels about the Colorado River.
That no longer flows over the boarder.
You should cover what's happening at lake Mead and lake Powell
Wendover made a 3 part documentary on the Colorado River in Nebula. Very very interesting.
🤫🤫🤫
Except that it does flow over the border, it takes about 10 seconds to look a satellite imagery on Google 🙄
@@quack9694 There is a difference between a pathetic trickle dribbling over the border and any amount of water that is useful for large scale agriculture or industry.
@@quack9694 "Flow" is a bit of an exaggeration. Trickles, or maybe drips is more appropriate
There really needs to be a new international treaty governing what you can and can not do with rivers that flow into other nations. Otherwise water wars are looking more and more inevitable.
Do you think china will agree or follow any treaty. Has it followed any till now.
China : "Talk. To. My. Hand.
@@KumarNikhils The only way they stop is if Indo China region, the Philippines and all of those other smaller countries around China, just decide too all gang up and declare war cause they’re going to just die and be in economic turmoil anyways
Political perspective:
USA have a dog name “English” , and English have a pup name “Australia & Canada”
China have a friend name “Russia” who have multiple crushes in “Eastern Europe” And many big countries namely India, Brazil, African nations have ties with either of this country either a bond, debt or investment money.
So there you have it the world power who have “The pen” is gone.
DISCLAIMER: Animals in this message is only for interpretation for better understanding and are not mean for insulting respective countries.
@@KumarNikhils Its not just china where this a huge problem. Egypt and Ethiopia come to mind first.
This should be a series: How the Chinese Government is Destroying..(fill in the blank).
Love your History channel ExpandedHistory!!
I suppose America is sweet and innocent
Agree with you...
@@IBTU no but we aren't China either
Yep for example: How the chinese government destroys countries by replacing governments with worse dictators and destabalize various regions by funding terror groups..oh wait!
This is what the USA did with the Colorado River, it destroyed the delta and changed dramatically the environment of northern Baja California, Mexico. Could you make a video on how this happened? I believe not many people know this.
It's a US propaganda channel. So they wont, the video makers are white supremacists.
I think if you feel unfair, you can exchange the territory with the downstream for the upstream to the dissident country.
We have talked about “water wars” my entire life. I kind of thought this would never happen in my lifetime though. Been thinking of moving to Thailand for many years, but I may stay put next to the great lakes instead. I may be called on to defend lake michigan.
America will invade Canada for water and other resources sooner or later
what the fuck are you even saying
okay big guy, calm down
Don’t worry, Thailand doesn’t receive a significant amount of electricity or water from the Mekong.
from what lol
This also happens in the Tagus river, between Spain and Portugal, where Spain built a canal and several dams to connect it to the Guadalquivir river in the south in order to water the southern cultivations fields they have all across Andalucía. In Portugal this created lack of sand and we are losing/lost our beaches near the rivermouth, that in less than 50 years lost more than 100 m of dunes.
My man I'm from Córdoba one of the cities where the Guadalquivir river passes through, the Tagus river aka Tajo doesn't even passes through the south, i'dont know if you are talking about another river, if that's not the case you have to review your map. The river Guadalquivir is born in Jaén (Sierra de Cazorla) and ends in Cádiz (Golfo de Cádiz). No se que quieres quitarnos la poca awita que tenemos mi hijo que en Andalucía tenemos sed tus muertos
iraq too face the same problem with turkey
@@elgolafre5832 aparently I know about your country better than you... and read again what I said. By the way, Google es tu amigo.
@@crazyoung007 i read it again and searched for it again, the only thing that came up was the canal de guadarrama a proyect that was never realise to connect the manzanares, tajo and guadalquivir in madrid, and repeat never realise, don't come up to me with orgullo hermano hispano
@@crazyoung007 another thing is that spain builds dams in the tajo river the only thing is that they aren't connected to the guadalquivir
So basically, what the US did to Mexico with the Colorado River. Go to river delta, there isn't one anymore. The many dams built in the US dry up the river before it makes it into Mexico.
Dams don't make water disapear. The Colorado river is not a river with high water supply.
@@junyuanma4243 you are mistaken, dams cause more evaporation, so they do make water “disappear”
@@junyuanma4243
You do not seem to understand how water evaporation works
@@VerdeMorte What water evaporates and it does it from large bodies of water more?
@@VictorDeveze LMFAO. Evaporation? The total evaporation is negligible comparing to the water amount. It's not Colorado River that flow accross deserts.
Tibet should have stayed independent with international support to protect the water flow and as a buffer between India and China.
Do you think we didn’t want to? China invaded Tibet in 1959. Read the history first tf 🤷🏻♂️
@@asian_kid1857 I'm from India and I support you ❤
Just to clarify - Yangtze Yellow and Mekong are NOT the 3 longest Asian rivers. Yangtze is the longest, IF you count it with earlier parts (which are NOT included in the graphics here). However next one is mostly Russian Yenisei, then Yellow, then its another 3 mostly Russian Ob,Amur and Lena and only in 8th place Mekong river.
This channel goes over interesting topics currently happening in the world today and I've learned quite a lot by watching your videos. Keep up the amazing content!
Forwarded msg:
There is no comparison. Flows from China account for only 13.5% of the total flow of the Mekong. To measure the impact of China's dam construction on the Mekong, you need to know what percentage of the 13.5% China has blocked. In fact, the Mekong is not drought, but seasonal drought. In some cases, the flow in the dry season is only 1/48 of that in the flood season. China is building hydropower stations, and the downstream flow will be reduced only during the water storage period. When the hydropower station is in stable operation, the water inflow and outflow are balanced. The root cause is that the global climate has become more extreme, with less precipitation in the dry season and more precipitation in the rainy season. By the way, a lot of Mekong research institutes are funded by the US and Australia, and you can hardly see any credible data. Their purpose is to spread distrust in China among ASEAN countries.
