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The floating village of Chnok Tru consists of about 1,700 households on a tributary of the Mekong River.
Life

Dams threaten traditional way of life in Mekong Basin

Hydro projects upstream disrupt ecosystem, leading to declining fish catches

YUKAKO ONO, Nikkei staff writer and KEN KOBAYASHI, Photographer, Nikkei Asian Review | Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos

PHNOM PENH -- Sak Seam, 69, chief of Chnok Tru, a village in central Cambodia, is worried. The floating village of about 1,700 households is located on a tributary of the Mekong River. "The villagers will be unable to survive if the fish catch decreases further," he said.

Hydroelectric dams constructed or under construction up the Mekong, in China and other countries, have changed the flow and the level of water in the tributary, disrupting the fish ecosystem there.

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