Tag Archives: mekong river

China bridges last Mekong gaps

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Brian McCartan from Bangkok for Asia Times

BANGKOK – The last remaining physical gaps on the north-south roadway set to connect China to Thailand and further afield through Southeast Asia will soon be bridged, opening a new land route that promises to expand intra-regional trade. China has recently agreed to finance the construction of two bridges across the Mekong River inside Laos, which until now have represented the regional project’s missing links.

Both bridges are key components of a grand infrastructure plan known as the Greater Mekong Subregion’s (GMS) North-South Corridor, which aims to create more efficient and rapid transport between China and Southeast Asia’s Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The infrastructure is also key to the design of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded Great AsianLao state media reported on May 25 that China would provide a US$50 million loan for the construction of a bridge near the Lao town of Pakbeng, in the Southeast Asian country’s northern Oudomxay province and across from northern Thailand. The new bridge will link the two lane Route 2W with a new road extending from the Thai border to the river.

The long-term soft loan agreement was signed the previous week between Lao and Chinese officials. Math Sounmala, director of the Lao Ministry of Public Works’ planning and cooperation department, told the Vientiane Times that the bridge’s construction would commence soon and likely be completed before 2015. The approximately 600-meter long bridge is expected to replace the current ferry service across the river, which is now viewed as a bottleneck to fast and efficient trade.

Since undergoing improvements in 2004, the 2W is reportedly now in excellent paved condition. The two-lane road runs north to Oudomxay town in Laos where it connects to other throughfares leading north to the border crossing with China at Boten and east to the Vietnamese border and onto Hanoi.

Thailand has given Laos $25.9 million in grants and loans to build a 49-kilometer road linking the bridge with a border crossing at the Lao village of Mong Ngeun in Xayaboury province. From there, an existing two lane road continues from the Thai village of Huay Kon to the provincial capital of Nan and onward to Thailand’s extensive domestic road network leading to modern ports and other trade facilities.

A long-delayed fourth bridge across the Mekong connecting northern Thailand and Laos is also planned. The 480-meter long bridge represents the last link in a route known in Laos as National Route 3 or regionally as Asia Highway 3 that will connect Thailand with southwestern China running through northwestern Laos. The bridge will be built near the Thai town of Chiang Khong in northern Chiang Rai province and the Lao town of Huay Xai in Bokeo province.

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China Goes for Friendly Giant Role in Mekong

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Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar for IPS

BANGKOK, June 14, 2010 (IPS) – The Mekong River is steadily emerging as a testing ground for public diplomacy, Chinese style. Beijing, it appears, wants to reach out to its southern neighbours who share the river more as a friendly giant than an imposing bully.

An unprecedented move to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding two of four dams on the upper stretches of the river that snakes through southern China is only the latest in a diplomatic shift towards openness taking shape since mid-March.

On Jun. 7, senior government officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam were offered their first glimpse of the newly built Xiaowan dam and the older Jing Hong dam as part of a fact-finding tour. It was a groundbreaking journey into the mountainous terrain of China’s Yunnan province that had, till this month, been forbidden territory to officials from the Mekong River Basin countries.

The welcome mat was rolled out by Beijing in early April during the first summit of the Mekong River countries, which also include Burma (or Myanmar), in addition to the four river basin countries and China. That summit in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin was to mark the 15th anniversary of the 1995 Mekong Agreement, which paved the way for the creation of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental body of the four lower Mekong countries tasked to manage and develop the basin area.

“The Chinese government indicated at the summit that they would like to be more open with governments in the lower Mekong countries,” Damian Kean, an MRC spokesman, told IPS from his headquarters in Vientiane. “It was keen to address the concerns of the lower basin countries.”

March marked a noticeable turning point in China shedding its secretive policies about its designs on the Mekong River, which begins its 4,660- kilometre long journey from the Tibetan plateau, heads through Yunnan, then passes Burma before snaking its way through the basin to empty out into the South China Sea in southern Vietnam.

