Mekong River Upstream Privileges And Downstream Threat Environmental Sciences Essay

The Mekong River (Langcang Jiang) is located in Southeast Asia, and it is considered as the seventh largest river in the world in terms of discharge and the tenth longest river in terms of length. Its origin is at Tibet Plateau, Yunnan Province, China, then flowing 4200 kilometers through Myanmar, Laos PDR, Thailand, Cambodia, and finally through the extensive delta in Vietnam into South China Sea. The Mekong basin contains full of natural resources including fishes and other aquatic diversities living in that region. The body of river is divided into two parts. First, the upstream part includes its origin in Tibet Plateau belongs to China and Myanmar and the downstream part is belonging to Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The study reported that the Mekong River would benefit to hydropower production, expansion of irrigated land, reduction of the threat of flooding in the delta region, natural resources and the extension of navigability of the river as far as northern Laos. The catchment is resource rich and is represented as largely under-utilized. It also lies with a geopolitical region that benefit to riparian states in terms of politic, economic and environment development. Given this, the Mekong stands out as one of Southeast Asia’s most pressing and large scale resource and environmental management concerns. Moreover, the riparian states importantly depend on the Mekong River due to its abundance of resources; as a result, they ultimately formed a committee to maintain Mekong river regime. That is Mekong Committee in 1957. From this time, the principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedure specifically concerns with development of Mekong’s resource have been maintained and changed through this regime. Inter-state conflict vis-à-vis the use of the Mekong River’s water resources emerged for the first time in the early 1990s. The dispute was employed as leverage in a disagreement between Thailand and Vietnam over the “fair and equitable utilization” of the Mekong’s water resources. At a deeper level, it reflected broader concern regarding strategic shifts throughout Southeast Asia and in Thai-Vietnamese relation following the peaceful conclusion of the cold war. The device of the committee is to coordinate the lower Mekong basin (Mekong Committee) and designed to facilitate the use of the Mekong’s resource since 1957. In 1995, a new arrangement was established that Mekong River Commission (MRC) was renewed to deal with the management or the issues of sovereignty, non-interference and condition of interdependent. The Mekong River Commission consists of the lower basin countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Moreover, among the riparian states of Mekong basin, China is the most upstream country and a political and economic superpower in the region. China has often been considered to exhibit unilateral behavior toward the lower Mekong River riparian. MRC is not the only institution in the Mekong Basin, many other mechanisms such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) which includes China as a major partner was agreed to establish in 1992. The sub-region is covering 2.30 million square kilometers and feeds around 250 million head of total population. There are four international rivers within this sub-region, namely, the Greater Mekong River, Irrawady River, Yuanjiang-Honghe (Red) River and Nujiang-Salween River. All of the four rivers flow from Yunnan Province into respective Mainland Southeast Asian Countries. Among them, the three rivers of Mekong, Irrawady and Yuanjiang-Honghe are with great potentials for water transport development. These rivers could become water passage and transport network connecting China’s Yunnan Province with the five Mainland Southeast Asian countries by joint cooperation and development. In following section, I will explain the main issue in Mekong River Basin— Upstream privilege, downstream threat, and some mechanisms to deal with this complex issue.

Upstream Threat

The upstream countries are considered as China, Myanmar and Lao PDR in Mekong River Basin. They claim resources and development in their occupied areas in upper Mekong Basin. As a matter of fact, most of the riparian states try to extract as much as benefits as they can such as dam development, hydro power plan, energy project and navigation or passageway since the Mekong River is regarded as one of the mainly rich in resources for those purposes. Therefore, the country put much attention on development in Mekong Region. Of course, among the upstream states and all the riparian countries, China emerges as the most powerful state, and it is also the super power in the world in term of economy and more likely in the future the military super power. The industrialization of China’s economy from agriculture base, it needs many factors to improve its economy such as electricity as the main part, raw materials, transportation, trade… Moreover, as a strong economy in Mekong region, China acts unilaterally in relation to development of dam. China adopted two approaches to ASEAN countries especially in Mekong River Basin. Beside this, it projected many plans for dam development to transfer energy to Chinese industries’ consumption and navigation. The first approach is non-cooperation, meaning it develops its own plans by itself without negotiation with other sovereign countries in Mekong River region. However, the downstream see it as a threat because the development might change the natural flow of river. Sometimes, it may cause the serious flood in rainy season and drought in dry season in the lower countries such as Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. Therefore, the downstream countries try to get China in negotiation in order to make better use of Mekong River resource and sustainable development in that area. In 1970, Chinese planners began planning a scheme of the mainstream of upper Mekong in Yunnan involving 7-8 dams which can produce the capacity of 15,550 KW or 17% of China’s project on power demands (Pech Sokhem&Kengo Sunada, 2008).

