Sediment is the lifeblood of the Mekong River. Its murky brown waters, the fruit of millennia of erosion processes, have slowly formed the Mekong Delta through the deposition and accumulation of sediment. But sediment is not only a liquid territory; it is both habitat and nutrient to the myriads of life-worlds across the Mekong’s riverbanks. Until very recently, sediment was allowed to flow freely, but the conversion of the river into a sacrificial zone to support modern development has deeply altered the flows of this precious liquid-ground concoction.
This research spatializes the system of 660 dams across the Mekong Basin, which are indirectly trapping 75% of the sediment that should be reaching the Delta. Without this sedimentation, landslides, erosion, and subsidence have become widespread, with the Delta facing complete submergence by the end of the century.
The Right of Sediment challenges the view of sediment as an asset to be manipulated, calling for sediment to be seen as an ecological agent worthy of care and preservation that must be allowed to flow freely to support the multiple socio-ecological systems that depend on it.