What prompted this move was the withering criticism China’s four completed dams (of a cascade of eight planned on the upper Mekong) came under as the river dried up in the basin, hitting a low not seen in the past 50 years. Among the affected were the 60 million people living in the basin, who depend on fishing in the Mekong for their livelihood.

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Community involvement key to countering flood risks, says the MRC

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MRC

Vientiane, Lao PDR – Communities who live in the Mekong River Basin will significantly benefit from the improvements in flood forecasting and guidance that have been developed by the Flood Management and Mitigation Programme says the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

“Although they may be resource rich, most of the 60 million people of the basin who are farmers and fishers and who are poor, are highly vulnerable to floods. Floods endanger their lives, destroy their livelihoods and crops and exacerbate their living conditions,” said Jeremy Bird, CEO of the MRC Secretariat at an annual regional forum in Vientiane today of government agencies, researchers, NGOs and other interested groups working on Mekong Basin flooding.

“More engagement from communities vulnerable to flood risks and other disasters is very important because any flood planning measures and responses need to directly address the peoples’ needs,” he added.

The MRC says the considerable experience of working on floods in its four Member Countries has demonstrated that a community-based approach to flood risk management and mitigation can help to fill the gap of the developed systems. Since 2005 the MRC flood programme has engaged 11 most flooded provinces in the Lower Mekong Basin in improving the capacities of authorities at all levels in developing and implementing flood preparedness programmes, community early warnings and emergency responses, all of which have contributed to the overall flood risk reduction efforts by the national governments.

“Better coordination in response to the impacts of recent disasters such as Typhoon Ketsana shows enhanced institutional capacity and confidence of local authorities. But, in order to sustain, flood preparedness and mitigation activities need to better reflect the needs of affected people and be integrated into local development plans,” said Hatda An Pich, Operations Manager of the MRC’s Regional Flood Management and Mitigation Centre (RFMMC) based in Phnom Penh, which is responsible for forecasting flooding on the mainstream of the Mekong and for a new flash flood guidance system in the river basin to be tested this year.

“The prerequisite for long-term involvement as well as for making sure that the activities are embedded firmly in government development plans is to get communities involved more. They need to feel that they own the system,” said Hatda.

One such MRC regional initiative to get potentially affected people more involved in flood preparedness has been undertaken to provide villagers in the flood prone areas with cell phones, flood information boards and training to use them and report localised floods to national flood forecasting agencies. The recorded data is sent back to the villagers who then publicise it on billboards at central locations in the floodplains and advertise any imminent flood threat via loudspeakers.

“This approach, where villagers monitor and measure water levels themselves has also been cost effective and relevant to local conditions,” said Hatda.

Floodplain villagers in the provinces now get up to two-day notice of any impending flood. This has enabled them to prepare for imminent flooding and evacuation, as well as to take measures to protect cattle and other livestock, as well as their properties. The experience will also help in the longer term in understanding the local flood patterns and provide assistance to villagers in designing more resilient irrigation systems as well measures to reduce risk, for example with crop selection.

The information gathered can also be used by Departments of Hydrology and River Works to develop maps and computerised simulation models for predicting when flash floods will be most likely to occur in remote areas, how people can adapt to these floods and how they can better plan land-use.

Laos gets 50-million-dollar loan from China to build bridge

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Vientiane – Laos has borrowed 50 million dollars from the Chinese government to build a bridge across the Mekong River, state media reported Tuesday.

An agreement to finance the bridge, to be built in Pakbaeng district in the western province of Oudomxay which is divided by the Mekong River, was signed last week, the Vientiane Times reported.

“Construction of the bridge will begin shortly and is expected to be finished before 2015,” said Math Sounmala, director of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport’s planning and cooperation department.

The bridge will provide an important link to the international border crossing with Thailand’s Nan province. A road linking the bridge to the border was built with a 16-million-dollar-loan from Thailand.