The second approach is that China has implemented the ‘active engagement’ with Mekong river shareholders as well as the ASEAN members. It sees the advantages of cooperating with ASEAN countries particularly the downstream countries including Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In November 2001, Chinese Premier Zhu Rong Ji provided $5 millon for major shoals, rapids, and reefs along the 331 Km Mekong River stretch from China-Myanmar border to Luang Prabang. In addition, China provided fund as well as the technical assistance to downstream for dam development or hydro power plan. Therefore, China plays an active role in investment in regional energy trade in downstream countries. In 2005, Chinese Premier, Wen Jia Bao, promised at 2nd GMS summit, China would like to cooperate with other Mekong members for future energy development and dam plans, and he also laid out China’s plan for ‘Common prosperity’ with each other in Mekong region. It tries to foster mutual trust, treat each other with sincerity to calm down the downstream countries’ perception to China.

All in all, even though China has cooperatively with other upstream and downstream countries, it still serves as China interest in term economy and power. The main threats to downstream are as following (i) dredging of river bed in the upper Langcang Mekong for improving the commercial navigation; (ii) large scale dam plans in Yunnan, China and ambitious dam development; (iii) Cambodia’s concern over flooding from the flood control measures along Vietnam -Cambodia border; and (iv) Vietnam’s grave concern over flooding and dry season low flow in the Mekong Delta due to the upstream development and so on.

Downstream Impact

Previous section, I have mentioned the China’s acting in international relation with ASEAN states especially in Mekong River Basin. China usually use it sole power to develop many dam projects in order to develop its economy since it now needs much electricity for factories and water to connect from Yunnan province to South East Asia countries. Therefore, China makes change the natural flow of water in Mekong river basin. On the other side, downstream countries including Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are affected by hydropower plant in Mekong basin. Particularly the most affected ones are Cambodia and Vietnam for they are located in lowest part of Mekong River. However, I would like to focus on overall threat to downstream states and effect of water management in Cambodia as a result of upstream unilaterally adopted project on those areas in their country. Actually, countries in downstream states are living in the complex ecosystem. As the Mekong River serves water resources and natural resources and benefit to roughly 60 million people, the people are accordingly affected by eight large dams in Yunnan province, China. More importantly, most of the dam projects of China do not have environmental impact assessment. Sometimes, the negative impacts do not need hundred years to see the environmental deterioration. For instance, hydropower project, Xiaowan, was started in December 2001 and expected to finish in 2012. This dam development is at 292 meter height and considered as the highest dam project in the world; however, the impact on Lao PDR is that it will meet flood in the dry season. Another case in Vietnam, it will cause the serious flooding in Southern part of province. Moreover, the large dam project not only causes the flooding in downstream countries, but also they many incur other crises including ecosystem, aquatic diversities, climate change, uncontrollable flooding, food scarcity, prolong floods and droughts, decrease sedimentation biodiversities, deforestation, land clearance. Now let’s look at some particular impact as following:

Destruction of fish and fisheries: flooded in dry season will seriously damage the fish-feeding.

Impact on agriculture: 80% of rice production in lower Mekong basin depends on water, silt, nutrient provided by seasonal flooding of Mekong. Flood in dry season will erode and decrease sediment and it affects long-term agricultural yield.

IV. Cambodia Challenge: Water Management in Cambodia

After getting familiar with upstream and downstream problem, I will elaborate more on Cambodia case. Cambodia is located in downstream countries among riparian states in Mekong River Basin. This location can either give opportunities for Cambodia or threaten the water management in Cambodia. In fact, 85% of agricultural activities in Cambodia, depends on Mekong River flowing from upper stream countries. The benefits which Cambodia can get are that due to potential situation it can absorb many resources such as fish and other aquatic biodiversities that move from upper stream because of changing of water management in those countries. Prior to explaining the water system and challenges that Cambodia face, I would like to describe about brief background of Cambodia.

Cambodia is situation in South East Asia and located in latitude between 10o and 15o in North and Longitude between 102o and 108o in East. It covers roughly 181,035 km2 in territory and has total population around 14 million people dispersed in 24 province and 4 cities. The people mostly gather in city of Phnom Penh due to the fact that it is the economic, politic, cultural city of Cambodia. Among total population, 71% are farmers, 21% are employed in service sector and 8% works for industrial sector. Since most of population are doing agricultural activities; therefore, it needs high and systematic water supply to operate this field. The question is that where can Cambodia access the water for supplying its agricultural activities. In fact, Cambodia can access the water from two main sources such as from Mekong River and Great Lake ( Tonle Sap) located in center of the country. During the wet season, water will flood the surrounding areas and especially the water supply from Mekong River Delta and Tonle Sap all in all will direct to Great Lake; as a result, it will lead to the flood. Whenever there is a flood, it will bring the tilt and nutrition to the soil which was flood; therefore, it is useful for agriculture and cultivation. In addition, due to the fact that Cambodia highly depends on water supply from Mekong River; the changes in water flow in Mekong River Basin will accordingly damage the agricultural and cultivating area in Lower Mekong River especially in Cambodia since the 85% of the flow of river is situated in Cambodia. Moreover, there are many causes that can damage to the water supply in Cambodia.

