City Brights: Peter Gleick : The coming crisis over the Mekong - There is an extensive history of conflict over water resources — I’ve written about this issue for a long time and the Pacific Institute maintains an online bibliography and a separate detailed chronology of water-related violence. I don’t subscribe to the idea of “water wars” — which are mostly a newspaper editor’s delight: short, pithy, eye-catching headlines. But I do believe that the risks of conflict over water — from the local to the international — are growing. Most of these conflicts will be diplomatic disputes, personal or community disagreements, or legal battles. The Mekong River Commission Six nations share the watershed of the Mekong River.
But some will be violent. One example is the Mekong River basin. Water Number: Four plus two equals problems. Now, tensions are rising rapidly. Another part of the current problem is natural drought, perhaps worsened by climate change. Peter Gleick. Mekong Leaders Agree to Improve Cooperation on River | Asia | En. Leaders of Mekong River nations meeting in Thailand have agreed to improve cooperation on using river resources. The agreement comes after a severe drought dropped the Southeast Asian river's levels to a 50-year low, raising pressure on China to provide regular information on its upstream dams. Prime ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam Monday agreed that better cooperation is needed to balance the economic benefits from the Mekong River and protect the livelihoods of tens of millions of people. Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva stressed the importance of joint responsibility in managing the river's resources.
"And, such high level cooperation could not have come at a better time because now the Mekong River is being threatened by serious problems arising from both the unsustainable use of water and the effects of climate change," Mr. A drought this past year in southern China and Southeast Asia dropped the Mekong to a record 50-year low. Q+A: Is China to blame for the Mekong drying up? By Ambika Ahuja HUA HIN, Thailand Mon Apr 5, 2010 6:11pm IST HUA HIN, Thailand (Reuters) - Leaders of four countries hit by falling water levels in the Mekong river, Southeast Asia's longest waterway, meet on Monday with China, blamed by activists for squeezing the river with dams. Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia have been affected by the Mekong's biggest drop in water levels in half a century.
Severe drought has played a part but conservationists say the problem has been exacerbated by hydropower dams, eight of which China has built or plans to build in its south. The intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) was set up 15 years ago but the summit in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin is its most significant effort yet to tackle the crisis. Beijing's vice foreign minister, Song Tao, is attending along with the prime ministers of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Here are some questions and answers about the crisis. (Editing by Alan Raybould) Q+A: Is China to blame for the Mekong drying up? Southeast Asia news and business from Indon. When the Mekong runs dry By Brian McCartan VIENTIANE - Low water levels on the upper Mekong River have renewed criticism over hydropower dams China has erected on the waterway's upper reaches.
Environmental groups and governments have pinned blame on China's inward-looking water management policies, although some experts say the real culprit is unusually severe drought conditions in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Laos. Chinese authorities have said water levels in the country are at their lowest in 50 years, and they reject as groundless reports blaming their dams for the parched state of the river. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental body that promotes and coordinates sustainable management and development of the Mekong River basin, said in a February 26 statement that levels in the upper Mekong are lower than in 1993, which came on the heels of the most serious regional drought on record in 1992.
Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist.