Mekon River Commission prepares to meet in Thailand

April 1, 2010
ABC Radio Australia

Thailand is extending the Internal Security Act, ahead of this week's MeKong River Commission summit. The commission's first ever four day summit of leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam begins tomorrow to discuss the future of the four thousand kilometre long Mekong River. The vital waterway, which runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is suffering from overuse its water levels reported to be at its lowest in 50 years. The five Southeast Asian nations blame three Chinese dams upstream for the dropping water levels although Beijing blames it on a long-running drought.

Presenter: Ron Corben
Speakers: Lee Huu Ti, chief of water security section United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's Environment and Development Division; Andrew Noble regional director, International Water Management Institute

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CORBEN: In Northern Thailand, the mighty Mekong River is known as the Mother River. The more than four thousand kilometre river runs from its headwaters in the Tibetan plains to the South China Sea.

Over 60 million people rely on its waters as a source of food and sustenance. But currently the river is at its lowest levels in decades as a drought grips southern China and South East Asia.

Lee Huu Ti is the chief of the water security section in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's Environment and Development Division. The drought, Dr Lee Huu says, has taken its toll.

LEE HUU: According to the record when the MRC (Mekong River Commission) they say it's much lower than 50 years and that is a serious situation because its level of development much higher than before. So 50 years - now the economic and social impact is much more severe than 10 or 20 years ago, because the demand for water is much higher. The values to produce economic goods per cubic meters is much higher, the social value of this one is much higher.

CORBEN: The Mekong runs through China's Southern Yunnan province, through parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos then moves through Cambodia and Vietnam before reaching the sea.

But this year drought has hit the Chinese provinces; over 20 million people face water shortages with some 6.5 million hectares of crop affected. Along the river's reaches in northern Thailand fishermen struggle to catch fish as the waters decline.

Non-government groups blame the impact of dams in Southern China for the water's decline.

Save the Mekong Coalition, an alliance of environmental groups, are critical of China's management of the river and dams build in China.

China has completed the Xiaowan hydroelectric dam, the second largest hydro-electric station in the country on the upper reaches of the Mekong. Others are planned.

The Mekong is also a vital food source for millions of people, especially the poor, on the lower basin, through Cambodia and Vietnam. Now discussions are underway for the construction of six hydropower dams on the Lower Mekong River. Activists have called for a halt to the plans because of their potential impact on the migratory routes of fish.

This week they had support from the International Water Management Institute. Andrew Noble is a regional director for IWMI.

NOBLE: But there are clear indications that we need to be aware of, this is the biggest inland fishery in the world. The beneficiaries of that fishery is the poorest of the poor; it provides the greatest protein source to diets. Decisions on building dams are made by sovereign governments in the region and I think what is important is that these governments have a sovereign right to make these decisions but these decisions must be made in light of the potential consequences they will have.

CORBEN: Conflicts over water resources and access around the Mekong are set to dominate in this week's talks in Hua Hin in Thailand, and for the 60 million population dependent on the Mekong's waters there are no easy answers.