The Pakbaeng bridge will be the fifth to span the Mekong, South-East Asia’s longest waterway, which flows from southern China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

A 480-metre-long bridge is now under construction to link Huayxai district in Laos’ Bokeo province to Chiang Khong in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. The bridge is part of the Greater Mekong subregion north-south economic corridor project, linking Chiang Rai province to Kunming, the capital of south-west China’s Yunnan province.

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Cambodian rebirth

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Port Strategy

The historic capital city port of Phnom Penh is being reborn after years of neglect, reports Michael King

The port of Phnom Penh is not the usual subject of a major port focus by Port Strategy. It’s not that big, it’s not breaking any new technological ground and it’s not even near the ocean. But it does perfectly illustrate how port development can both facilitate and drive economic growth.

The inland port, located some 348 km up the Mekong River from the South China Sea, is poised to help transform Cambodia from a backwater of globalisation into a country with the potential to ‘do a Vietnam’. In other words, leverage its cheap labour resources, raw materials and willingness to embrace international trade to attract inward investment and boost economic development.

A key logjam to achieving this aim, the chief executive of a leading integrator recently told PS, is that after years of political turmoil and low levels of infrastructure investment, the national transport system is “a mess” and “too expensive”.

“It hasn’t had the logistics backbone to attract the type of inward investments that Vietnam has won.”

The integrator in question is now helping to rebuild Cambodia’s customs service and has started a series of road services linking manufacturers relocating to Cambodia to major markets in Asia and beyond by road and air.

In much the same way, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP), both port authority and the sole terminal operator, is now trying to smooth the processes and reduce the cost of trading to and from international markets by sea.

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Centre looks to save endangered river life

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VNS

HCM CITY — The National Breeding Centre for Freshwater Aquaculture in the Southern Region is trying to save some endemic species in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River that face the threat of extinction.

Pham Van Khanh, its director, said following research into the biology and reproduction of many freshwater fish species, the centre had innovated nearly 30 techniques to breed fishes.

It had also drawn up breeding standards for various freshwater fishes for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The centre has developed a programme to sustain the gene pools of various species of freshwater creatures and conserved around 20 species of high-value freshwater fish, which used to be commonly brought up in the Mekong Delta.

It has developed a technology to store frozen sperm from fish like tra co, ho and carp and successfully reproduced the ho and tra soc, two endemic species in the delta that face a high risk of extinction. The centre has co-operated with several domestic and international organisations for programmes to develop freshwater aquaculture in the region.

It produces 20 – 40 million fish fries every year, including those of the ho. Besides, it has imported and domesticated three Indian fish species since 1984. —VNS

[Ed-Apols for full quote]

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You may also be interested in this pdf from Dr Peter Mather from Spring 2006 on ‘Tracking Fish Genes’ on The Mekong

Save the Mekong Dolphin from Extinction

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From The Animal Rescue Site

The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2004. The small freshwater dolphins, which are distinguished by their round heads and short dorsal fins, inhabit a 190-kilometer (118-mile) stretch of the Mekong River between Cambodia and Laos.

The Mekong River is also home to 1,200 fish species, with approximately 50 of which are caught commercially, and has the second highest concentration of aquatic animals in the world, after the Amazon. Since 2003, the population of Mekong dolphins has suffered 88 deaths, more than sixty percent of which were calves less than two weeks old.

Toxic levels of pesticides such as DDT and environmental contaminants such as PCBs were found during analysis of the dead dolphin calves — these pollutants may also pose a health risk to human populations living along the Mekong that consume the same fish and water as the dolphins. High levels of mercury, which is dumped in the river from gold mining activities, were also found in some of the dead dolphins. The mercury directly affects the dolphins’ immune system, making the animals more susceptible to infectious diseases.

Take action today! Urge Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to implement laws to protect the Mekong Dolphins’ habitat from contamination.

Sign the petition and tell a friend.

