Brief Description
SEA Junction’s “The Mekong is Blue and Dried” exhibition was born out of concern for the environmental degradation of the River and inspired by submitted photo stories at SEA Junction special initiative “The Mekong River is Blue and Dried” . This river is the most diverse in freshwater fishery in the world with the greatest biodiversity after the Amazon. However, the existing dam operations in the up and downstream have blocked the natural rich nutrients and sediments and the water flow. In late 2019, the Mekong turned into rare blue color instead of its usual brown. The blue color of the Mekong reflects “dead” for aquatic animals, other animals that dwell in the Mekong riverbank and millions of people who depend for their livelihood on the biodiversity of the River.
Today, eleven dams are planned for the lower mainstream Mekong, and 300 more are in the waiting on feeder waterways. To continue and contribute to the advocation of the degrading impacts of dam operations, SEA Junction supported by Samdhana Institute launched “The Mekong River is Blue and Dried” since 2019 calling photo story/essay from anyone working closely with Mekong to photo story the situation of the destruction, impacts on livelihood, environmental degradation, and efforts by the civil groups to reduce or cope with the impacts. The selected photo stories were then viewed on the photo exhibition starting on March 16 for two weeks. At the exhibition, visitors were welcome to share their view after exploring the stories on a small note.
Photographer
Lattapol Jirapathomsakul and Ella Nanda
