Lower mekong river. Medical search. Frequent questions

The MRC is an intergovernmental organisation for regional dialogue and cooperation in the Lower Mekong River Basin, established in 1995 based on the Mekong Agreement between Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam. (mrcmekong.org)
The MRC provides scientific analysis and advice for the lower Mekong countries and various stakeholders and interested parties to sustainably manage and develop the Mekong River Basin. (mrcmekong.org)
Vientiane, Lao PDR, 7 August 2020 - The six Mekong countries are being urged to address regional low water flows as the Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) endures record lows for the second consecutive year, according to a Mekong River Commission report. (mrcmekong.org)
It is time to walk the talk and to act in the common interest of the entire Mekong River Basin and the affected communities," says Dr An Pich Hatda, the MRC Secretariat's Chief Executive Officer. (mrcmekong.org)
The estimated hydropower potential of the lower Mekong Basin (i.e., excluding China) is 30,000 MW, while that of the upper Mekong Basin is 28,930 MW. (wikipedia.org)
The development of the Mekong River Basin is highly controversial, and is one of the most prominent components in the discussion about the river and its management. (wikipedia.org)
Table 3: Planned and Proposed Hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin (15 MW installed capacity and above) Table 4: Dams on the Mekong Mainstream COD = Commercial Operating Date. (wikipedia.org)
According to the report, full scale dam development will decrease GDP growth for lower Mekong basin countries by US$29 billion. (wikipedia.org)
Fishing livelihoods are under stress in many regions of the world, including the lower Mekong river basin. (mdpi.com)
Ground and satellite based observation datasets for the Lower Mekong River Basin. (tamu.edu)
In 'Satellite observations and modeling to understand the Lower Mekong River Basin streamflow variability' [1] hydrological fluxes, meteorological variables, land cover land use maps, and soil characteristics and parameters data were compiled and processed for the Lower Mekong River Basin. (tamu.edu)
Here we use situated fishers knowledge to refer to knowledge about long-distance fish migrations held by ethnic Lao fishers living in the Mekong River Basin in northeastern Thailand, southern Laos, and northeastern Cambodia. (opendevelopmentmekong.net)
We build and share knowledge about the sustainability of three of the world's largest freshwater ecosystems: The Mackenzie River Basin, The Mekong River Basin, and The Amazon River Basin. (trackingchange.ca)
The specific objective of the Project is to promote sustainable tourism in the lower Mekong basin through infrastructure improvements, community and private sector participation, and sub-regional cooperation. (adb.org)
Sub basin 7" Within the lower Mekong river which aligns mostly with the Chi River draining in northeast Thailand. (iastate.edu)
This paper discusses research methodology to develop Land Use Land Cover (LULC) maps for the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) for basin planning, using both MODIS and Landsat satellite data. (iastate.edu)
As described in the post on irrigation , managing rivers to support irrigated agriculture can negatively impact fisheries, from rivers and floodplains upstream in a basin to the deltas and estuaries where rivers meet the sea. (forbes.com)
The situation faced by the villagers at Dun Ei is typical of a wider problem affecting communities across the Mekong River Basin. (mrcmekong.org)
In the Lower Mekong Basin, a total fish catch estimated at 2.3 million tones (USD 11 billion). (mrcmekong.org)
What we can do is a call for no more dams to be built, because the dams will only aggravate the problems for the people of the Mekong River basin," Ormbun said. (benarnews.org)
The lower Mekong basin experienced severe drought over the past year, with stretches of the river even drying up entirely. (benarnews.org)
The lower Mekong basin, transitioning from mountainous uplands to flat coastal lowlands, flows into the Gulf of Thailand and, ultimately, the South China Sea. (nasa.gov)
From record lows in June and July to major flooding in parts of the basin in August and September, hydropower dams have exacerbated the impacts on the river and people," said the coalition. (rfa.org)
WWF collaborates with The Coca-Cola Company and local residents to address impacts from climate change in the Mekong River Basin through habitat restoration, infrastructure improvements and influencing local policy. (worldwildlife.org)
Are Genetic Reference Libraries Sufficient for Environmental DNA Metabarcoding of Mekong River Basin Fish? (mdpi.com)
The delta, home to the last 250 km of the river, became the third largest river basin in the world, though the youngest and far younger than the two larger basins, Bengal in India and Mississippi in the U.S., which have a history of hundreds of millions of years. (vnexpress.net)
The Mekong giant catfish Pangasianodon gigas is endemic to the Mekong River basin, and is recognized as endangered species, largely due to overfishing and development of the river basin. (bioone.org)
With changes in the Senegal river basin and dams built on it, in 2009, S haematobium-S bovis hybrids were found in Senegal. (medscape.com)
Incorporating a human health component into the integrated development and management of the Lower Mekong Basin : report of a PEEM mission to Thailand, Lao and Viet Nam / by T. H. Mather, Santasiri Sornmani, Keobang A. Keola. (who.int)