First of all, the upper stream countries such as China, Myanmar and Lao PDR developed 14 hydropower plans which can get generate the capacity of 222,600 MW. Since the Upper stream countries developing their dam project particularly in China, it may block the flow the water to run the engine to produce the fulfill the dam process; there will incur irregular flow of water; as a result, the fish resources will decrease due to alternation of ecosystem. Moreover, people will usually depend on fisheries will lack of fish, therefore, their income will accordingly lower. Furthermore, in mid-2006 downstream states agreed to develop 11 dam projects comprising of 2 in Lao PDR, 2 for Thailand, and 2 for Cambodia. As a result of the developing the plans for dam projects for hydropower plans to generate the electricity for local consumption, it is seriously affects the livelihood in Mekong river. That can reduce the quantity of fish supply particular in Cambodia. All in all, due to the plan of dam projects in both of upper and lower stream in Mekong River Basin, the suffer will likely affect the livelihood and species.

V. Solution to the problem: Suggestion to the use of GMS

As I have mentioned in the previous section about the challenges of downstream of Mekong Basin especially Cambodia which is one of the large stake country in Mekong River Basin, in this section, I will introduce some proposed solutions which suggested by countries in Mekong River as well as external superpower countries call for water protection since the world will be facing the water security in the future if there are not enough mechanisms to manage it. Therefore, in order to make sustainable consumption of Mekong River, every involving state has responsibility to cooperatively work with all the members in Greater Mekong River. If there are not suitable methods or system to control the effective use of Mekong River, it may be in one day damaged, and it will cause serious catastrophe among riparian states particularly downstream countries namely Lao PDR, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam such as flooding in rain season and disastrous drought in dry season in low areas of Mekong Basin.

In order to cope with this problem, there are many mechanisms to deal with this issue ranging from strengthening of the role of Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) to the newly established of Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI).

In 1992, the concept of Greater Mekong Sub-region was proposed by Asian development bank (ADB) for promoting all involvement of all member states in Mekong River including China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This regional cooperation is partitioned to promote building relationship among riparian states of Mekong River for express idea platform, negotiation platform, and sharing information platform. It facilitates the cross-boundary negotiation since every member has to share the idea when they want to develop the plant in Mekong Basin. If there is not information sharing from each state; therefore, the state will cause damage of water usage in Mekong River as the fisheries stock availability inside the Mekong River. To this instance, the cooperation is very useful and necessary because state can receive information and take action in prevent the crisis from happening. That’s why it is deemed necessary to strengthen the role of GMS. Beside this, the GMS can include all member states especially China which is the most upper stream of the basin since China formerly act unilaterally on its dam projects and power plants in upper stream, which can cause serious damage to lower stream of water use and fisheries stock. Moreover, the effective mechanisms are being used for dealing with any kinds of issue regarding the Mekong River. In brief, we will see the sharing information in regional cooperation will help strengthen the make use of water as well as the resources in Mekong River too.

Following the establishment of regional cooperation, Greater Mekong Sub-region, the states in low basin also try to build firm relationship for effective use of the river and help each other for any necessary skill and ability building. In 1995, the states such as Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam initiated the Mekong River Commission (MRC) for regional economic cooperation. In the MRC, each member tries to work together for better use in Mekong River. Moreover, they conduct the meeting every year in order to share the idea and information in term of power plant development and other dam projects that may affect the water flow to lower delta of the river. Furthermore, each member every year meet each other to strengthen more relationship and study on dam project from upper level to lower level of Mekong River. MRC is very useful in term of regional cooperation since 1995 because the states regard as an effective commission for sharing idea in term of water use in the basin.

Moreover, in 2009, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for creating the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) in Water’s Day. This creation aims at promoting more tied relationship among member states. There has been much regional cooperation in order to make better use and sustainable development of water and resource in the Mekong River because if there is no maintenance or cooperative work, we will meet the crisis in the future.

In conclusion, upstream states lead to many effects on downstream countries in terms of economic, politic, and environment. Therefore, downstream ones call for regional integration among riparian states along Mekong River. Moreover, Mekong River Committee plays significant role in coordinating and promoting cooperation in Mekong River Basin. Many referendums and treaties have been signed in order to ensure the sustainable use of resources and benefits. In addition, Greater Mekong River embraces China to negotiation and cooperation. We will see the role of GMS to solving the internal conflict in Mekong River.