France aids Mekong River monitoring program

EUR 1.5 million to  increase the ability of the MRC and its member countries, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, to monitor rainfall and river flow in order to better understand flow changes and corresponding impacts of development projects and climate change on riverine communities and the environment, especially water quality, sediment, and fisheries.

Envoys refute China’s water hegemony on Mekong River with in-person visits

“When I heard Western countries talking about the damage by the Chinese dams to the Mekong River, I felt like it is serious. But when I came to see, the fact is very different from what they said. The dams are very good to protect the environment and rare animals, and especially for preventing floods and drought in downstream countries,” Sreng Sataro, minister counselor of the Embassy of Cambodia in China, told the Global Times after his visit. “You see the Western media ignore the facts as they did with my country,” he noted.

Urgent responses to climate change in the Mekong river are required

With rapid economic development, exponential population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, and increased agricultural production in the region, the demand for water and river-based resources has dramatically increased, which gives rise to environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and struggles among diverse groups of resource users including local people, development agencies, conservation organisations, and private sectors, and between upstream and downstream nations.