Germany committed to investing around 4.6 million US dollars in strengthening cross-border water cooperation among countries along the Mekong River. The fund would be utilized to bolster dialogue related to trans-boundary water resource planning and management among the lower Mekong countries: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

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China has stopped discharging water from Yunnan Dam into the Mekong River, affecting boat services on the Mekong River in Chiang Rai Province. The Mekong River which runs through China’s Yunnan province has seen a significant drop in water levels in many areas after Yunnan Dam discontinued its water releases. Chiang Rai is one of many downstream cities that are affected.

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The post China’s Stoppage of Water at Yunnan Dam Affecting Shipping on Mekong in Chiang Rai first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The preservation and promotion of water cultural values in the Mekong Delta have become more urgent than ever before under the impacts of the fourth industrial revolution and international integration as well as the global climate change, heard a workshop in Can Tho city on November 28.

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‘Water grabbing’ refers to a situation in which public or private entities are able to take control of, or reallocate, precious water resources for profit or for power — and at the expense of local communities and the ecosystems on which their livelihoods are based.

[…] Many consider dams a significant threat. China has built seven large hydroelectric plants in the Upper Mekong, while 20 others are in various planning phases. Eleven additional dams  are being planned in the southern part of the basin. These dams are mostly located in Laos, one of Asia’s poorest countries. Laos aspires to become Asia’s ‘hydroelectric battery’, with a production potential of 26 gigawatts.

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The post Water and power: Mega-dams, mega-damage? first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

In the past, Mekong Delta residents, striving to produce as much rice as possible, built closed embankments to prevent floods and cultivate third crops. But now they need floods to preserve water to fight drought and saline intrusion. Le Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Climate Change Research Institute under Can Tho University, said it was necessary to reconsider third-crop rice cultivation. Tuan said many years ago, ensuring food security was the priority for the Mekong Delta. Therefore, farmers tried to cultivate three rice crops a year to increase productivity. In order to do this, they had to build embankments to prevent floods. However, things are now different. The soil is getting exhausted, while climate change has had impact on people’s lives and agricultural production. Countries on the Mekong River’s upper course are also taking away water for electricity generation. 

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Ly Raksmey left her home in the heart of the country’s rice bowl in January and headed to a hospital on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The 34-year-old stayed there several nights, in a facility that was better and cleaner than any hospital she had slept in before. When Ms. Raksmey, who asked that her real name be withheld because she wished to keep her involvement private, returned to her husband and three children in Prey Veng province, she was pregnant with the child of two people she had never met—and likely never will. Last year was a bad one for rice, Ms. Raksmey explained during an interview at a KFC fast-food outlet along Russian Boulevard in late September. In fact, the last few years had been bad for farmers in the southern province. “The rice these days isn’t so good,” she said. “The water has dried. We don’t sell any rice anymore, my family. We only farm it to eat. I sell a few pigs—mother pigs and babies. When the water does come, it floods the farmland and ruins the rice.”

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Thuong Kon Tum dam, which is built in the Dak Snghe River watershed, is one of the biggest hydropower projects in the basin of the Se San river. The effect of the dam is still questionable but it raises concerns about environmental impacts as the project will submerge more than 382 hectares of watershed protection forests in Kon Tum province and divert water into the Tra Khuc river in Quang Ngai province. Reservoirs or protection of forests? From highway 676 looking down on the Dak Snghe river (Kon Plong district, Kon Tum province), the eyecatching scenery is the deep green forests with a rich ecosystem. These watershed protection forests are very condensed with many large trees. According to a 2007 survey by the Institute of Tropical Biology, the Kon Plong forest community with an area of over 65,00 ha, is located in a mountainous ecological area with a diverse forest community of 644 species of plants. This area is also the habitat of many species of birds, mammals, reptiles included in the world’s red list.

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Asia can build a harmonious, rules-based water management system. But it needs China to get on board. Tensions over water are rising in Asia—and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention—after all, they threaten the safety of sea lanes and freedom of navigation, which affects outside powers as well—the strategic ramifications of competition over transnationally shared freshwater resources are just as ominous. Asia has less fresh water per capita than any other continent, and it is already facing a water crisis that, according to an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) study, will continue to intensify, with severe water shortages expected by 2050. At a time of widespread geopolitical discord, competition over freshwater resources could emerge as a serious threat to long-term peace and stability in Asia.

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Cambodia will support the Don Sahong hydroelectric dam planned to be built in south Laos less than two kilometers from the Cambodian border, while civil society groups continue to appeal to regional authorities to halt construction on environmental grounds. According to a post on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook page on November 27, he discussed the dam proposal with visiting Lao National Assembly president Pany Yathotou on November 26. “Cambodia supports Laos with Don Sahong dam construction and allows Laos to use roads and ports to [trade] goods because Laos has no sea,” he wrote, speaking about an agreement to boost bilateral trade. The prime minister’s post said Ms. Yathotou had agreed to sell electricity generated by the dam to Cambodia at affordable prices to boost development of the border region. Last week the prime minister met with the leaders of Laos and Vietnam to discuss the ongoing development of the provinces in all three countries that are near the dam and that are presently deemed under-developed.  

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A Union minister is trying to launch a new tripartite commission for management of the Salween/Thanlwin River with a stated aim of avoiding disputes concerning water resources. Minister for Transport and Communication U Thant Sin Maung said the Thanlwin River Commission should include representatives from the three countries through which the river runs: China, Myanmar and Thailand. “China, Myanmar and Thailand will jointly form the Thanlwin River Commission. I will negotiate with them via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is also necessary to negotiate Thailand’s participation,” the minister told parliament on November 23. The announcement was made after upper house MP U Soe Thein asked whether the government had a plan to sign a transboundary agreement over the use of the river’s water resources.

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