The author of this video fundamentally doesn't understand how dams work. Dams obviously don't "clog up" anything in terms of how much water will flow down the river... except in the very beginning (while they are filling up storage upstream) after which things will be back to normal (actually better due to flow control) or during extended draughts (which are caused by nature and climate change, climate change you can blame on the Western capitalist world). Explanation: Dams generate electricity by letting water run through them. They also have a maximum capacity and once that is filled they will let through ALL excess. Dams aren't magic black holes that make water disappear. There will not be "less water" flowing down the hill due to dams. The same way there will not be less wind due to windmills or less sunshine due to solar panels.
He also abuses the word "significant" here to put blame on Chinese dams. Yes. Dams always have a "significant" negative impact on a whole range of things. Just like everything else anyone builds anywhere.
Significant just means that something can be scientifically measured and attributed to a specific cause. For example, 0.01% less water due to dam storage would already be "significant". It would, however, not be an important contributing factor.
@@van-ps1qm Well said!
I learned how devastating it would be to detonate a couple nukes on the source glaciers
Wumaos are working so hard to clean their govenment's shits right now lol
Truly shocking that salt water intruding the river delta in Southern Vietnam can cause a 90 percent loss in fishing stocks for that region.
Instead of crying, VN should catch the monsoon rainwater. China is not so lucky!
But only 10% of Mekong River's water supply comes from China. The other 90% comes from rain fall in the downstream.
American media...
This sadly happens in a lot of places around the globe. Countries at the source have a strangle hold on the countries and people down river.
It happens a lot but the extend of this one is insane. Dozens of damns?
@@Homer-OJ-Simpson More like hundreds on the Colorado river
@@Marc-. hey, I see u defend chi-na and Rus in other comments. Anything more interesting to add? The amount of water dammed by PRC on Mekong is more than Colorado River. Also, hardly any Mexicans live in that small area of Mexico between US border and where the river runs into the gulf of California
FLIP THE EARTH UPSIDE DOWN. PROBLEM SOLVED
@@Marc-. Wumao spotted. Every comment made by CCP troll is "hey but what about America" , "America is evil too.." etc.
It's Lan Tsang, not Lan Kang. My country is having the same issues: Spain is damming all the west flowing rivers, and our country of Portugal is seriously drying up
Yet nobody seem to care!
That should be grounds for war.
@@stevelauda5435 I want to say it has caused countries to go to war in the past, since damns are not a new invention.
Americans only make video to condemn their enemies, not their Allies
Entao os Chuchalistas nao se entendem?! Quem diria...
This is exactly what happened to my region when they built the Hoover Dam, it turned the Delta at the end of the colorado river from a swamp into a desert and then reduced the flow of water even further when they made even more dams close to the border
Upstream nations will rule the world. Deal with it.
@@Tonius126 god bless immigration
@@gabcedo and possibly a new area of industrial espionage.
No one will ever cover this because it is USofA u r up against.
@@Tonius126 and they should be ready for tidal waves of immigrants form those downstream nations deal with it
Please add information on the historic flow volume of river at the border with China and what it is now. I think that’s the critical information to separate the effects of Chinese dams versus the effects of climate change. So strange that China will not even discuss cooperation.
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
This is a very similar case as the one with the Colorado river, that is shared between USA and Mexico
Oh I am curious. Can you pls explain whats happening to me?
@@leonardoherrera9059 intensive irrigation in California and other Western states means the Colorado no longer reaches its mouth in the Gulf of California. That's the short version.
I would argue while similar it's also different because as far as I'm aware Mexico isn't as reliant on the Colorado River as the US is. This does not mean the river hasn't been mismanaged just pointing out that while comparable it's still a very different situation. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
@@quintinpelley8710 it's the same situation for the people in the region, it went from a swamp before the Dam construction (they blocked the entire flow of water for 2 years to fill it) into a arid desert, doesn't help that the flow got smaller in recent years because they built another dam just north of the border and the mexicali valley is drying up even more
Yup. Giant imperialistic countries hoarding resources at whatever the external cost. Disgusting.
One of the other rampant problems along the Laos portion of the Mekong is that illegal logging takes place and the wood is sent to China. The thing is, it's difficult see.
That's because the corrupt government of Laos got together with the loggers to try to only cut the trees down from behind the hills. Therefore, it still looks quite nice for the tourists coming down the river, but it's decimated on the other side.
This is not a bigger problem than US blocking the Colorado river and turning the Mexican part into desert. But I am sure you think that's caused by climate change. Climate change built dams to block the river
Interesting, are there any good videos on this id love to learn more
That sounds like something a villain in children's story would do
I've lived in Laos for a couple years now, locals have actually told me that most of the political powers of Laos are actually Chinese people who changed their names to sound Laotian - it's insane.
@@Rune_Full_Helm possible, but i really think it's just them being racist. Not all chinese are disguised as villains. Unless they have evidence, just saying that out of the blue is malicious.
Same that Arizona did to the Colorado river. Ethiopia destroys the Nile. Congo is destroying the Congo river.
It is so sad. I can only sigh of relief when I will be dead and nothing of this will affect my consciousness any longer.
