Adaptation in a transboundary river basin: Linking stressors and adaptive capacity within the Mekong River Commission

<p>The transboundary Lancang-Mekong River Basin has experienced both cooperation and conflict over the past several decades. Downstream countries (Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam) rely on Mekong River for fisheries and agriculture, while upstream countries including China and Laos have been constructing dams to generate hydropower. The construction and operation of dams in upstream countries has changed the seasonality of streamflow in downstream countries, affecting their agriculture and fishery benefits. More recently, cooperation between upstream and downstream countries has led to benefit sharing and improved international relations throughout the river basin. In this presentation, we introduce a socio-hydrological model that simulates the hydrological changes in downstream countries resulting from upstream dam operation, based on collection of hydrological, economic and social data in Lancang-Mekong river basin. Our model captures the cooperation and conflict feedback loops which impacts the operation rules of upstream dams. In this way, our study generates understanding of the connections between water resources management and hydro-political dynamics underpinning cooperation and conflicts mechanism in this transboundary river basin.</p>

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Water-Energy-Food Nexus in a Transboundary River Basin: The Case of Tonle Sap Lake, Mekong River Basin

Water ◽

10.3390/w7105416 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (10) ◽

pp. 5416-5436 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Marko Keskinen ◽

Paradis Someth ◽

Aura Salmivaara ◽

Matti Kummu

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Mekong River ◽

Mekong River Basin ◽

Transboundary River ◽

Transboundary River Basin ◽

Tonle Sap Lake ◽

Tonle Sap

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Governing Water as a Common Good in the Mekong River Basin: issues of scale

Transforming Cultures eJournal ◽

10.5130/tfc.v1i2.256 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Philip Hirsch

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Common Good ◽

Common Property ◽

Multiple Scales ◽

Water Governance ◽

Vice President ◽

Mekong River ◽

Transboundary River Basin ◽

Mekong River Commission ◽

Basin Scale

Transboundary water governance has received special attention in the wake of the World Bank vice-president Ismail Serageldin’s famous prediction in 1995 that, “if the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water”. The water wars scenario ensures that in the world’s more than 260 river basins that flow across national boundaries, primary attention is given to managing water as an international commons. A framework for such transboundary management has been in place more or less continuously in the Mekong for half a century, and it would appear that water has indeed been a force for cooperation even when brutal conflict has torn at the region. Despite the appearance of successful basin-scale management, inter-governmental management of water as an international commons in a transboundary river basin context can also hide some troubling ways in which water as a commons is eroded in the process of development. This paper considers common property dimensions of water and the livelihood systems that they support at multiple scales within the Mekong. It goes on to look at ways in which these are impacted upon by bureaucratisation, infrastructure and commodification processes. Ironically, basin organisations can both enhance and undermine governance for the common good, depending on how they deal with commonality of interest in freshwater at various scales. The paper draws on brief case studies of current trends in water governance including river basin organisations in the Mekong (the Mekong River Commission and River Basin Committees at national levels), of infrastructure (Thailand’s proposed Water Grid and Laos’ Nam Theun 2 dam) and of commodified notions of water (as a development resource and as a scarce commodity to be managed through market mechanisms).

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Transboundary River Basin Governance: A Case of the Mekong River Basin

River Basin Management - Sustainability Issues and Planning Strategies ◽

10.5772/intechopen.95377 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mak Sithirith

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Mekong River ◽

Mekong River Basin ◽

Transboundary River ◽

Conflict And Cooperation ◽

Transboundary River Basin ◽

Hydropower Dams ◽

Rise Of China ◽

Chinese Company ◽

The Rise Of China

Conflict and cooperation are key governance challenges in transboundary river basin governance, especially in the Mekong River Basin. Hydropower dams have been at the center of such a conflict and cooperation that are useful metrics to assess the level and intensity of conflict and cooperation in transboundary river basin governance. This study examines transboundary river basin cooperation in the Mekong through the lens of hydropower dam projects. It uses a literature review and a case study of the Lower Sasan 2 (LS2) Dam to analyze the conflict and cooperation in the Mekong region, from the era of the US influence in the Cold War, the post-Cold War period, and the present-day with the rise of China. It concludes that Mekong river basin cooperation has evolved as a result of external influences and internal competition by riparian states over Mekong resources. The LS2 was identified in 1961 by US-supported hydropower studies and then by the GMS/ADB in 1998, but left unattended until 2007 when Vietnam signed an agreement with Cambodia to undertake a feasibility study in 2008. It took 16 years to get the LS2 built by a Chinese company in 2014 and completed it in 2017. Through the process, the states, powerful external actors, financial institutions, and private sector actors have politicized the LS2 studies, design, and construction. Cambodia, as a weak downstream state, has had to and must continue to position itself strategically in its relationships with these hydro-hegemons to compete for hydropower dam projects and protect its interests. The rise of China has induced the changing relationship between riparian states. Many hydropower dams were built with Chinese funding. Cambodia has also enjoyed its close ties with China, and the building of the LS2 dam by a Chinese company contributes to changing its positions in the Mekong cooperation but suffers environmental and social impacts.

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