Among these are abnormal low rainfall affected by the El Nino weather phenomenon, prolonged low flow conditions carried over from 2019, and lower water flow contributions from the Mekong tributaries. (mrcmekong.org)
As part of China's Great Western Development program, China's five large state-owned hydropower companies planned, underwrote, and built the majority of dams on the river and its tributaries. (wikipedia.org)
223 The Lao government has also prioritized hydropower development on the river and its tributaries, describing itself as the "Battery of Asia. (wikipedia.org)
Millions of people depend on the Mekong river and its' tributaries. (panasonic.com)
The operator of Jinghong dam in China needs to analyse the water volume in the Mekong and tributaries before regulating any flow and must do it carefully because the dam is only 360km from Chiang Rai province," she said. (bangkokpost.com)
Studies suggest that completing all eleven dams on the downstream of the Mekong River, while installing additional dams on its tributaries, will result in trapping 96% of the Mekong's sediment behind the reservoir walls. (nbr.org)
Studies on the Mekong-the most productive freshwater fishery in the world-found that construction of 11 hydropower dams on the lower mainstem river would reduce populations of migratory fish by 42% while hydropower dams on tributaries of the Mekong could reduce populations by over 20% (i.e., collectively, a two-thirds decline of migratory fish populations). (forbes.com)
Many of the dams-including two on the lower mainstem river along with dozens of dams on tributaries-have since been built, and fisheries are declining. (forbes.com)
The report by the MRC - made up of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - said the lower levels were caused by a lack of rainfall since the beginning of the year, upstream flow changes, hydropower dams in the river's tributaries and China's Jinghong Dam holding water back. (benarnews.org)
Advocates for riparian communities are concerned that excessive damming of the Mekong and its tributaries could lead to long-term negative impacts on the people in the Lower Mekong. (benarnews.org)
Dams on the Lancang, as the river is known in China, and new ones being built on the Mekong and its tributaries in Laos, have completely disrupted that cycle, while the annual monsoon has become erratic due to climate change. (mongabay.com)
The river and its tributaries are a focal point around which human populations have settled and cultivated agriculture for centuries. (nasa.gov)
Laos has built hundreds of small and large dams along the Mekong River and its tributaries in its quest to become "the battery of Southeast Asia," exporting the electricity they generate to other countries in the region. (rfa.org)