But really you cannot blame people trying to escape poverty. Congo has 9% electricity coverage yet they have the river with the strongest rapids in the world. Would you blame them for wanting to use this resource to get electricity. The nile on the other hand is complicated. All countries deserve to use the water but historically Egypt has bullied other riparian states to how they could use the water instead of finding equitable ways of watersharing which is now biting them in the back
@@somi6683 yes. but you see everything just from the specio-centric perspective,. What about the habitats that are destroyed and species that are lost? You know, people actually care about this --
why is it not possible to use an alternative source of electricity? damming every darn major river in the world is somewhat boring. There are other ways.
Ideally, one needs to tackle the political system. with political stability you could do photovoltaik. in the foreseeable future we have nuclear fusion. but species are lost forever.
easiest is always the destruction of nature. this is deeply disturbing to the environmentalist.
@@jollyjokress3852 Burn more coal to generate electricity is the correct answer?
@@somi6683 Congo is sitting on trillions of dollars worth of wealth but the country is a mess. Hydro electrical power isn't their issue but it is an issue if they are screwing over the environment for all affected.
I flew over the Mekong river, heading toward the Philippines and still have photos of it. It's beautiful!
Exactly what happened in Colorado river. The Colorado river delta in Mexico died decades ago.
My country doesn't share rivers with other countries so I'm forever grateful for that. Same thing is happening at Nile too with Egypt, the country with lowest annual rainfall suffer the most.
Which country u from?
i'm glad here in brazil we don't need to share rivers with others countries
i'm frmo Australia and same however our largest river has one of the largest floodplain/food areas in the world and farmers upstream are holding water back, like creating massive man made lakes purely to divert water in and starving off the river, killing communities and rying up the river downstream. We are literaly destroying ourselves, not another nation doing it.
@@peepeetrain8755 not entirely true, it only looks worse during drought times, and right now we are having an abundance of water.
We have cycles mate which we work around but food still needs to be put on the table yr round.
@@jayebuss5562 literally look up floodplain harvesting lol. Massive cotton farms and other companies are keeping hold of the flood waters, selling it for a high price downstream. This is not a drought/no drought issue.
this is an example of what Ethiopia could do to Egypt and Sudan without an agreement they refuse to sign
If US can do it to Colorado river others can do too
The difference is China is a huge nation with a huge military and Ethiopia is a small nation losing to rebels and cant fight Egypt who is gearing up for war cuz of the dam
@@dejannincic9671 Egypt can’t fight Ethiopia either because Ethiopia could potentially open the dam and flood Egypt if it wants
@Dejan Nincic
Militarilyspeaking i dont think Ethiopia is necessarily weak , from what i have read "the rebels" are actually the ex-government of Ethiopia and had most of ethiopias military assets plus the US likes the old Ethiopian government so their current government gets alot of sanctions more over the current government still controls like half of fhe rebellious region (the region is pretty tiny btw ) so idk man ethiopia was able to invade somalia and force a regime change that takes some military capability
Ethiopia is also a very mountainous country (has 70-80% of africas mountains ) so maybe they'll use it against egypt( since the country is a giant fortress it would be a nightmare to invade so egypt wont be able to secure thwir interests using an invasion
"And three additional surprise gifts". "And three additional surprise gifts".
A tale as old as time. "You can't tell me what to do with the river that crosses MY property!"
Earth needs a rule: no country can own a river. Kill anyone that tries to draw water from it. Sure, 4 or 5 billion people will die, but it's for the good of the species.
This is the same thing with ground water, air pollution, destruction of habitats like forests and human rights violations. "Who are you to tell Spain how they use THEIR ground water on THEIR side of the border, or the USA how they need to handle THEIR coal power plants or Brazil & Indonesia to preserve THEIR tropical rainforest or china how to treat THEIR citizens in Xingjiang?"
Yeah, thanks for the mention of Slovakia. I am always excited when we are mentioned 😊
And not confuse it with Slovenia 🤭
We will have Slovaks tourist coming soon. We will welcome them and hopefully they will enjoy their stay here. :)
Cambodia decide to completely abandon the dam project on Mekong river to save the river. The main problem for our country is that we have the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia ( the Tonle Sap lake) which grows 4 times the size and 7 times of depth in rainy season and these water are basically comes from the Mekong River which flood upstream. This lake will then flood the surrounding rainforest and giving favorable breeding ground for fishes and wild bird species. Now as the water is lower than it had ever been, the tonle sap and its used to be balanced ecosystem is now vulnerable. It houses 30% of total protein source of Cambodia, a natural nutrient recycler, a shipping pathway. Please Save Mekong.
Edit: it’s also home to the nearly extinct Irrawaddy Mekong Dolphin and largest freshwater fish ever caught(the Mekong Giant Stingray)
Does the Mekong normally flow into the Tonle Sap?
@@DugrozReports the water flows into tonle sap lake every year during the rainy season, in dry season the water flows back to the Mekong. 6 months of inflow and 6 months of outflow. Edit : Tonle sap lake is one of Mekong ecosystem, so if the Mekong dies, so does tonle sap lake.
that damn project
"When they built dams, they told us that we will get electricity. But it turns out that people can't eat electricity"
-Cambodian/Lao fisherman
@@b7076-y7x they didn’t even build it yet. Even if it is built without consequences,people could’ve been more responsible for their lives because the government actually responsible for their home and giving them farmland in the case of Dong Sahong, they just wouldn’t want to abandon their mother’s land and grab sth new. I understand the pain. But the government promised never build a dam on the Mekong main stream, there’s nothing to complain. The problem is the upper Mekong region itself.
Totally fascinating. Would be really amazing if you had a "recommended further reading" section in your descriptions as you always leave us wanting to learn more..
Can you make a video about how the Nile River and other rivers are also being killed and how a war about water can happen 🙏🏻.
Btw, thanks for the great video, love from VN.
