Floods

The natural rhythm of the Mekong

While floods can cause devastating damage, threatening human life and destroying property, seasonal flooding can also bring many benefits, enriching the soil and renewing its fertility.

Seasonal and permanently flooded areas in the floodplains of the Lower Mekong Basin provide a diversity of habitat important for the production of fish and non-timber forest products. Seasonally flooded forests are known to provide important spawning and nursing habitats for fish.

These same inundated habitats are also important to communities in the floodplain that depend on fishing and the harvesting of non-timber forest products for food and to generate an income.

The migratory nature of most Mekong fish species suggests that rural communities with limited floodplain habitat would still be able to make a living from the biodiversity supported by the hydrologic cycle.

Attempts to control and even prevent seasonal flooding are disrupting the natural function of floods and could even jeopardize local food supplies.

WWF advocates 'living with the floods' to maintain the biodiversity of the region and protect the food security of the people who live in the Lower Mekong Basin.