The 32-page long report points out that the current low flows could have severe impacts on Cambodia due to a loss of fisheries and irrigation potential. (mrcmekong.org)
One of the main issues facing nations in the Mekong River Commission (MRC), including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, is that China has refused to share information about the operations of its hydropower dams. (vnexpress.net)
China initiated the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework in March this year, which includes China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, but there have been no concrete cooperation agreements signed between them, according to Tu. (vnexpress.net)
The governments of Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam are planning to build eleven large hydropower dams on the Lower Mekong River . (internationalrivers.org)
Although China has built several dams on the upper part of the river, the lower stretch-shared by Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam-continues to flow freely. (internationalrivers.org)
In this work, daily streamflow time series data at nine gauges located at five different countries in the Mekong region (Thailand, Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (PDR), Myanmar, Cambodia, and Viet Nam) is presented. (tamu.edu)
In a strictly geographical sense, the delta landscape already begins in Cambodia, but in international perception, Mekong Delta refers primarily to the actual estuary of the river, which drains into the sea on Vietnam's territory via nine main branches and a labyrinth of natural and artificial waterways. (cuvillier.de)
FILE - A man casts a fishing net on the Mekong riverbank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (voanews.com)
Tuesday's statement by the Mekong River Commission, which groups Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, followed an assurance by China to share more water management data from its portion of the river with Southeast Asian nations, although details of its pledge were not immediately clear. (nasdaq.com)
The muddy Mekong River with its multiple intersecting stream channels extends southward (upper right to lower left) in this near vertical view of southeast Cambodia. (nasa.gov)
STS61A-32-0029 shows another section of the Mekong River in Cambodia southwest of this scene and immediately northeast of Phnom Penh. (nasa.gov)
Mekong Conservation Network coordinator Somkiat Khuanchiangsa said China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia must find a solution to contain ecological damage already caused by 11 operational dams and another 11 to be built on the lower Mekong. (bangkokpost.com)
The dams already built on the lower stretch of the Mekong River are mostly in China and Laos, with those still to be built mostly set for Laos and Cambodia. (bangkokpost.com)
Economically, the 11 planned dams could cost the Mekong countries-Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia-nearly half a billion US dollars annually in lost fish catch. (mongabay.com)
04/13/2011) As the governments of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam ready to meet on April 19th to decide whether or not to move forward on the Xayaburi Dam, critics of Mekong River hydroelectric project have warned that the dam will devastate freshwater biodiversity and impact the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands, if not more. (mongabay.com)
At risk is the world's largest inland fisheries, providing food security and livelihoods for 60 million people living downstream among the four member states of the Mekong River Commission --Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. (todayonline.com)
The Mekong River Commission was set up in 1995 to promote a "river of peace, friendship and international cooperation" among Laos, Cambodia Thailand and Vietnam. (todayonline.com)
It is now only found in the mainstream of the Lower Mekong in Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. (panda.org)
Later in the day, the ship cruises along the narrow Tonle River towards the most fascinating cruising spot in Cambodia, Kampong Chhnang's "water world", where everything is balanced on sticks in water-rich soil. (waytovietnam.com)
Energy security is a critical need of the lower Mekong countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), which are all developing economies with young and expanding populations and fast-paced urbanization. (nbr.org)
Pursat, Cambodia, 4 March 2020 - The community at Dun Ei, a fishing village 180 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, has been making a living through fishing along the Pursat River for generations. (mrcmekong.org)
Together with pressure from other water resources development projects, such as hydropower dams, increased populations, and exploitative fishing, the MRC Council Study estimated that the net present value (NPV) of the fisheries sector will decline by USD 16.5 million by 2020 and USD 22.6 million by 2040 in all the lower Mekong countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam. (mrcmekong.org)
In October 2020, Beijing agreed to share data with the MRC, a welcome in the region where 60 million people in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam depend on the river for agriculture and fishing. (benarnews.org)
The report said that monitoring stations in Thailand and Laos, water levels have been much lower than usual, while further downstream in Cambodia, levels were higher than the long-term average. (benarnews.org)
Last year, while parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and southern Vietnam experienced a devastating drought, China held abundant water on the Upper Mekong River back from downstream communities, wiping out crops and fishing stock and bringing one of the world's great waterways to its knees. (mongabay.com)
A map showing above-average rainfall amounts on the Upper Mekong in 2019, and far below-average precipitation throughout much of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. (mongabay.com)
The impact of China's system of cascade dams on the Mekong, which supports 60 million people in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, has become particularly pronounced since 2012. (mongabay.com)
Chrek Soknim, CEO of Century 21 Cambodia, said the land close to the river is generally coveted. (phnompenhpost.com)
Nonetheless, Heang added, "In Cambodia, especially in Phnom Penh, there is so much land along the river, which is an attractive feature for big developers looking to build hotels, condos, and resorts. (phnompenhpost.com)
The MRC was formed in 1995 through an agreement among the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam to ensure the "reasonable and equitable use" of the Mekong River system, but the commission's findings are nonbinding. (rfa.org)
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins inhabit a 118-mile stretch of the river between Cambodia and Lao PDR and are scarce-just 92 individuals are estimated to still exist. (worldwildlife.org)