Yeah !!! If he makes abt the Nile river I will thank God for making this smart guy 👦 ❤❤
Im from egypt
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024.
@Metal Fan don't feed the troll
Damn, water wars....
It is clearly the natural resources that we humans fought and kill each other, and we aren't still learning from our mistakes.
Everything is one of the most strategic regions of the world to control.
Comparing the Mekong Delta to the Chesapeake Bay is somewhat misleading since the bay is less than 6' deep for over 50% of it.
He was comparing the volume of water, not the relative depths
good transition into the plug lmfao... i literally thought we were still talking about the river when began talking about hello fresh
This is probably a stupid question, but... Doesn't China have to allow the water to flow through its dams to actually produce power? Assumedly water continues to flow downstream from its sources, so it must eventually get to the lower basin regardless of the dams along the way...yes? What am I missing?
Yes, that's true, but its a massive dams, and to fill 1 dams takes a long time maybe years, so during those refilling years downstream level would be much lower than usual. Now what if there's 2 or more of such dams? Sure maybe in 10-15 years downstream levels will be back to normal, but how about the millions of people who depend on the the river to survive? And how about the water biosphere? Not to mention Vietnam is a major rice exporter, and to grow rice you need "tons" of water.. If their farms are destroyed, that means no rice for china too, because china itself still need to import rice and other food stocks to feed her 1.4 billion people
because western media/social media,
"only 15-20% of the water in Mekong comes from China" was a critical information that was (intentionally) missed from this video.
You are missing that the author did not tell that the total storage of water in tributary system of Mekong was 37.2 billion cubic meters and the predicted amount would increase to 100 billion till 2030. Furthermore, the frequency of droughts had been increasing in the last 6 decades while China did not built these dam then. Furthermore, I believe that it was a problem of coordination and cooperation instead of China intentionally blockading the down-stream.
@@zeinwahab9986 it actually only takes hours to fill it. You have no idea how much water is going along the river and actually how little the water can be stored
I don't struggle to figure out what to eat for dinner. After watching this video about Asia's longest rivers, I've determined that I should immediately begin raising small fish such as sardines and herring in my backyard to ensure many nutritious dinners in the future. I should also work to dam up my local creek to ensure that my backyard is sufficiently flooded throughout the year. While this may deprive many downstream of salmon and swimming whatnot, I have learned from China that I should only care about my own food supply unless I'm hungry, in which case, I need to find a way to divert more water into my backyard. (or conquer my neighbors to get their backyards.)
6:56 Another comparison: that's enough to power approximately 36 time-traveling DeLoreans. Great Scott!
Thank you for covering this, nobody ever really knows what happens down in SE Asia. still a lot of corruption and people who are being taken advantaged of.
Forwarded msg:
There is no comparison. Flows from China account for only 13.5% of the total flow of the Mekong. To measure the impact of China's dam construction on the Mekong, you need to know what percentage of the 13.5% China has blocked. In fact, the Mekong is not drought, but seasonal drought. In some cases, the flow in the dry season is only 1/48 of that in the flood season. China is building hydropower stations, and the downstream flow will be reduced only during the water storage period. When the hydropower station is in stable operation, the water inflow and outflow are balanced. The root cause is that the global climate has become more extreme, with less precipitation in the dry season and more precipitation in the rainy season. By the way, a lot of Mekong research institutes are funded by the US and Australia, and you can hardly see any credible data. Their purpose is to spread distrust in China among ASEAN countries.
@@emhgarlyyeung I really don’t think you watched the video…. Though, the distrust of China is not abnormal. Quite common because China is a government not to be trusted. Imo.. worst than the US. Though I do understand what you are saying with with the seasonal drought. Still doesn’t justify the end of the river itself drought level along with the Species/specimens going extinct/endangered that travel through the Mekong such as the Mekong catfish
@@emhgarlyyeung Didn't the video say that Mekong's flow account for over half of the water supply of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand during the dry seasons between November and April?
@@AkshatSharma1505 Do not believe everything from a propaganda video, but even it's really half, it's only reduce half the water, what cause the dry is because of weather and earth environment getting climate change, it happened many time repeatedly in history before China build the dams. What people should do is learn from China experience, every countries build their dam and try to store some water, and use those fresh water during dry season, not go to blaming everyone else but your self. Even if China remove all the dams, when dry season come, it will still dry, and what worst is even China also dry together.
China is really annoying all of its Asian neighbors. They have territorial disputes with Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, India. And now they are killing the rivers of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. Maybe we should all just join together against the common enemy that is the CCP.
This is what happened to the Colorado and Grande rivers 30 years ago, the Colorado doesn't reach the Gulf of California anymore, as all the water is extracted in Arizona and California, and the Rio Grande doesn't carry any water when reaching El Paso anymore due to all the dams in New Mexico, the Rio Grande does carry water down stream as other small tributaries add to it later on.
Hey, if you're on the subject of New Mexico being asshats, don't forget what they did to the Pecos river.
That what we call double standard
Compare to Japan releasing its nuclear waste to the Pacific Ocean, it's nothing.
Forwarded msg 1:
The video is misleading. The dried out pictures are not the Mekong. I have seen Mekong river many times i Thailand and the river is Massive. It is more than 1 km wide.
Forwarded msg 2:
What about to the upstream dam to generate electricity? The stored water still has to be put downstream, should it be stored until it explodes or drinks it up? Don't you not understand the law of conservation of mass? Slow release of water can also slow down flooding downstream which is good thing.
What an ignorant objection!
Forwarded msg 3:
Fresh water is precious, it is better to stay in the dam than to flow out of the sea...
As for the flow, it cannot be controlled by manpower, but it must be a little more controlled than if there is no water storage.
