Mekong Dam Monitor (Update for October 14 - 20, 2024)

 

Update for October 14-20

Notable changes on the Mekong in the last week. Visit the Monitor home for more, including Burmese, 中文, Khmer, ພາສາລາວ, ไทย, and Tiếng Việt translation.

SPOTLIGHT China’s Nuozhadu Dam, the Mekong’s largest, fills to capacity for the first time since 2018 Ample precipitation throughout China’s upper basin have created conditions for the Nuozhadu Dam to fill to 100% capacity for the first time in six years. Nuozhadu’s reservoir, the largest in the Mekong Basin, began filling at the end of the dry season at 3.5 billion cubic meters of active storage and peaked last week at 11.35 billion cubic meters. We forecast that Nuozhadu and Xiaowan (which is also full at 11.1 billion cubic meters) will release their active storage for hydropower production in the coming 2025 dry season, significantly lifting the level of the river and causing extreme negative change to ecological processes downstream.

Where is the water? A minor net restriction of 101 million cubic meters was observed last week. Most of the large reservoir changes were observed in China. Nuozhadu had a net restriction of 327 million cubic meters, and the Jinghong Dam released 182 million cubic meters of water.

Most Impactful Dams

River Levels River levels throughout the basin are now below normal and trending downward.

Chiang Saen Gauge Stung Treng Gauge

Weather & Wetness Extreme wetness dominated the Mekong’s headwaters in China, and there were a few areas of extreme wetness around the Golden Triangle. However much of the rest of the basin was drier than expected.  Vietnam’s delta was slightly wetter than expected for this time of the year.