Tag Archives: water resources

Big is beautiful in Laos

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By Brian McCartan for Asia Times

BANGKOK – Laos aims to lift itself out of least-developed country status by 2020, but a shift underway from reliance on Western aid to Asian private capital has sparked criticism from development specialists who believe the trend towards large-scale projects is unsustainable and works against the country’s long-term economic goals.

Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh announced new plans to increase foreign investment and reach annual growth rates of over 8% for the next five years at the “Future of Asia” business conference held in Tokyo in May. He said, “From 2011-2015 there are plans by our government to achieve economic growth targets of about 8% or more while at the same time maintaining our stability.”

Towards that end, he announced an overhaul of investment policies and said “we want to develop human resources to cope with this growth and, at the same time, care for and nurture our precious asset – the environment”. Bouasone reiterated the government’s fast growth strategy earlier this month at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where he stated that Laos aimed for “no less than” 8% annual economic growth through 2015.

As part of that plan, the Lao government seeks to promote greater foreign investment in agriculture, electricity generation, alternative energy, hotels and tourism, and logistics and services. It is also promoting expanded investment in infrastructure as part of its plan to transform the country from “land-locked to land-linked” as a trade crossroads in mainland Southeast Asia.

Plans to open a stock exchange this year are also in the works. Officials hope the new bourse will help to finance a mounting mining and hydropower boom driven by foreign investment and a rebound in global commodity prices. The new bourse will be set up though a joint venture with the Korea Exchange and hydropower and mining companies are expected to be the first to list, followed by telecommunications and manufacturing firms.

The World Bank, in its mid-year Lao Economic Monitor, estimated that real gross domestic product (GDP) in Laos will increase from 7% in 2009 to 7.8% this year. The growth is mostly a result of rapid expansion in the natural resources sector, as well as steady growth in agriculture, construction and a rebound in the processing and tourism industries. The multilateral lender has forecast that Lao GDP will average 7.7% per annum between 2011 and 2015.

However, development experts are concerned about the country’s over-reliance on hydropower and other mega-projects to stoke growth

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Peter Gleick: The Coming Crisis Over the Mekong — Unconstrained Development, Natural Droughts, and Climate Change

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Peter Gleick for Circle of Blue

Asia: where pollution, massive population growth, serious overallocation and inefficient use of water, weak institutions, and exceedingly complex political relationships combine in a volatile mix.

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.

But some will be violent. Understanding the risks of such conflicts is the first step to reducing the chances that they will turn violent. While the Middle East has the longest history of water-related violence by far, my biggest worries today are elsewhere: in Asia, where pollution, massive population growth, serious overallocation and inefficient use of water, weak institutions, and exceedingly complex political relationships combine in a volatile mix.

One example is the Mekong River basin.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Peter Gleick is president of the Pacific Institute, an internationally recognized water expert and a MacArthur Fellow.

Mekong power plan will affect millions of lives : activists

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By Pongphon Sarnsamak for The Nation

Civic groups, academics and environmental activists yesterday called for the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to revise its 10 year hydropower development plan on the river and its tributaries, saying the current plans would adversely affect millions of lives living downstream.

Representatives from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and China open a twoday MRC summit in Hua Hin today.

The MRC Secretariat’s chief executive officer, Jeremy Bird, said the Hua Hin summit would focus on regional cooperation issues and the record of cooperation over the past 15 years.

“They will use this anniversary as an opportunity to assess the achievements, to look at the challenges in the future from the water resources infrastructure and climate change, to reaffirm the commitment from four member countries for basin management cooperation,” he said.

Activists rebutted Bird’s optimism.

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The Mekong River: How much more can it safely yield?

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Jeremy Bird, CEO of The Mekong River Commission writes a special report for The Nation in Bangkok and publishes this in the midst of a regional meeting of stakeholders in Chang Rai, Thailand.

Although not providing any particular answers it does suggest a framework of what questions we should be asking with regards to the viability and sustainability one of the most important watersheds on the planet.

Much can be gained economically by Basin governments in the Lower Mekong. Besides fisheries, hydropower is a renewable energy source and has the potential to generate large amounts of revenue for governments to use in social development programmes; the Mekong agricultural industry is worth billions and there is much potential for increasing water storage and irrigation systems; and the Mekong and its tributaries are vital links for transport and commerce in the region.

However, there are also challenges associated with population growth and climate change. Similarly, if basic livelihoods are to continue to be met by water resources of the Basin, future developments need to be planned carefully. The rural poor should naturally also benefit in the long-term from economic growth underpinned by any larger-scale development of water resources. But this can be achieved only through strategies that make use of targeted benefit- sharing mechanisms.

What is needed is an integrated analytical approach that examines the distribution of benefits, costs and the effects of development on the river system. What, for example, would be the economic and social benefits of a hydropower scheme, compared to the value of a potential reduction in fisheries that it could cause? And how to reconcile the gains to one group and the losses to another? How will salinity intrusion and agriculture downstream be affected if water is used for irrigation upstream? Because the river system is trans-boundary, all of these issues have international implications and need to be resolved through the framework of regional cooperation.