Forwarded msg 4:
Why does this video mention that "The Mekong River Commission (MRC) began working with China and Myanmar in 1996 when these two countries agreed to become Dialogue Partners."?????
@@cc_fffknow (all) humans = hypocrite 😀
Yes, more people need to see your comment. How the US is brazenly committing crimes while criticizing others for doing the same.
@RealLifeLore Great Video as always!
But 2 things I want to correct on the video:
1. The source of the Yangtze river/Chang Jiang is far more east than shown at 0:55
2. The Mekong river is not the 3rd Longest River in Asia it the
Ranking:
1 Yangtze river/Chang Jiang ~6300 km
2. Yenisey ~5500 km
3. Ob ~ 5400 km
4. Amur ~5000 km (some sections dont not carry water all over the year!)
5. Yellow rvier Huáng Hé 4845 km
6. Lena ~4600 km
7. Mekong ~4500 km
Since the leght of a river/( or the longes flow path in its riversystem) is not well defined and can't be messured exactly, there can be some variance to this list.
The Yangtze river, the Yenisey and the Ob are considerably longer than the Mekong. There for the Mekong is "at most" the 4th (5th if you put the Yellow river above the Mekong) longest river in Asia.
Thanks!
This may be the worst error Sam has made on either channel.
This is wrong. For starters, Brahmaputra is much longer than Yenisay and Ob which are both sub-3500kms.
@@PD-dg6zk Ob River is over 3500 km, even if you don't consider the Irtysh River is regarded as part of the Ob River.
@@TheSpiritombsableye It says "third largest river in Asia" on Wikipedia, which is probably why he said it.
Even the sponsered AD sounded interesting. Great narration, great Channel. Keep it up!
When he told the Chinese name for the river, I immediately remembered the BF4 map "Lancang Dam". I see now why it was a fit choice for a scenario.
Sooo many Chinese people in Thailand too. The Native Thai peoples hospitality was returned with Chinese stranglehold on high paying jobs and complete exclusion of the native Thais and other country descended Thai people. But I feel like native Thais can also share the blame due to this weird attitude of ไม่ต้องห่วงเยอะ and ไม่เป็นอะไร. The Chinese help us occasionally but there is always a condition as we all know and the Thai governments policies do not reflect the needs or wants of the next or current generation of Thai people.
We buy tons of weapons from other countries but even a blind man knows that it will be better used to help the people. Not to mention Thailand is it’s in infancy stage of the coming race politics. There is already a significant Chinese, Indian and Burmese populous and stereotypes are unaddressed and rife. And now after this video we got water problems too. The exclusion here regards to media representation and beauty standards which ultimately led to a very strange mindset of fair is more beautiful.
I think Thai-Chinese has noting to do with PRC, Thai Chinese has been in Thailand for GENERATIONS most of them had been assimilated into Thai culture. Most of 3th generation Chinese cannot even speak Chinese or known anything about Chinese culture. Thai Chinese are as Thai as natives at this point.
U live in Thailand?
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024!
@@himanshugurjar9002 คุณเป็นคนไทยด้วยเหรอ?
@@varotjutaviriya1808 Yes that is an undeniable fact. Their ancestral contributions are not to be turned a blind eye to but I still feel like aspects of Thai media is heavily skewed in their favor.
3:37 that's crazy, looks like falling off of what is basically a single-rope of a bridge would mean death
should do a video of the Colorado river - how may dams, and how much water Mexico can enjoy, and whether there is a single drop of water reaches the sea.
they will never do it,americans are double standard
this channel gives you much information than what you get at school and college combined.
The Mekong River Commission, which was jointly established by Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in 2017, has said that the drought in the lower Mekong is not caused by dams in the upper reaches, and in some cases helps to replenish the drought.
CCP nonsense
@@coraltown1 This is said by the Mekong River Commission. If you don't agree with this, show me your proof and let your country quit this organization, thanks.
@@jingyangzhang1234 doesn't make any difference what any commission did or did not say, China is killing the Mekong watershed and that will cause drought. The CCP is pure evil.
You know what? When a western MSM is so concerned about any small nation, they're planning to set their greedy foot on it before launching invasion.
@@coraltown1 You can see that at the Jinghong hydropower station on the Chinese border, the flow into the reservoir is 40.02 billion cubic meters in a full year, and the flow out of the reservoir is 51.89 billion cubic meters. In 2010 and 2014, the two largest hydropower plants in the Chinese basin, Xiaowan and Nuozadu, started working. 42.9 billion cubic meters of outflow from the Lancang River in 2010, higher than the previous year, and 50.4 billion cubic meters in 2014, up 24% from the previous year's flow. This suggests that the construction of hydropower plants in China has no significant impact on the overall runoff of the river.
All the data taken for this video comes from the Mekong-U.S. Partnership, rather than the Mekong River Commission. The Mekong-U.S. Partnership is an international body which conducts studies which regularly get scientifically refuted and which has no effect on how the Mekong is actually managed (involving all Mekong countries except China, but including the U.S., for obvious propaganda reasons). The Mekong River Commission involves all Mekong countries, they exchange data on water management, conduct their own studies, and are the reason why Mekong countries are not constantly complaining about one another.
Real Life Lore is likely funded by USAID
So, the Mekong River Commission consists of China too. What makes you think it won't be arm-twisting the other weaker countries?
Sorry to express it so blantly, but I don't trust anything where the Chinese government is involved.
@@YakuzaSRC Simply because many of these other countries along the Mekong, such as Vietnam and Thailand, are massive economies and important for trade with China. China cannot simply dominate them.