China's hydropower dams on the Upper Mekong River (Lancang in Chinese) are preventing flood waters from reaching Vietnam's Lower Mekong Delta, Dao Trong Tu, former vice general secretary of the Vietnam National Mekong Committee, told VnExpress. (vnexpress.net)
China discharged water from the Jinghong Hydropower Station in Yunnan Province in March and April this year following requests from countries situated downstream that were suffering from droughts, but many experts said this was only temporary measure to meet the demand in lower areas, especially Vietnam. (vnexpress.net)
Starting on the Tibetan Plateau, the river travels through six countries before it forms the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and empties into the South China Sea. (internationalrivers.org)
The Mekong River Commission, a consortium of governments from countries along the river, praised the discharge following a two-day meeting in Vietnam, calling it 'goodwill' from China. (voanews.com)
Rice growers, who depend on the alluvial soil deposited by the Mekong River during rainy season, make preparations for planting rice seedlings in the Mekong River Delta near the village of Hong Ngu in Vietnam, on Dec 17, 2018. (todayonline.com)
Take Vietnam as an example: the rice cultivation along the Mekong (or Song Cuu Long in Vietnamese) constitutes over 50% of the country's rice exports and nearly 75% of its fishery and fruit exports, accounting for 16% of the country's overall GDP. (nbr.org)
[2] Located at the estuary of the river, Vietnam will be most affected by the human-made and climate change-induced effects on the Mekong Delta, and hence is the most interested in preserving the balance of river management and cooperation of the Mekong countries. (nbr.org)
The company is known to ensure lifetime holidaying experiences in Vietnam with flexible tailor-made tours, dedicated support and lowest possible prices. (prweb.com)
The company offers a versatile range of tours across Vietnam and cruise packages along Halong & Mekong rivers. (prweb.com)
This year, the Mekong River is as dry as anyone can remember, threatening the livelihoods of tens of millions of people from the mountains of northern Laos to the delta region of southern Vietnam. (rfa.org)
The Mekong River spans more than 5,000 km from China, including 250 km in Vietnam. (vnexpress.net)
Land subsidence is, for example, the highest risk factor for the Mekong delta in Vietnam. (lu.se)
INTRODUCTION: Vietnam is implementing hepatitis B (HBV) birth dose (BD) vaccination since 2003 but coverage remains low, especially in the Mekong River Delta. (bvsalud.org)

As the evening unwinds enjoy your supper with a glass of wine and marvel at the skyline of Phnom Penh and the calming flow of the Tonle River. (waytomekong.com)
We depart before the break of dawn from Phnom Penh towards the Angkor Ban village on the Mekong River. (waytomekong.com)
Thousands of families in Phnom Penh still go about their daily lives living in perilous homes perched on the edge of Phnom Penh's four prominent rivers. (phnompenhpost.com)

We provide a wide array of technical assistance, strategic advice, and innovative knowledge and solutions to help the lower Mekong countries promote fisheries' sustainability, opportunities for agriculture, freedom of navigation, sustainable hydropower, flood and drought management and preservation of important ecosystems. (mrcmekong.org)
To help the Lower Mekong countries manage risks more effectively, we call on China and the Lower Mekong countries themselves to share their water release plans with us," he said. (benarnews.org)

Effective from 4 March 2021, a decree issued by the government of Laos requires all hydropower operators to inform authorities whenever dam reservoirs reach full capacity or when river levels fall to a critical level. (wikipedia.org)
The Mekong separating Thailand and Laos provided fishermen their livelihood. (gulfnews.com)
But now a friend was calling to say something extraordinary had happened overnight to the river, which separates this part of Thailand from neighbouring Laos. (gulfnews.com)
A few hours later, they discovered that villagers on the Laos side of the river had picked up his boat. (gulfnews.com)
Journey along the Mekong River through southern Laos, from the region's highest point on the Bolaven Plateau down to its lowest, the idyllic 4,000 Islands. (nationalgeographic.com)
For Xayaburi dam in Laos, in which Thai construction firm CH Karnchang is a co-investor and will sell electricity to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) after October, Ms Pianporn said the operator should conduct a test run only when there is sufficient water volume in the Mekong. (bangkokpost.com)
A fisherman on the Mekong River in Laos. (mongabay.com)
The site of the Nam Ou 1 dam in northern Laos on the Nam Ou River, a key tributary of the Mekong. (todayonline.com)
More than 40 dams have been installed in the Laos area of the Mekong, with eight more planned after Xayaburi, including one 30km from the world heritage site of Luang Prabang. (todayonline.com)
Fish in market in Laos along the Mekong River. (forbes.com)
Laos is continuing to move forward with additional dams on the Mekong . (forbes.com)
Water levels in the Mekong River are down to "worrying" levels with some parts of the major Southeast Asian waterway in Laos and Thailand turning blue because of increased algae growth, the Mekong River Commission said in a report Friday. (benarnews.org)
The Mekong River flows down from the Tibetan Plateau and defines most of the border between Thailand and landlocked Laos. (nasa.gov)
In a file photo, men ride in a boat across the Mekong river in Luang Prabang, Laos. (rfa.org)
A coalition of NGOs called for the cancellation of a project to build what would be Laos' fifth large Mekong river dam Tuesday, citing the disastrous effects that existing dams have had on the region's ability to cope with environmental crises. (rfa.org)
Lo Waterfall in Laos. (travelblog.org)
To gauge the impact, Radio Free Asia and BenarNews spoke to villagers, farmers and fishermen on the banks of the river along the length of Laos, which makes a key central section of the river along its border with Thailand. (rfa.org)
Through northern Laos and Thailand, the Mekong is typically more narrow and faster-flowing than it is further south. (rfa.org)
At Luang Prabang in northern Laos, where the Mekong winds through steep-sided mountains that shadow the former royal capital of the country, the drought has been so severe that the mighty river has shrunk and land features in the river bed are much more prominent than before. (rfa.org)
The drop in the level of Mekong in the north is apparent from this satellite image comparison between last September, during the rainy season, and what it is in February, in the depth of the dry season, It shows the view above Tonpheuang district of Laos' Bokeo province, opposite Chiang Saen district in Thailand's Chiang Rai province. (rfa.org)
Moving south to Vientiane Province in central Laos, the Mekong typically widens, but these days a wider expanse of the once-submerged river bed is exposed. (rfa.org)

