Mekong River Subregion
The Mekong River is the largest river in Southeast Asia and hosts a unique and significant ecological system with some of the world’s highest diversity of fish and snails, including the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin and the giant Mekong catfish. Interconnected through the six riparian countries – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, the Mekong Region is one of the most important subregions in the Asia-Pacific. More than 70 million people live directly on its river banks relying on the river for food, accommodation and employment. Recently, however, the Mekong region has been facing increasing challenges including a steady increase in hydropower projects as a result of the rapid economic development of the riparians over the last few years. The need for cheap and renewable energy is rising, fostering the increase in hydropower development where logistically possible.
For over 20 years, the management of the Mekong River system has been in the hands of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) which has existed in its current form since 1995, and includes the four lower Mekong countries Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The MRC has a limited mandate and does not include the two upstream countries, Myanmar and China. While this has long been a key challenge for regional management, more recently a new challenge has emerged as the result of a new strategic direction developed by the MRC Secretariat (MRCS) which is linked to a process of decentralising the functions and tasks of the MRC.
At its 13 January meeting in Phnom Penh, the MRC Council endorsed a new organisational structure and cost sharing arrangement between member countries as part of the Strategic Plan 2016-2020.[1] During this annual gathering, the Council approved the next five-year Basin Development Strategy and Strategic Plan, including the Annual Work Plan for 2016 to allow the organisation to focus its work on the core river basin management functions (away from a program-based structure). This includes fostering national plans, projects and resources based on basin-wide perspectives, strengthening regional cooperation, improving monitoring and communication of Mekong basin conditions and achieving a leaner river basin organisation. In regards to financing, this includes an annual 10 percent increase of the financial contributions from the member countries to reduce the reliance on financing from donor countries and achieving self-financing by 2030. Another change includes the appointment and start of Pham Tuan Phan of Vietnam as CEO, the first riparian CEO of the MRC since its foundation. Less donor reliance with regard to financing as well as a foreign CEO have been acknowledged as challenges in the past, and successful implementation of these changes will be key to the organisation’s development.
Besides these organisational and structural challenges, recent Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) on the Xayabouri and Don Sahong hydropower dams further challenge the MRC and its tasks of achieving its goal to ‘optimize the multiple-use and mutual benefits of all riparians and to minimize the harmful effects that might result from natural occurrences and man-made activities’.[2] This is, for instance, demonstrated with the first mainstream dam on the Lower Mekong River, the Xayabouri case, which shows the problematic nature of large infrastructure developments in the region and their impact on the local population and the uneven distribution of wealth, especially among the poorer rural communities. As the first mainstream dam on the lower Mekong River, the Xayabouri Dam will herald future mainstream dam projects since a precedent will have been set. Future developers will argue that the first dam has the biggest impact and that if the Xayabouri Dam goes ahead, other dams are fine as well. This seems the likely development on the Mekong River, as there are several other proposed mainstream dams – one being the Don Sahong Dam in southern Laos in close proximity to the Cambodian border. However, this view would neglect the problem of cumulative impacts on the river and the sediment flow through several dam projects, as these studies are often not appropriately included in single projects, which ignore the problem of transboundary effects downstream. Furthermore, the Xayabouri case is a unique case as the PNPCA was used for the first time. However, most would argue that this was unsuccessful as the dam construction went ahead, although the MRC recommended further studies on the impacts of mainstream dams based on the major Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) by the MRC in 2010 stating that mainstream dams on the Mekong should be deferred for another 10 years due to massive possible risks and unknown impacts on the river.[3] Similarly, the downstream countries Cambodia and Vietnam still do not support the project and maintain that the PNPCA process was not finished.
While freshwater resources are in theory renewable, the reality is that they are finite, poorly distributed, and often controlled by one state or group. Additionally, fresh water is fundamental for all ecological and societal activities, such as energy and food production, industrial development, transportation, health and employment. Future developments of the region and the individual countries depend on the successful management and allocation of the water resources, as a result, it is important that arising challenges are tackled successfully, including the restructuring and decentralisation of the MRC as well as the challenges of large projects in the most sustainable and efficient way.
Dr. Andrea Haefner is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute.
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[1] MRC 2016, “MRC Council concludes a future direction for the organisation”, 16.01.2016, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
[2] MRC, “Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin”, (Chiang Rai, Thailand, 1995), Article 1.
[3] International Center for Environmental Management, “Environmental Assessment of Hydropower on the Mekong Mainstream-Summary of the Final Report”, prepared for the Mekong River Commission, 2010.