As to your other point - there seems to be a kind of dichotomy in the international sphere at this point, where you have the U.S. and China seeking to have their voices heard and others trying to pick sides. So, on the one hand, you have a meritocratic government which has demonstrated the most peaceful rise of a great power in the history of humanity; one which does not seek conflict with other countries and trades with everyone; a country which, single-handedly raised 700 million people out of poverty. On the other hand, you have a genocidal state, representing the world's only remaining colonial empire, which has not brought democracy to 4.1 million of its citizens, and which just spent the last 20 years destroying two countries, one of which, Iraq, they lied to their own people and the international community about Weapons of Mass Destruction being the primary reason for invading, leading to the deaths of as many as 1.3 million Iraqis. So, yeah, be careful who you trust.
@@jasonjean2901 Did you talk about "raising 700 million people out of poverty" where about 55 million people died? Yeah, I tend to not talk about it.
And "doesn't seek conflict with other countries"? LMAO, why don't you ask India about it.
Yeah, more people need to be aware of this fact. Much of this Mekong river propaganda comes from US sponsored think tanks.
All the times , Real Life Lore videos are useful ..... Great videos ..........
It's similar how turkey is building dams blocking water from Iraq.
RIP Euphrates.
Ez kibaszottul nem így van de mind1
@@normanclatcher Euphrates ending seems like a omen about what is to come. The fertile crescent allowed the first civilization to happen, so it's fitting that the end of the Euphrates should be the dawn of the end of human civilization
I am in Shock. In Spain government wanted to divert the Ebro River so as to give the drought Spanish communities were barely getting water, even in Winter there are drought in the Spanish Levante. Demonstrations against this Government decision took over the streets in the communities where the Ebro runs with enough powerful stream. So, we are talking about neighbor communities. Stingy people with the natural resources that belong to all the Spanish Levante have been gripping ( giving too much water) the stream. I can picture how will be the feeling in Cambodia, Thailand, and so on.
Dude I thought only Caribbean people said stingy
@@nicholascoker7212 Really? We use it here in England.
Let me guess: Power
Perfect Guess Buddy
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024!
As long as they don't divert water, it's not killing the river.
Flood control and more consistent river flow is usually considered a benefit of dams, but I guess there are 2 sides to every story.
One side from the scientists and engineers and one side from those alliterated in science and technology who are always used by politicians.
Please note that annual rainfall: Cambodia 1,904 mm; VN 1,821 mm; Thailand 1,622 mm; India 1,083mm; China a mere 645 mm. What a shame to blame water shortage on the most arid country!
Fun Fact:My teacher taught me that nearly all the fish from china flows to a freshwater lake in Cambodia called Tonle Sap.
There's nothing fun about that
ah yes 'fun fact'
@@PerfectionInMotion69 It's fun because it's a great fishing spot if you ever visit Cambodia
At this point Nuclear seems the most enviromental friendly source of energy, especially Thorium reactors.
But people basically needs water to irrigate farms and create ponds for the fish.
Great job!
Hope you could insert English subtitles on your videos. It's helpful and easy for audiences to get almost your informations. Thank you very much!
That issue would be a matter of national security for the countries of the lower Mekong, that could even be justification for a war , because it is practically a life or death issue for those countries.
So US can interfere and try to invade China hahahaha
@@markc6140 That is not what I was talking about and you can keep your hahaha
I'm pretty sure that's china's plan.
War is not needed due to a drought. People need to calm down, talk, communicate and investigate to solve problems. WAR is not a way to solve problems except the USA which needs wars to sell weapons to survive.
People in "3rd world" countries need to improve their education in science and technology so that they can't be misled by video like this one. Science and technology will give you knowledge and solve problems in your country such as drought.
@@hyc1266 I think that that is very reasonable thinking but it is 50% wishful thinking , because half of the reality of the situation is that people are not alway reasonable , and also , China has a vested interest in weakening those countries of the lower Mekong as much as it suits her interest in doing so .
The United States does not foster wars as a matter of policy just so that it can keep it armaments industry flourishing . Its armaments industry may benefit, yes , just as the armaments industry of France , the U.K. and Russia benefit from these wars , but that does not mean that it creates them
Also , we are not talking about a mere drought , but of a PERMANENT never ending lack of water in those countries of the lower Mekong . A drought is a temporary phenomenon.
Some very basic fact: the upstream in China only contributes 15-20% of the water in Mekong, because there are much more tributaries in the lower basin and rainfall than in China.
But 99% of the people don't understand this.
China's playing this the same way I'd play a strategy game.
based china
Floods?
I'm from Vietnam and the effect on our Mekong delta is paramount
One thing you didn't explain, is where the water goes. I understand dams and secret flood releases mess up the seasonal cycle. And filling basins will of course hold water up. And in some configuration, some basins can increase evaporation. But water held by dams don't overall magically disappear, it has to be released sometimes, doesn't it?
It is just simply locked away in the many upstream dams. And each river is different in that there are many sources that can supply the river. Because no one country is measuring or looking into how much the river should flow, each country upstream will just lock more and more of the river away. Saving it for a rainy day.
Rivers have their natural flows and Man can lock it indefinitely away. Possibly in 100 years, there can be enough build up in each dam to eventually re-supply the river. But no one knows. When they dam up the river upstream, sometimes they can pipe that water over to other areas as drinking water or irrigation.
So it isn't simply that they've built a dam in order to generate electricity. And that they will release it periodically and that way it will refill the river. They also will divert much of the excess away to other areas. For farming or consumption.
Look at the former Aral Sea to see what they can do to an entire body of water. The water was diverted to farm cotton.
The only smart comment so far.
