by Khonesavanh Lathsaphao
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) - There have been many reports about the alarmingly low level of the Mekong this rainy season, both in Laos and in neighbouring countries, but other rivers are also shrinking.
Last week I went to the Nam Ngum river in Saendin village, Naxaithong district, about 40 kilometres from Vientiane.
While I was there, at a spot near a temple in a riverside village, groups of adults and children could be seen engaged in various activities and playing in the water.
Some villagers walked to the temple and headed to the riverbank where groups of young people sat leisurely under the big trees. They were there to gaze at the river and observe its very low level – a strange sight in the middle of what should be the rainy season. As I drew close, people smiled at me and without exception remarked that this year the water level was extremely low.
I watched young men paddling a boat as they trained ahead of a race, saw children swimming and young people sitting on the riverbank, and looked at the villagers who came to wonder at the receding river.
But their attitude surprised me. I thought they would be concerned by what was happening to the river, but they were not. They appeared to be relaxed and bemused rather than worried.
One local resident, Mr Haikham Sikhounmeuang, who was born in the village 60 years ago, told me the river level dropped significantly earlier this month. Now half of the river beside the temple had become land where people gathered to play volleyball, sepak takraw and football.
“I saw it like this 30 years ago,” Mr Haikham said.
Last year the river flooded but this year it is dwindling rapidly. But if it were up to him, he would choose the current situation over flooding any day. Floods destroy crops, livestock and houses, which affects people here badly because most are farmers.
Mr Haikham insisted that the farmers were not lazy. “If you don’t believe me,” he said earnestly, “just look at the coffee shops in this village. No one is sitting there drinking coffee. If people want to do that, they’ll take some with them to their fields.”
He remarked that in Vientiane he had seen people around the city sitting and drinking coffee for hours on end. In his opinion they were lazy and should find something better to do.
The situation in Saendin village was repeated elsewhere along the Nam Ngum river, and as we travelled we observed large tracts of dry land that should have been deep under water at this time of the year.
It hasn’t taken long for the river to shrink but when and if the rains do arrive these broad expanses will quickly disappear under water. Another villager told me that when the water is this low, it’s quite difficult to find fish, although some people don’t realise this.
Why do the fish disappear and where do they go? When the water level rises again, the fish will return in abundance. If you want to buy fresh fish from the villages that line the Nam Ngum, come back when the water rises.
Saendin is one of many villages located along the river, and is about six kilometres from Road 13 South. The Nam Ngum is a tributary of the Mekong, which is one of the largest rivers in South East Asia and the 12th largest in the world. Flowing through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, its estimated length is about 4,350 km.
