Trade-offs between hydropower development and food security in river management

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for a major reduction in poverty and better stewardship of the environment through action in 17 areas. In Southeast Asia, rapid expansion of water infrastructure is underway, with hydropower increasing energy supply to major urban areas and high dykes enabling increases in rice production. These have severe environmental impacts that governments have been prepared to accept. However, there has been little appreciation of the negative effects of this water infrastructure development on food security. Research in the Mekong River basin shows that hydropower and intensive rice development significantly diminish wild freshwater fisheries. In focusing on the supply of calories, governments have overlooked the importance of fish in supplying protein and other essential nutrients in the food supply, especially for the rural poor. Our projections for the lower Mekong nations suggest that diminished freshwater fisheries will have knock-on effects with shortfalls in proteins being replaced through deforestation for livestock or protein-rich crop production, resource-intensive aquaculture and imports of stock feeds and meats.