Vincent H. Resh
Professor of Aquatic Ecology,
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
University of California, Berkeley

The Mekong, the tenth largest river in the world, has 78 million people dependent on it for their main source of protein, which is riverine fish. Likewise, rice production in the Mekong Delta is the main source of carbohydrates.  In reducing coal dependency for electricity production, China has built a “cascade of hydropower” based on a series of large dams on the Upper Mekong. One of these, the Xaiowan Dam, is among the largest in the world. The downstream countries bordering the Mekong (Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) will be affected by breeding disruption of migratory fish in floodplains and salt water intrusion into rice fields resulting in reduced yields. These changes have consequences in terms of food security for the entire region.
In anticipation of dam construction, the Mekong River Commission (a former United Nations Agency) supported a series of pre-operation studies to set baseline conditions of fish, invertebrates, algae, and zooplankton. A goal was also to establish the distribution of the snail that is the intermediate host of the parasitic blood-fluke that causes human schistosomiasis in anticipation of increased parasitism in humans living in this region.  
These studies found that the management of dam operations in China to simulate natural flows is the key to environmental and human health, along with food security, for the region. These management options, however, were complicated by the decision of Laos to build more dams on the mainstem and tributaries of the river in their attempt to become the “Battery of Asia”.
This seminar deals with the geopolitics of international development, environmental issues in developing countries, and the complexity of implementing ecological health improvements in countries struggling for economic development.

Vincent H. Resh has been a Professor of Aquatic Ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1975. He has taught over 20,000 Berkeley undergraduates and he received the University of California’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1995. Forty graduate students have completed their Ph.D. degree and over 400 research articles have been produced in his laboratory. He was an adviser to the Mekong River Commission’s study on the effects of large Chinese dams on the river for 10 years and to the World Health Organization’s River Blindness Control Program in West Africa for 15 years. He has been involved in aid projects throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and countries of the former Soviet Union, and has directed large-scale programs on the Rhone River in France and the Fraser in Canada. He has taught in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Chile, Israel, Kuwait, and various locations in Southeast Asia and Africa. He currently serves on science advisory boards on water issues in California.