Monday, 5 April 2010

Mekong River leaders gather to discuss drought

A picture made available on 01 April 2010 shows Cambodian farmers picking the vegetable morning glory to sell along the nearby Mekong riverbed in Kandal province, Cambodia, 11 March 2010. EPA/MAK REMISSA

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
via CAAI News Media

Apr 4, 2010

Hua Hin, Thailand - Leaders of four South-East Asian countries gathered in Hua Hin Sunday for a summit on their shared resource, the Mekong River, which has hit its lowest level in five decades this year.


Thailand is hosting the first Mekong River Summit, marking the 15th anniversary of the Mekong River Commission which consists of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

The prime ministers of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam arrived in Hua Hin Sunday for bilateral meetings amid tight security.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is to chair Monday's summit in Hua Hin, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok. In the capital, anti-government protestors over the weekend seized a main shopping and hotel district in a bid to force new elections.

The Mekong River, South-East Asia's longest waterway, is at its lowest level in 50 years, 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 Tongle Sap Lake before reaching southern Vietnam and emptying into the South China Sea.

Neither China nor Myanmar are members of the commission, which was set up in 1995 to gather data on the river and bolster regional cooperation in harnessing the waterway.

The first Mekong River Summit comes at a crucial time.

An unusually severe drought in southern China and South-East Asia has brought the river's level to its lowest level in 50 years, halting boat traffic on the waterway and depleting fisheries and irrigation systems on which millions of people depend for their food.

Non-governmental organizations and environmentalist have also blamed China, which has built four hydroelectric dams on the upper Mekong, for contributing to the unusually low water level.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao has joined the Mekong summit in Hua Hin to defend China's dams, which Beijing claims are purely for hydroelectricity generation and therefore do not deplete the river's flow downstream.

'If they have data to prove the dams have no impact on the river's level then they should release it at the Mekong Summit,' said Carl Middleton, coordinator of the the Bangkok-based International Rivers Mekong programme.

'Why should they keep it a secret?' he said.

Some 250 Thai activists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok on Saturday against China's dams on the Mekong.

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