NARRATIVE

The mighty Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers, sustaining more than 60 million people from its abundant fisheries and its floodwaters which both irrigate and fertilise the land.

Explorers, traders and travelers have long been enchanted by its magical vistas and extraordinary biodiversity to be found along the river ‘s 4900 km journey flowing through six countries: from the mountains of Tibet in China to the delta in Vietnam.

However The Mekong is no longer the mighty health free-flowing river that it once was, Tom Fawthrop an independent film-maker and free-lance journalist reports that nature's bounty and beauty and its extraordinary eco-system, is now beleaguered and battered both by a cascade of dam-building, and now an even worse danger to its survival.

my Eureka Films team has been documenting both the spectacular beauty

and the ugly threats, to the future of this ailing river since 2010.

Eureka films shooting in the eco-tourist paradise of Sipangdon ( 4- Thousand Islands)

southern Laos in 2015. Sadly Malaysia's Megafirst investors and Lao government, later built the Don Sahong dam in the middle of this pristine wetlands ,and contributed to

the death of the only surviving dolphins on this Lao part of theMekong

Eureka films filmed the Xayaburi Dam in Laos under construction in 2012, in spite of strong opposition from Cambodia & Vietnam delegations in the MRC (The Mekong River Commission) Tom Fawthrop interviewing the Swiss hydropower

Poyry director Knud Sierotski pic credit Am Puchara

Since 2025 I have reported on the plague of poisonous heavy metal contamination this precious river, warping its colour and flow into a turbid reddish brown. https://thediplomat.com/2025/09/rare-earth-mines-in-myanmar-are-poisoning-thai-rivers/

Scientists have traced the source to the prolific expansion of rare earth, gold and tin-mining from Myanmar's southern Shan State and also a plethora of new

mines in northern Laos. This is the subject of my new film

This Go Fund Me environmental campaign will help to support the next episode

of my environmental campaign to help save the Mekong from becoming

a damned doomed and horribly contaminated river. Extremely high levels of such heavy metals as: arsenic, cadmium, cyanide lead, and mercury found in Thailand

are in danger of expanding their reach into Cambodia and Vietnam.

If the poison is passed onto the fisheries and the food chain in Cambodia

& Vietnam a huge amount of agricultural exports could be at risk, until serious

region- wide takes place to counter these threats , including measures to

regulate control and counter the scourge of unregulated mining which produces extremely high levels of heavy metals.

Environmental science university laboratory testing water samples from Mekong tributaries in northern Thailand

Testing has demonstrated that the tributary rivers in northern

Thailand have also spread the contamination when they meet up with

the mainstream Mekong near Chiang Saeng (The Golden Triangle where borders

of Myanmar Lao & Thailand intersect) .

This photo courtesty of Earth Thailand reveals the same reddish-

brown mutation of river colour taken of the Golden Triangle

Chiang Saen

Has this contamination spread deeper along the Mekong infacting Cambodia?

As no comprehensive water quality testing as been caring out so far, we hope our film will trigger greater awareness of the lurkiing danger, given the plethora of gold- mining sites in Cambodia and the lack of regulation and control in remote provinces.

Both fisheries and local agriculture flourish side by side with healthy rivers. If rivers become contaminated and sick, the food chain is at risk, and has dangerous implications for consumers,long term public health issues, and regional security.

About Tom Fawthrop

A British-born researcher, film-maker and journalist, he first reported for the dam- building threat the Mekong in Guardian newspaper(UK) In 2007. From 2010 he started filming his first Mekong documentary, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?”

later broadcast on Thai TV PBS channel

Why Go Fund Me?

This pitch is for Tom Fawthrop as the producer/ director of Eureka films as part of an environmental Campaign.

Keeping the Cambodia's sections of the Mekong River in north -east

Cambodia free from pollution and with no hydropower dams, is vital for

their wild- life sanctuaries and several feshwater giants unique to the

Mekong. Here is the official largest freshwater the Giant Stingray -

monitored by a team of conservations on the bank of the Mekong

From 2010 on our Mekong films have been variously co- funded by Oxfam Australia, International Rivers, NGO forum Phnom Penh, the Vietnam Ecological Foundation, WWF and some academic and foundation grants. However with all these agencies and global media generally suffering huge budget cuts since 2025, these regular sources of funding have generally dried up.

Living Films Thailand : Letter of Recommendation

Eureka films is production title and an independent team of videographers and editors with much of the filming done by local videographers in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand & Vietnam. Most of the budget for every film is spent on hiring the team working with the producer/ director. We are not a film business corporation.

Status of the new production

Part of the documentary has already been filmed. The first screening has been scheduled by the CIFF-Cambodian International Film Festival in 2026.The CIFF is one of the major festivals in the region that last year screened over 151 films and documentaries from 40 countries.( photo )

International Impact

Eureka films productions have been screened /broadcast

VOA- Luang Prabang -2023

Dutch Ikon TV/Swedish Broadcasting / SBS- Australia

Distributed by Journeyman Films UK

This appeal for funds to enable the completion of our documentary

during the next few months plus additional support for expenses

involved for further screenings in Cambodia and Vietnam during the

next few months plus travel expenses involved.

All contributions great and small will be greatly appreciated.

A 300kg giant stingray found in the Mekong in Cambodia. Photo: Handout

A 300kg giant stingray found in the Mekong in Cambodia. Photo: Handout

“The alarming decline in fish population in the Mekong is an urgent wake-up call for action to save these extraordinary – and extraordinarily important – species, which underpin not only the region’s societies and economies but also the health of the Mekong’s ecosystem,” said WWF’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Lan Mercado.