Harm to Farms | God's World News
Harm to Farms
Take Apart SMART!
Posted: July 05, 2016

If you lived far downstream on the Mekong River right now, what would you do? Would you fish for a living? Probably not! Could you start a rice farm instead?

The Mekong countries are located in “the rice bowl”—an area that grows lots of rice. But as it turns out, farming there doesn’t look so good right now. That’s because dams upstream are stopping sediments from flowing down the river. Sediments are bits of matter made of minerals, plants, and the remains of animals. Sediments float in all rivers. But when a river flows through a dam, much of the river’s sediment gets caught instead of flowing downstream. The countries on the Mekong River need the sediment to flow downstream. They need the river to wash nourishing sediment onto the land nearby. That will help their plants grow. Less sediment also means the river’s banks will be weaker. Seawater will get in. That will ruin land. Farmers will become very poor.

In Philippians 2:3, God tells us to think of other people as more important than ourselves. That isn’t easy! Imagine how you would feel if you lived in China or Laos. You would want the electricity and wealth new dams could offer. But imagine living downstream. The dams could keep you from making money, or even from having enough food to live. The decisions made by upstream Mekong countries don’t just affect them. They affect people, plants, and creatures living downstream. They even affect the river itself by wearing its banks away. Your choices have power too. Often, it’s not a good idea to just do what you want and “go with the flow.” There is always someone downstream of your decisions!