A dam built by China in the Upper Mekong River. (vnexpress.net)
It is estimated that half of the sediment in Vietnam's Mekong Delta comes from further up the river, but hydropower dams in the Upper Mekong River are blocking it from reaching the lower delta. (vnexpress.net)
Eyes on Earth studied data from a 28-year period to determine the extent that dams in China on the Upper Mekong River impact natural water flow. (mongabay.com)

The largest freshwater fish ever recorded was a Mekong giant catfish caught in northern Thailand in 2005. (panda.org)
Fishing boats are moored in Mekong River, which has turned blue instead of its usual muddy color, in Nakhon Phanom province, northeastern Thailand, Dec. 4, 2019. (benarnews.org)
Many notable rivers discharge their freshwater and sediments into the Gulf of Thailand which include the Chao Phraya River along with its distributaries the Bang Pakong, the Tha Chin, and the Mae Klong rivers. (worldatlas.com)
The Mekong , Nakhon Chai Si, and the Tapi Rivers also drain into the Gulf of Thailand. (worldatlas.com)
The strong inflow of waters from these rivers and the slow exchange of the gulf's water with the South China Sea account for the low salinity of the Gulf of Thailand. (worldatlas.com)
In July, the river reached its lowest point in a century in northern Thailand, while in November, Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, which provides up to 500,000 tons of fish to the country in a normal year, faced a crisis as its unique annual flooding cycle was disrupted. (mongabay.com)
Alan Basist and Claude Williams, the authors, analyzed satellite imagery of the Lancang and daily data from a gauge on the Mekong River in northern Thailand from 1992 to 2019 to measure the impact that upstream dams in China have had on water flow. (mongabay.com)

This was peculiar because December is in the region's dry season, when the Mekong is normally so placid and low that people grow vegetables along its banks for cash and paddle off the sandy beaches that emerge on its shores. (gulfnews.com)
The Mekong Delta is also known as the "rice bowl" of Southeast Asia, and the river itself is fundamental to the region's economies. (nbr.org)
Finally, the coalition said that the dams were not necessary to meet the Mekong region's energy needs. (rfa.org)

Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment estimated that around 45 percent of the country's Mekong Delta will be negatively affected by saltwater intrusion by 2030 if hydropower dams and reservoirs along the Mekong River prevent water from flowing downstream. (vnexpress.net)
Here, using hydrodynamic model simulations (CaMa-Flood), we show that the effects of flow regulation on downstream river-floodplain dynamics are relatively predictable along the mainstream Mekong, but flow regulations could potentially disrupt the flood dynamics in the Tonle Sap River (TSR) and small distributaries in the Mekong Delta. (authorea.com)
While these dams have disrupted the river's natural systems for years, 2019 saw a particularly damaging situation, as downstream countries faced a severe drought while the Upper Mekong received above-average rainfall. (mongabay.com)
Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director at The Stimson Center in Washington D.C. and author of the 2019 book Last Days of the Mighty Mekong , said in an email that this was devastating for downstream communities. (mongabay.com)

This followed VNSC's year as CEOS Chair in 2019, where they funded a similar initiative for the Lower Mekong River. (jaxa.jp)
Just like the situation in 2019, today's blue-green water phenomenon is likely to spread to other stretches of the Mekong where low flows are experienced," said So Nam, the MRC Secretariat's chief environment management officer. (benarnews.org)
During the 2019 traditional monsoon season, which failed to produce monsoons due to an El Nino weather pattern," Eyler said, "China's unprecedented restriction of water undeniably impacted Thailand's northeastern irrigation projects, the Tonle Sap Lake and the Mekong Delta and reduced the livelihoods of tens of millions of people living there. (mongabay.com)
Here is an image comparision from the same location, comparing the river in September 2019 and February 2020. (rfa.org)

