Bangkok (AsiaNews) – The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental agency established in 1995 under the Mekong Agreement, released its 2022 annual report on the state of the Mekong River Basin, highlighting recent progress in protecting the largest river in Southeast Asia and second in the world for biodiversity.
The report notes that the Mekong continues to show improvements but still faces strong challenges. Opposition by riverine countries to upstream dams on the great river and its tributaries (built essentially by China) stopped or slowed down new projects last year, thus allowing its ecosystems and communities to recover.
This confirms the effectiveness of the “water diplomacy" pursued by the MRC member (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam) and their international partners.
The achievements include new guidelines concerning hydropower dam design and transboundary environmental impact to facilitate fish movement and sediment flow, as well as new navigation rules to foster greater river safety, and innovative tools to better forecast floods and droughts.
A new monitoring station was also built on the northern tip of the Basin to quickly detect water changes.
In addition to stopping new dam construction and limiting the negative impact of those that already exist, the main challenge is to restore certainty to communities that live along the river, now faced with constant flow instability and its unpredictable consequences.
The report indicates that the Commission is proceeding with the Basin Development Strategy 2021-2030 based on five strategic priorities: environment, society, economy, climate change, and cooperation.
The goal is not only to benefit millions of people who live along the Mekong, but also contribute to achieving 10 of the 17 "Sustainable Development Goals" set by the United Nations.
In light of this commitment, the report already delivers some positive data; for example, rainfall is higher this year than in the previous two, water quality along the Mekong mainstream remains "good" or "excellent" in most places, and socio-economic growth and living standards are better across the region.
This, however, does not yet mean lowering the guard, notes Anoulak Kitthikhoun, chief executive officer of the MRC secretariat.
In fact, some "troubling" trends persist: changing flow regime, nourishing sediment, salinity intrusion, plastic pollution, and flood and drought exacerbated by climate change.
