Thailand’s finest tomato production areas along Mekong River in the northeastern region have suffered serious impacts from dams in the lower Mekong River Basin, causing financial distress for the local farmers and threatening their livelihoods.
Local tomato producers in Bueng Kan and Nakhon Panom provinces said the hydropower dams, both on the Mekong River mainstream and its tributaries, have caused significant impacts to riverbank plantations due to river-flow alterations and sedimentation, that in turn contributed to reduced yields and rising production costs.
They also shared their worries about new hydropower dam development projects on the Mekong River mainstream in Laos. They particularly singled out the Xayaburi Dam, Pak Beng Dam, and Pak Lay Dam, large dams that they said would surely cause even greater impacts to the river hydrology, and could irreversibly destroy the best tomato production areas of Thailand.