5th Asian Regional Conference (ARC) the Mekong River Commission-Initiative

✍ Scribed by M. Gopalakrishnan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 28 KB
• Volume: 59
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1531-0353
• DOI: 10.1002/ird.582

✦ Synopsis

As a special initiative, the Asian Regional Conference (2009) gave particular focus on two key issues of regional importance. A Special Session on 'Mekong River Commission' and another on Aral Sea Basin were organized during the 5 th ARC in Delhi.

The Mekong special session encouraged its members in the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to discuss emerging issues. Some interesting presentations gave an overview of the Mekong River Basin, its resources and the development opportunity and challenges.

The importance of regional cooperation in the 'Basin Development Process' was emphasized in the presentations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Lao PDR.

Cambodia acknowledged the significant opportunity for sustainable development under MRC framework to the basin development plan process and individual national activities supporting IWRM implementation.

Problems associated with project affected people and their resettlement prior to land acquisition also figured, prominently. As most of the projects in the basin are financed by private investors, such issues are being left to be dealt with by them. Thus, the resettlement related issues are managed on a 'project by project basis' and the investors strictly follow and comply with the existing National laws and regulations of the riparian country within which projects are located. Mainly MRC will have a role to play in such projects that have transboundary implications.

Maintaining minimum flow of the river is also a task of its own complexity. The minimum flow in different stretches of the Mekong River is yet to be defined and agreed. However, Rules and Procedures for water utilization have been negotiated, agreed and approved by MRC Council. These include, inter-alia, (i) Procedures for Data and Information Exchange and Sharing; (ii) Procedures for Notification and Prior Consultation and Agreement; (iii) Procedures for Water Use Monitoring; (iv) Procedures for Maintenance of Flows on the Mainstream; and (v) Procedures for Water Quality. These procedures are in different stages of their implementation. The minimum flows of the Mekong River are to be ensured based on the Procedures for Maintenance of flow on the Mainstream as per the Technical Guidelines being drafted by the MRC member states. Due to the length and geographical, physical conditions of the Mekong River, this is likely to pose big challenges. An additional challenge will be taking into account some future development (s) in the upper part of the Mekong. The dry season flows might change significantly as a result of dams release.

Mekong Basin is also experiencing some impacts attributable to climate change e.g frequent floods and droughts. The preliminary results of models run within the 5 to 10 years of planning horizons indicate that the Climate change may not be a key issue for the Mekong basin. However, the BDP Basinwide Water Resource Development Scenarios especially the foreseeable and long-term future scenarios will have to be assessed with and without climate change. The two key factors such as an increase in temperature and precipitation are to be factored in the models calculation.

Taking into account the likely (rapid) development in the Mekong Basin in the next 20 years, one of the potential impacts will noticeably be on Vietnamese Delta e.g. increase in salinity intrusion, negative impacts on mangrove forest, accelerate coastal erosions etc. How would these potential impacts be assessed? It emerged in discussions that the Vietnamese Delta and Cambodian Tonle Sap will be the key focus areas for environmental assessment of the 'Basinwide scenarios assessment'. The hotspot approach will be used to assess environmental impacts which will include the impacts on wetlands, biodiversity, important bird areas etc. Sediment transports and riverbank erosion including coastal erosion will be considered separately.