Control of the waters is politically sensitive, and many farmers' and fishermen's livelihoods depend on the river. (nasdaq.com)
Two years of record drought on the 4,350-km (2,700-mile) Mekong have been devastating for many of the 60 million people whose livelihoods depend on it. (nasdaq.com)
This is no more evident than along the lower Mekong River delta where an estimated 48 million people depend directly on the river for food and livelihoods. (mongabay.com)
Saying that non-hydro-renewables have huge potential in the region, the NGOs pleaded for other options to be explored that would not "require the destruction of river systems that millions depend on for their livelihoods. (rfa.org)
Farmers like Thom depend on the river for their livelihoods, but it has become more vulnerable than ever since the river's wellbeing depends on impacts from upstream, and it is losing itself bit by bit for the past 20 years since the balance of alluvial addition and erosion was upset. (vnexpress.net)

A study by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) presented at the Third MRC International Conference in March 2018, concluded that hydropower development on the Mekong River will aggravate food insecurity and poverty in the region. (wikipedia.org)
A huge amount of ALOS-2 ScanSAR data have been ingested into VEDAS, covering India, Bangladesh, and the Lower Mekong River region from 2018 to 2021, to facilitate rice monitoring related activities in the Asian region. (jaxa.jp)
Doyle, M. The Source: How Rivers Made America and America Remade its Rivers (W. W. Norton, New York, 2018). (nature.com)

The main reason is the construction of hydropower dams on the river, starting with the Manwan Dam China built in 1995. (vnexpress.net)

Released today, the MRC's Situation Report , which explores hydrological conditions in the LMB during January-July 2020, preliminarily identifies multiple possible causes of the low flows and drought this year. (mrcmekong.org)
In January and February, China released 2.3 billion cubic meters of water from Jinghong power station in Yunnan province as part of efforts to ease drought and help irrigation in Lower Mekong countries. (voanews.com)
Pianporn Deetes, a conservationist representing the International Rivers campaign group, said a drastic drop in water levels and the ensuing ecological impact such as drought and fish extinction in the Mekong River "will become normal" if a series of hydro-dams such as Xayaburi dam start operating in the next three decades. (bangkokpost.com)
The swirling currents of the once mighty Mekong, shrunk by drought and increasingly crippled by dams, point towards an unprecedented crisis of water governance along the more than 4,900km of South-east Asia's longest river. (todayonline.com)
After the July drought and the lowest water levels in more than 100 years, water levels have still not recovered. (todayonline.com)
The first tool, the Operational Reservoir Assessment Tool (RAT)-Mekong system, was officially adopted by the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to support their Strategy on Flood Management and Mitigation (FMM) 2021 to 2030 and Drought Management Strategy (DMS) from 2020 to 2025. (uh.edu)
Courtney Weatherby, a research analyst and expert on the Mekong at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington, D.C., said the main cause of the drought on the Mekong is low rainfall. (rfa.org)

The Mekong river is one of the most complex river systems in the world that is shared by six nations in Southeast Asia. (authorea.com)
A professor at the Cullen College of Engineering will continue serving as the lead PI for a NASA project that examines land subsidence, flood forecasting and groundwater management in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia. (uh.edu)
This essay argues that progress in energy security for Southeast Asia is more complex than just being a "by-product" of geopolitics and provides recommendations for the parties involved to make a lasting and meaningful contribution to the Mekong. (nbr.org)
Irrawaddy dolphins are found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong. (worldwildlife.org)

In the mid-2000s, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian companies revived plans for eleven large hydropower projects on the Lower Mekong Mainstream. (internationalrivers.org)
Large-scale dams, especially those planned for the Mekong mainstream, are a significant cause of - not the answer to - the Mekong crisis. (rfa.org)
Rather than embarking on another flawed Prior Consultation process, we urge lower Mekong governments and the MRC to address outstanding concerns regarding impacts of mainstream dams and to undertake a comprehensive options assessment to study alternatives. (rfa.org)

