Are hydropower and irrigation development complements or substitutes? The example of the Nam Ngum River in the Mekong Basin

Lacombe, Guillaume; Douangsavanh, Somphasith; Baker, Justin; Hoanh, Chu Thai; Bartlett, Richard; Jeuland, Marc; Phongpachith, C.

doi:10.1080/02508060.2014.956205

Cited by 35 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…On the other hand, Räsänen et al (2015) found that multipurpose cascade reservoirs on a transboundary tributary of the Mekong created considerable irrigation potential at the expense of a relatively small hydroelectricity generation loss. Another study in the Nam Ngum, a sub-basin of the Mekong, similarly showed that full hydropower development allowed irrigation water use to triple and also improved environmental flow requirements during low-flow periods (Lacombe et al 2014). Both studies concluded that hydropower development increased and would continue to increase dry-season streamflow, the main water source for dryseason irrigation due to the monsoon climate of this region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Hydropower versus irrigation—an analysis of global patterns

Zeng

Cai

Ringler

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

103

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Numerous reservoirs around the world provide multiple flow regulation functions; key among these are hydroelectricity production and water releases for irrigation. These functions contribute to energy and food security at national, regional and global levels. While reservoir operations for hydroelectricity production might support irrigation, there are also well-known cases where hydroelectricity production reduces water availability for irrigated food production. This study assesses these relationships at the global level using machine-learning techniques and multisource datasets. We find that 54% of global installed hydropower capacity (around 507 thousand Megawatt) competes with irrigation. Regions where such competition exists include the Central United States, northern Europe, India, Central Asia and Oceania. On the other hand, 8% of global installed hydropower capacity (around 79 thousand Megawatt) complements irrigation, particularly in the Yellow and Yangtze River Basins of China, the East and West Coasts of the United States and most river basins of Southeast Asia, Canada and Russia. No significant relationship is found for the rest of the world. We further analyze the impact of climate variables on the relationships between hydropower and irrigation. Reservoir flood control functions that operate under increased precipitation levels appear to constrain hydroelectricity production in various river basins of the United States, South China and most basins in Europe and Oceania. On the other hand, increased reservoir evaporative losses and higher irrigation requirements due to higher potential evaporation levels may lead to increased tradeoffs between irrigation and hydropower due to reduced water availability in regions with warmer climates, such as India, South China, and the Southern United States. With most reservoirs today being built for multiple purposes, it is important for policymakers to understand and plan for growing tradeoffs between key functions. This will be particularly important as climate mitigation calls for an increase in renewable energy while agro-hydrological impacts of climate change, population and economic growth and associated dietary change increase the need for irrigated food production in many regions round the world.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Hydropower versus irrigation—an analysis of global patterns

Zeng

Cai

Ringler

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

103

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“…The focus is on the Mekong Basin because recent development of hydropower dams to meet growing energy demands in the region is expected to effectively reduce the cost of setting up irrigation schemes. The argument logic is that the cost of adding irrigation infrastructure to existing hydropower infrastructure should be much lower than the cost of setting up new irrigation schemes (Bartlett, Baker, Lacombe, Douangsavanh, & Jeuland, 2012;Lacombe et al, 2014). A recent survey of regional government and aid agency decision makers in the Mekong reinforced this view, with a finding that the benefits of irrigation were likely to exceed costs and lead to significant poverty reduction (Smajgl & Ward, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…In this analysis, only costs associated with reduced flows to wetlands, in particular decreases in fisheries production, were quantified. We were unable to analyze broader environmental costs associated with changes in the quality of water discharged at the Mekong Delta because biophysical processes linking water quality with the ecological health of the Mekong Delta have yet to be modelled (Lacombe et al, 2014).…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The benefit-cost analysis presented expands on previous evaluations (Bartlett et al, 2012;Lacombe et al, 2014) with more comprehensive assessment, including financial as well as environmental cost, consideration of possibly lower-than-expected utilization rates, and other cost and return uncertainties. Additionally, the assessment puts benefits from proposed large-scale irrigation investment into perspective in two ways: by providing a comparison between the effectiveness of irrigation investment and the effectiveness of investments in other sectors, including education, road construction and agricultural research and development, at reducing poverty; and by providing assessment of returns relative to investments in smaller farm-scale small-pump-based irrigation investment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Improving the effectiveness of aid: an evaluation of prospective Mekong irrigation investments

Kandulu

Connor

2016

International Journal of Water Resources Development

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Large irrigation systems seem to be the logical add-on investment to the hydropower projects which are being planned in the Mekong Basin. Economic evaluations of irrigation schemes to date have not considered environmental costs and uncertainties about utilization. Comparisons between economic returns and poverty alleviation benefits from irrigation and from investments in other sectors are also sparse. A benefit-cost analysis of prospective irrigation investments in Lao PDR considering all these factors found that farm-scale irrigation investments performed better than large-scale investments. The benefit-cost ratio and head-count poverty reduction from large-scale irrigation investment were also substantially lower than for education, road construction and agricultural research and development.

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“…Covering 16 800 km 2 , the Nam Ngum Basin is home to roughly 500 000 people, representing approximately 9% of Lao PDR's total population (WREA 2008). It contributes a mean annual flow of 23 km 3 /year to the Mekong River, or 4% of the latter's mean annual flow and up to 15% of dry season flow (Lacombe et al 2014). The vast majority of existing food production and expansion potential from the Nam Ngum is located in the Vientiane Plain, which comprises the nation's largest area of agriculturally viable land (WREA 2008).…”

Section: Description Of the Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins

Jeuland

Baker

Bartlett

et al. 2014

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization models are commonly-used for identifying efficient allocation of water across time and space, but such models typically assume full coordination. In the real world, investment and operational decisions for specific projects are often made without full consideration of potential downstream impacts. This paper describes a tractable methodology for evaluating the economic benefits of infrastructure coordination. We demonstrate its application over a range of water availability scenarios in a catchment of the Mekong located in Lao PDR, the Nam Ngum River Basin. Results from this basin suggest that coordination improves system net benefits from irrigation and hydropower by approximately 3-12% (or US$12-53 million/yr) assuming moderate levels of flood control, and that the magnitude of coordination benefits generally increases with the level of water availability and with inflow variability. Similar analyses would be useful for developing a systematic understanding of the factors that increase the costs of non-cooperation in river basin systems worldwide, and would likely help to improve targeting of efforts to stimulate complicated negotiations over water resources.

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Are hydropower and irrigation development complements or substitutes? The example of the Nam Ngum River in the Mekong Basin

Cited by 35 publications

References 29 publications

Hydropower versus irrigation—an analysis of global patterns

Hydropower versus irrigation—an analysis of global patterns

Improving the effectiveness of aid: an evaluation of prospective Mekong irrigation investments

The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins

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