Low Mekong levels provide wake-up call for regional cooperation
The low levels of the Mekong River this year have provided a "wake-up call" for the need to improve cooperation in managing the vital regional resource, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Monday
Earth Times | 05 Apr 2010
"Our economic, social and environmental prosperity depends on how we protect and share the benefits of our common water resources through cooperative mechanisms," Abhisit told the first Mekong River Summit being held in Hua Hin, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok.
The summit marks the 15th anniversary of the Mekong River Commission, which consists of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
The prime ministers of those four countries attended the summit along with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Song Tao and Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win.
Neither China nor Myanmar are members of the commission although they are dialogue partners with the regional group.
China's role in managing the Mekong, South-East Asia's longest waterway, has been the main theme of the first Mekong summit.
The river hit its lowest level in 50 years in February, raising key questions about how to equitably share the regional resource.
The 4,350-kilometre-long river originates in southern China and meanders through Laos and Thailand into Cambodia, where it feeds Tonle Sap Lake before reaching southern Vietnam and emptying into the South China Sea.
An unusually severe drought in southern China and South-East Asia has been blamed for the unusually low river level, but environmentalists and non-governmental organizations have also blamed China, which has constructed four dams on the shared waterway.
China has adamantly denied the dams have contributed to reducing the river's downstream flow, claiming the structures are only used for generating hydroelectricity and not for irrigation.
The Chinese delegation provided data to substantiate their claims during pre-summit meetings in Hua Hin.
Abhisit praised China's willingness to provide such information in his opening address to the summit.
"Sharing knowledge and data is one of the crucial means to mitigate problems," Abhisit said. "I also hope that such genuine efforts of cooperation would become more regular."
The Mekong River Comission hopes to get a commitment from China to be more forthcoming on sharing information on the river, half of which lies in southern China.
"At the technical level, we have had good cooperation with China, but we clearly want more information, more data," commission chief executive officer Jeremy Bird said.
"I think China is taking a step-by-step approach to this cooperation," he said.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment