Women in Photography 2018: Ore Huiying
Mekong, Mother of Rivers | Ore Huiying
The Mekong River, flowing through China, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is home to the world’s largest inland fishery and hosts a treasure trove of biodiversity. The 12th longest river in the world, it is also known as Mother of Rivers in Laos and Thailand. Like a gigantic serpent, the river winds across China and the Indochinese peninsula, giving birth to civilisations along its bank. It is a transnational space where earliest trade contacts between Southeast Asia and China took place, as well as an important nexus for people, culture and goods, linking communities in the region. Over 50 million people in the Lower Mekong region depend on the river for their food security and livelihood. However all of that is under threat from rising demands of hydropower.
Landlocked Laos dreams of being the battery of Southeast Asia. It is currently constructing the first hydropower dam on the mainstream Lower Mekong River, despite strong opposition from its neighbours Vietnam and Cambodia. The dam is expected to provide much needed export earnings for Laos, one of the poorest countries in the world. Environmental experts warn that the Xayaburi Dam will cause significant and irreversible damage to the river’s ecosystems and affect the lives of riparian communities, which include many of the region’s poorest people. This is just the first of a series of dam projects that the Laos government has planned. 8 more dam projects are proposed by along the mainstream Mekong in Laos.
I travelled by boat along the area designated as reservoir for the Xayabouri dam. During the journey, I encountered villagers who will be affected by the dam project. In portraying their daily routines, I seek to highlight the subsistence relationship they have with the river, a delicate connection that will soon be destroyed.