The whole point of dams is to not "hold up the water forever" -- it's to release it into a generator in order to generate electricity. This video makes it sound like China is making 13 dams just to screw with the countries down stream when in reality, it's just fearmongering and blaming the effects of climate change into dam building. It makes 0 sense to build electric dams and not release the water since you can't generate any electricity without releasing the water. People who make these videos are tricking brainless sheeples that don't understand the basics of gravity based energy generation.
@@pianobench6319 this is the most braindead comment I've ever seen. You don't spend billions of dollars to generate 0 electricity in order to "save it for a rainy day" -- that whole region isn't populated or a farming powerhouse either. The main point of those dams is to generate electricity for the industrial base of the south in a clean and renewable fashion.
It gets diverted to farms and industry in China
That's not what you said when Hoover dam block out 99% of the water form Colorado
95% of the Colorado flows through the US
@@gallusdomesticuskfptechpriest That must mean you agree with China using most water from Mekong cause half of it flows through China
Great video! I was wondering if you could perhaps make a video on why the capital of Equatorial Guinea (Malabo) is on an island off the coast of Africa and not in mainland Equatorial Guinea. I would really appreciate it if you could make a video on that.
van33 11
8 hours ago
The author of this video fundamentally doesn't understand how dams work. Dams obviously don't "clog up" anything in terms of how much water will flow down the river... except in the very beginning (while they are filling up storage upstream) after which things will be back to normal (actually better due to flow control) or during extended draughts (which are caused by nature and climate change, climate change you can blame on the Western capitalist world). Explanation: Dams generate electricity by letting water run through them. They also have a maximum capacity and once that is filled they will let through ALL excess. Dams aren't magic black holes that make water disappear. There will not be "less water" flowing down the hill due to dams. The same way there will not be less wind due to windmills or less sunshine due to solar panels.
He also abuses the word "significant" here to put blame on Chinese dams. Yes. Dams always have a "significant" negative impact on a whole range of things. Just like everything else anyone builds anywhere.
Significant just means that something can be scientifically measured and attributed to a specific cause. For example, 0.01% less water due to dam storage would already be "significant". It would, however, not be an important contributing factor.
@@emhgarlyyeung ... if you place a bowl of water that is 10% full, it's going to evaporate at a rate much faster than if you were to place a water that is 100% full out in the sun. If the 10% full water evaporates completely in 1hr; that 100% full water is not going to disappear in 10 hours. That's the concept for the water drying up here; you're overall reducing the amount of water flowing and speeding up the evaporation process so the water doesn't last very long in the river.
@@emhgarlyyeung You are either misinformed or lying. A dam takes energy from the river, makes it flow more slowly, and causes more evaporation. The CCP is a gang run by psychopaths who don't even care about the Chinese people.
He is not interested in Equatorial Guinea.
The same problem is between the USA and Mexico about Colorado river, USA build dam to stop river flow to Mexico
Wouldn't the downstream water level return to normal when all the dams are filled up and they let extra water flow down?
that's what I was thinking. but it takes years for one dam til fill up, and a new dam is coming online more frequently than that...
That is when the flow is constant, but it isnt in this case when during winter, there are more ice than water, and in summer, more water than ice,
Then that gives one country control on how much water goes to another country
@@windsorus Let's use simple numbers to make it easier to imagine:
If 10 tons of water flow down from the mountains in summer, and only 5 tons of water in winter...
If the dam is full... there will be 10 tons that overflow from the dam in summer... and if the dam is still full in winter... 5 tons of water will overflow from the dam in winter...
so... the flow should still be the same?
(unless they pump the water elsewhere to use, but don't dump it back into the same river)
@@MeowO_O the dams create a large surface of water (1000s fold) that increase evaporation significantly and that's just one that easy to understand of many major reasons
Video producers need to figure out why humans need hydropower plants to exist . In 2016, affected by the strong El Niño, the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam suffered a once-in-a-century drought, and the dry delta experienced seawater intrusion two months earlier than usual, threatening 30% of the 1.15 million hectares of winter and spring crops. Vietnam asked the Chinese government to increase the discharge flow to alleviate the drought downstream. So China Jinghong Power Station first began to dispatch emergency downstream.
When you say north pole then don't you mean the ice sheet on Greenland. That covers 80% of Greenland and as far i know there only exist two ice masses big enough to be categorized as ice sheets the Antarctic ice sheet that is the biggest and then the Greenland ice sheet.
What we don't understand[or maybe refuse to accept] is such decision impacts not just the South-East Asian countries but actually the whole world. As stated in the video twice , "20% of world's freshwater fish THAT WE EAT comes from MEKONG ALONE."
This is also why dictatorship is never the ideal path for any nation as it eventually starts to impact the entire world IN A VERY VERY BAD MANNER.
This sadly happens all over the world. Source countries controlling flow of water with little to ne fucks given to people down stream. Look at the Colorado River. Hell it happens on tiny scales here in NY.
Where in New York are you from ?
that sounds like my work or management team gives little to no fuck to us.
@@PerfectionInMotion69 Auburn, finger lakes
One of the most important reason why china annexed Tibet was to control over the rivers..
Would you do something else?
China did not annex Tibet, Tibet was effectively managed by the Chinese government 300 years ago, no China realized the importance of Tibet at that time, so you can't say that China controls Tibet for water, because no country would voluntarily give up a territory that originally belongs to them.
@@helloworld5334 The Qing Dynasty wasn't Chinese but Manchurian. The last Chinese dynasty was the Ming.
@@alchemist7412 Who told you that the Qing Dynasty was not part of China?
The land of Manchuria and the Manchu people are all within China, and China is a multi-ethnic country. The Manchus have the same rights as any other ethnic group, including the right to participate in politics.