Visit The Animal Rescue Site for more campaigns

Avoiding Crisis in the Mekong River Basin

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PRASHANTH PARAMESWARAN for WORLD POLITICS REVIEW

Earlier this month, the leaders of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and host country Thailand gathered for the first-ever Mekong River Commission (MRC) summit to discuss the future of the Mekong, one of the world’s longest and most resource-rich rivers.

There was much to discuss. The Mekong — which flows through China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, and provides food, water, and transport for about 65 million people — is now at its lowest level in two decades due to a prolonged drought. Its future is also in peril due to a host of natural and man-made threats. Unless riparian states make a concerted, joint effort to manage the river’s resources prudently and sustainably, their actions risk threatening food security, destroying livelihoods, and heightening regional tensions.

The main threat is from hydropower. China, which already has five operational dams, plans to construct about 15 more large- to mega-sized hydropower dams upstream, while Southeast Asian states themselves mull building 11 of their own further downstream. While these dams do not deplete the river’s water supply outright, they affect the hydrology of the Mekong by altering the natural timing and volume of the river’s seasonal flows. According to a recent report (.pdf) by the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, resulting reductions in silt deposits downstream could threaten one of the most productive regions of wet rice cultivation, while erratic water currents may block the spawning migration of fish in what is now the world’s largest freshwater fishery.

Other trends are equally, if not more worrying. Demographic and development pressures will further increase demand on the river’s already threatened resources. According to projections (.pdf) by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the population in the Lower Mekong is expected to swell to 90 million by 2025, with over a third living in urban areas. Total irrigation water requirements for the region, which stood at about 43,700 million cubic meters in 2002, will rise to about 56,700 million cubic meters by the end of this year.

Disruptive climate change threats also hover in the longer-term future. Global conservation group WWF predicts intense floods and droughts, coastal erosion, higher seas and heat waves for the Mekong Delta. Vietnam’s own Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment says that if sea levels rise 30 inches by 2100, 20 percent of the Delta and 10 percent of Ho Chi Minh City could be swamped.

Read article… All the links to .pdf documents after the jump.

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Prashanth Parameswaran is research assistant at the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington-based think tank that covers Asian security issues. He is also a research fellow for Asia Chronicle, a daily online journal, and blogs about international affairs at GlobalEye.

Boats back in business on the Mekong river in northern Laos

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EarthTimes

Vientiane – Passenger and cargo boats have resumed operation in Laos’ northern portion of the Mekong River, which fell to its lowest level in 50 years last month, media reports said Thursday.

“The boats have been back and running on Mekong river since April 10, with the exception of cargo boats weighing more than 200 tons, which are still too large to brave the shallow waters,” reported the state-run Vientiane Times. River transport for boats weighing up to 100 tons have now resumed in Luang Prabang, Bokeo and Oudomsai provinces, said Nikone Somphantavong, president of the Luang Prabang Boat Association.

Nearly all traffic on the northern portion of the Mekong ceased in early March, when the river’s level fell to 60 centimeters at many spots due to unusually low rainfall in southern China and northern Laos.

Nikone said recent rains have the river back to a serviceable level and he expected water levels to continue rising as the rainy season approaches.

Land-locked Laos has only a limited road network and no railway lines, so the Mekong is an important transport lifeline to the north of the country.

[Ed-apols for full quote]

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China’s role in Mekong River maintenance

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From VietNamNet

The Mekong water level is the lowest it’s been in five decades. Many Southeast Asian countries point the finger upstream, at China.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Song Tao told participants in the Mekong River Council Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand on April 5 that China is willing to promote cooperation with downstream countries in mitigating droughts and floods, sharing hydrographic technology and information, exchange and training of hydrographic experts, etc.

This spring the water level in Southeast Asia’s longest river, the Mekong, has dropped to its lowest level in five decades. Since late 2009, China’s southwestern region and many places in four Mekong River Council (MRC) countries — Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam — have faced severe drought.

For the first time since its founding 15 years ago, the MRC organized a summit meeting. Present were the prime ministers of member countries and, as observers, high-ranking officials from China and Myanmar.

In this dry season, the story about the Mekong River is hotter than ever.

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