BANGKOK — The Mekong River has recently acquired an aquamarine color that may beguile tourists but also indicates a problem caused by upstream dams, experts in Thailand say.
The river usually has a yellowish-brown shade from the sediment it normally carries downstream. But lately it has been running clear, taking on a blue-green hue that is a reflection of the sky. The water levels also have become unusually low, exposing sandbanks that allow the curious to stand in the middle of the river.
Low water levels pose an obvious problem for fishermen and farmers, but experts say the decline in sediment exposes a different danger that can result in greater erosion of the river’s banks and bed.
The experts and people living along the river blame a large hydroelectric dam upstream in Laos that began operating in October for contributing to both problems, though rainfall has been sparse.
Around 70 million people depend on the Mekong River for water, food, commerce, irrigation and transportation.