Both river basins are home to 605 species protected under CMS including freshwater species, land animals, and birds. (cms.int)
But they must first fully understand and take into account the true economic and social value of a free-flowing Mekong," says co-author Stuart Orr, freshwater manager with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), in a press release. (mongabay.com)
The Mekong river is home to around 850 species of freshwater fish, many of which are only found in the region. (mongabay.com)
The Mekong giant catfish is the largest freshwater fish and is endemic to the Mekong River. (panda.org)
This is the second of two posts focused on fisheries from rivers and other freshwater systems, part of a series examining how rivers underpin food security and how managing rivers as systems will be crucial for maintaining their ability to produce food and a range of other benefits. (forbes.com)
The first post quantified the amount of global fish consumption that depends on rivers and other freshwater systems. (forbes.com)
This second post examines threats to freshwater fisheries and solutions to maintain healthy rivers and abundant fisheries. (forbes.com)
The first post summarized data and research showing that rivers and other freshwater systems produce-or strongly influence-well over half of all global fish production. (forbes.com)
Moreover, freshwater species have been dramatically impacted by the infrastructure built to manage rivers - including dams and levees built to promote food production. (forbes.com)

The Mekong giant catfish is a species of catfish in the shark catfish family. (panda.org)
Scientists estimate that the total number of Mekong giant catfish have decreased by around 90% in the last decade. (panda.org)
No population figures are available, and estimates of the decline are based on the fall in the number of specimens caught, Some experts believe there may only be a few hundred Mekong giant catfish surviving. (panda.org)
Threats to the Mekong giant catfish, and several other giant migratory fish species in the Mekong, include infrastructure development such as dams that block migration routes and isolate some populations. (panda.org)
A further major factor in the decline of the Mekong giant catfish is over-fishing . (panda.org)
WWF also implements projects dedicated to the conservation of the Mekong giant catfish including research and monitoring and raising awareness. (panda.org)
Unsustainable fishing leads to the collapse of whole species such as the Mekong giant catfish. (panda.org)

We call on the six Mekong countries to increase data and information sharing on their dam and water infrastructure operations in a transparent and speedy manner with the MRC. (mrcmekong.org)
When countries in the lower areas are in the rainy season, they do not need much water so China stores it to generate electricity. (vnexpress.net)
He said he hopes China will join the MRC so that they can discuss plans to use the Mekong River fairly among the countries involved. (vnexpress.net)
They [the countries] should cooperate for mutual benefit in a friendly way and based on international law," Tu said, adding that he hopes the LMC will address the lack of cooperation between China and countries on the Lower Mekong River. (vnexpress.net)
That means co-operation between countries sharing the same river is likely to become even more imperative. (gulfnews.com)
Collaboration has long been difficult along the Mekong, where countries are recovering from years of bitter conflict. (gulfnews.com)
I would encourage that the member countries use this extra volume of water in an appropriate and effective manner,' Le Duc Trung, chairman of the Mekong River Commission's Joint Committee, said. (voanews.com)
China has no water treaties with the lower Mekong countries and only shares limited data during the monsoon season on flows on the upper stretch of what it calls the Lancang River. (nasdaq.com)
Civic groups on Sunday lodged a petition calling for governments of countries along the Mekong River to review upcoming dam projects. (bangkokpost.com)
If governments of these countries can solve these setbacks, the case of Mekong River management will become a model for the world on sustainable development. (bangkokpost.com)
The Mekong countries are striving for economic growth, and they see hydropower as a driver of that growth. (mongabay.com)
RAT-Mekong is now operational in MRC's portal over 13 selected reservoirs in MRC countries, providing bi-weekly reservoir states including reservoir inflow, storage change and outflow observed from space. (uh.edu)
These recent successes have identified more time-sensitive institutional and societal priorities of Lower Mekong countries when it comes to floods and droughts in the context of an increasingly impounded Mekong river," the researchers wrote. (uh.edu)
Asia EDGE fellow Huong Le Thu examines the rapidly growing demand for energy in the Mekong and the role that outside powers can play in helping the subregion achieve its energy goals, particularly by supporting regional countries' efforts to move beyond hydropower. (nbr.org)
Lower Mekong countries themselves are not passive receivers of external funding and initiatives. (nbr.org)
The essay concludes by examining the role that outside powers can play in helping the Mekong subregion achieve its energy goals, particularly by supporting regional countries' efforts to move beyond hydropower. (nbr.org)
Environmental effects on the Mekong will not only be felt among Southeast Asian countries but also affect the global food market, especially the supply of rice and seafood. (nbr.org)
At the beginning of January, China's Ministry of Water Resources told the MRC countries that it would lower outflow at Jinghong between Jan. 5 and 24 to 1,000 cubic meters per second to perform maintenance on powerlines. (benarnews.org)
However, knowledge about hepatitis D remains poor and the burden and impact are underestimated, even though some 12-15 million people mainly in low- and middle-income countries may be affected. (bvsalud.org)
1 Almost 80% of cases occur in low-income countries where cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women. (who.int)