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Yunnan to set up environment court in nine major lakes and river basins

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Source: Yunnan Net (China). 31 May 2009.

According to the Yunnan Province Higher People’s Court, in light of the status quo of Yunnan’s environment and its development needs, Yunnan will first establish environmental courts in the key areas of water resources in the nine major highland lakes, Jinsha, Pearl River, Red River, Lancang River, Nu River and Irrawaddy River basins.

In December 2008, both Kunming and Yuxi city set up their own environmental protection mechanism jointly enforced by Public Security, Prosecution, Judiciary and Environmental Protection departments. They started exploration of environmental law implementation by forming environmental police and establishing environment court. In the past six months, the Kunming’s environment court has already heard 12 cases of environmental law violation.

According to the Deputy Director of the Yunnan Province Higher People’s Court, Li Si-ming, at present water pollution is the major environmental problem of Yunnan, particularly when the water pollution issues such as in Dianchi Lake have become the major concern of our society. Meanwhile, Yunnan is located in the upstream of many national major rivers, which will flow to other provinces and countries. Environmental issues surrounding the domestic and international rivers will directly affect the economic development of other provinces and our country’s international image.

Environment courts will be in charge of civil, criminal and administrative cases that are related to environmental protection. Environment courts take the initiative with the police and the prosecution departments’ environmental protection agencies through hearing criminal cases, and establish the linkage mechanism between public security, prosecution, law and environmental enforcement agencies in order to fight against pollution caused by enterprises and individuals and play a role in deterring environmental crime; It also enhances the victim’s protection and penalize the violations of environmental law through the trial of civil cases arising from pollution; It ensures the lawful operation and regulatory responsibilities of environmental protection administration through the trial and review of administrative proceedings of cases of environmental protection, and non-litigation cases.

According to the Yunnan Province Higher People’s Court, the newly established environment court will be formed by a representative from the criminal, civil, and administrative departments respectively.

[Ed apols for full quote - translated and widely circulated via newsgroups]

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Mekong region takes action to secure water resources

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HA NOI — Action needs to be taken at all levels across the Greater Mekong region to guarantee the security of water resources in the southern tip province of Ca Mau, according to a recent study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The study was carried out in partnership with Viet Nam’s Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning. …

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Initiative protects water resources

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25-11-2008

HA NOI — The Mekong Region Water Dialogue (MRWD) was recently launched to improve water governance for the benefit of local livelihoods and the natural environment.

Water governance will be improved through the use of multi-stakeholder dialogue around specific water-related issues at the sub-national, national and regional levels, said Aban Marker Kabraji, regional director of IUCN in Asia yesterday.

This dialogue, supported by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), currently has multi-sector National Working Groups in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. …

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Mekong River Commission hopes to further strengthen cooperation with China

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Embassy of The People’s Republic of China, Bangkok | 18 November 2008

On November 13, 2008, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Secretariat CEO Jeremy Bird met with the China’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations ESCAP, Mr. Diao Mingsheng, and said that the MRC is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in shipping, flood forecast, experts and personnel exchanges, and develop and implement projects related to the promotion of economic and social development of member countries.

Mr. Bird introduced the shipping co-operation seminar he attended last month in Jinghong, Yunnan, as well as his visit to China, and said that the outcome of the seminar was successful. His visit to Beijing was also fruitful, after a number of meetings with the Chinese authorities, on the extensive and in-depth exchanges and discussions between the two sides to reach a series of important consensus. The two sides hope to maintain communications to broaden areas of cooperation. China is an important country in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin. Both MRC and the Chinese side maintain good relations between the two sides, and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation. MRC attaches great importance to the role and impact of China, and hopes that in future China can play a more active role in the cooperation projects.

Mr. Diao fully recognized Mr. Bird’s effort after he takes over MRC secretariat in the cooperation with the Chinese side, and said that China will continue to be concerned about the MRC, and to maintain dialogue and cooperation with MRC. Mr. Diao hopes that the MRC promotes a fair and reasonable use of the Mekong River water resources, and continues to play an active role in coordination among the member countries of MRC. Mr. Diao also expressed his views and opinion on the *recent meeting held in Bangkok.

Translated by Google Translate Beta and posted to newsgroups.

Source in Chinese

*the recent meeting as mentioned in the above text may be a reference to Mekong Mainstream Dams: Voices Across Borders

Olympics highlight Beijing water woes

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by Henry Sanderson, Associated Press, February 27, 2008

Environmental campaigner and Probe International Fellow Dai Qing warns that the 2008 Olympic games are taxing the country’s already depleted water supplies.

“From the beginning I was against the Olympics,” Dai Qing told AP. “There is not enough water for us to hold the Olympic Games, but they didn’t listen.”

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