If Manchuria was not China, then there would be no need for India to exist as a nation. For with the departure of the British, India should revert to being dozens of independent nations, just as it was before the British occupied the Indian subcontinent.
India as a nation is even less legitimate because the British do not even live with the Indians.
@@alchemist7412 that's like sayin British India is British and not India
As a Bangladeshi, I felt this video personally
The Colorado river doesn't even reach the ocean anymore, dams in USA allow using all the water for agriculture and human consumption. At the delta in Mexico all the water is from the ocean and the water used in Mexico it's what little drains, but farmers in USA are demanding to use that little remaining too, a powerful neighbor won't hesitate to hoard everything. The good part is there's a lot of rain in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam so they don't depend directly of the river source. Still the biome is probably suffering a lot and dying.
This has to stop, keeping rivers hostage is not only gonna cause environmental problems it also cause, humanitarian problems ranging from climate refuges to angry rebels.
@马列驱逐炎黄 they don’t autonomy too the worlds resources
美国人根本不知道什么是水电站，水电站不吃水OK，水有进有出，OK，美国媒体造谣张嘴就来，哈哈哈
Americans don't know what a hydropower station is. Hydropower stations don't drink water. OK.？ Water flows in and out. American media spread rumors
It's called a little bit of trolling
real
This will certainly help exacerbate the famines that will start this northern winter and ramp up next northern winter, along with the droughts in Western North America and northeastern Africa.
We are poised to see the first drop in global population, year on year, for a long while. All that is left to be seen is how many will die.
They will become colonies of china. Either do what they say or they cut off the water. That's why Egypt is terrified of Ethiopia filling it's dam. They will control Egypt or they will be starved out
Good. May 1.4 billion Chinese become 200 million Chinese.
All those poor dogs that have been savagely tortured then eaten.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 okay thanos/hitler
@@youarebeingtrolled6954 Mao
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 Too bad it is mostly the American and European who believe their lying incompetent gov't died. Good luck to all the racists.
Solution: Install solar panels floating on water above each dam anchored to the river bed. This will reduce water evaporation and produce electricity without the need for extra land. And solar panels will stay cold therefore more efficient.
Imagine the ecological impact of changing the river's flow so much must be pretty large too
That just make no sense, the dam will only take water when it's not full, after that things will be the same.
When he said "3 years ago back in 2019", it hurt
Yeah
Another reason to despise the CCP, they are not just exploit the Sea of Phillipines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, but also the river of Thailand, Laos, vietnam, and cambodia.
China is the future and you the past
China already killed Yellow and Yangze rivers, now it's Mekong
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024.
You cry about those other rivers because you don't own them either.
this is worth all those countries declaring wars on them
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024.
@@TryPie256 wut
and get nuked in the process
@@saintjames1995 ignore them, they're just trying to be annoying, and I gotta say, they did achieve exactly that.
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand all have conflicts with each other during history, but I agree this is probably the time where we should gang up
The Chinese goverment will never take its neighbors' concerns into account ever.
There needs to be some kind of international law or pact or overseeing shared water management like this and in other places, to prevent environmental damage and to ensure the greatest sustainable use of the river
Is HOOVER dam of Colorado River still there ? Is this River dead Yet?
The title of this video is misleading. It discusses _how_ China is killing the Mekong, but there is no mention as to _why._ Of course, this is in part due to how secretive the Chinese government is on the matter, but including it in the title anyway induces a pretty skewed expectation for what the video will actually be.
Western creators fearmongering sheeples for views is nothing new
The title sells , don't overthink it.
Come on now! Title: China + Kill = MANY VIEWS
I'm sure China is just looking to meet their needs without giving a crap about their neighbors needs.
@@BitterMillenial even though China's side only contributes a small portion of the river's flow, it's still China's fault. Fair enough.
As an Indonesian, never have I ever thought about other countries yoinking our water like this. I'm glad we're on a separate island, even tho we may have too much 😂😂😂
indonesian government more like cut the tree and cause massive deforestation instead of worrying other countries took hostage of fresh water, ironic french company hold aqua instead of state owned corporation.
@@Alfha_Robby I tought Aqua was a private company, so I'm not against the owner selling what essentially theirs. I've never heard any country getting rich by state owned corporations, most of them are private.
@@dputra Saudi Arabia own state owned corporation Saudi Aramco, as for aqua which is owned by Danone which is french/spain multinational food corporation, from Mizone to Activia.
The most optimum economy system is state owned corporation run strategic resources while non consequences product run on free market, unregulated market led to foreigner stealing resources and extremely low wage and extremely high living standard since businessman would squeeze it's employee and worker yet fully state owned corporation dominate the market led to corruption rampant which is why socialism country went bankrupt mostly.
@@Alfha_Robby And how much impact Danone has towards their nation's GDP?
Oil and gas might be Arab and Brunei's major GDP, but is that applicable everywhere and every sector? Just asking.
It's not wise to laugh, when China shut down the Mekong river completely many of us(Asian) will died of Hunger, all the countries around her will turn into Dry lands/Deserts. Living in other Countries and islands in Asia meaning we're Safe? Not Really...🤔🤔🤔 China doesn't have to go to Wars, just shortage of food is just enough to Crippled our Country (ies), Dimas Putra, what do you think or I'm might be Wrong. 🤔🤔🤔😳😲🙄🙄
Talk about the itaipu dam and how it destroyed the seven falls waterfall
You have sinned against the Lord Almighty. May you repent. Judgement day will come TrumpDeSantis2024!
@@TryPie256 more like trumpdeeznuts2069
Gotta appreciate this channel ability to stretch their watch time