At one point, the river was roughly 5 meters (16 feet) lower than it should have been under natural conditions, while from April to November, China's upstream areas received above-average levels of rainfall. (mongabay.com)
A combination of lower than usual rainfall and runaway hydropower development is taking its toll on people who depend on its waters for irrigation and food. (rfa.org)

We will work closely with the SERVIR-Mekong Hub and various stakeholders in Mekong including MRC to build their capacity toward operational usage of the tools for better water resources management and disaster prevention. (uh.edu)

Flood water from upstream helps balance water levels in the delta and brings sediment that enriches the soil and provides food for fish, while pushing back saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, the expert said. (vnexpress.net)
Fig. 2: Sediment yield from the Huang He (Yellow) River. (nature.com)
The length (in meters) of sediment addition and erosion along the Mekong Delta's coast. (vnexpress.net)
Sediment flow to the Mekong Delta reduces as new hydropower dams appear upstream. (vnexpress.net)

An earlier post, focused on irrigation , described how dams built largely to store water for irrigation have led to dramatic declines of fish populations and fisheries in rivers such as the Colorado, San Joaquin and Sacramento. (forbes.com)
Migratory fisheries in free-flowing rivers such as the Amazon, Irrawaddy and Salween, are also at risk from proposed hydropower dams. (forbes.com)

Khuong Le Binh, director of the Hydro-Meteorological Station in the southern province of Dong Thap, said th ere have been no signs that flood water from upstream will reach lower areas this year. (vnexpress.net)
The dams China has built hundreds of kilometres upstream from Kroolong's home are what brought me to the Mekong, one of the world's mightiest waterways. (gulfnews.com)
We've been tracking hydropower development on the Lancang for several years and found that building on the lower and middle reaches is either complete or already underway, which means that development is moving further upstream. (chinadialogue.net)
In recent years, however, river structures, such as dams and dikes, have been preventing fish from migrating upstream to their spawning and rearing grounds. (mrcmekong.org)
Part of the problem is China's upstream dams that can have a dramatic impact on the flow of the Mekong. (rfa.org)

He also said that the bluish color could remain until the next flood season, which usually starts in May, provided that larger reserves of water are released in the Upper Mekong in China and the tributary dams. (benarnews.org)

The low flows have caused Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake to experience "extremely dry conditions", with reverse flows at their lowest on record since 1997. (mrcmekong.org)
one for each of the headwaters of the Yellow River, the Yangtze, and the Lancang, which becomes the Mekong once it flows out of China. (chinadialogue.net)
Because of the degradation of the river systems and reduced flows in recent years, more and more survey teams have been able to reach the headwaters, including some adventure tourists and science teams. (chinadialogue.net)

For cross-border rivers, cooperation mechanisms are very important. (vnexpress.net)
He was referring to the Lancang Mekong Cooperation (LMC) framework for development of the river that includes China and five Southeast Asian nations, which held an online conference on Monday. (nasdaq.com)

The creation of reservoirs would result in many parts of the Mekong becoming a lake ecosystem, unsuitable for many native aquatic species of the river environment and will eventually drive them to extinction. (wikipedia.org)
The Mekong Catfish is considered a flagship species for the conservation of the lower Mekong ecosystem. (cms.int)
Poor management is not just about the massive scale of intervention affecting fish migration and the general ecosystem in this mighty river. (nbr.org)
The rapidity and extent of such change is so great that large-scale, and potentially irreparable, transformations may ensue in periods of years to decades, with ecosystem collapse being possible in some big rivers. (nature.com)

China has six hydropower dams operating in the upper areas of the Lancang River, Chinese officials told a group of Vietnamese reporters in mid-June this year. (vnexpress.net)
A seasonal dry-out in Sanjiangyuan region, the location of the headwaters of the Yellow River, the Yangtze, and the Lancang. (chinadialogue.net)
He has found that dry-outs and desertification are common in the headwaters of the Yellow River and the Yangtze, and that those of the Lancang are also under threat. (chinadialogue.net)
Seasonal dry-outs don't just affect the evenness of river flow, the amount of water flowing from the Lancang reserve, and the ecosystem's ability to store water. (chinadialogue.net)

The authors state: "This effort used NASA remote sensing systems and data to help improve Mekong River Commission (MRC) Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) models for sub-basins (SBs) 1-8. (iastate.edu)
This assessment compared random locations for sampled types on the SB 7 LULC map to geospatial reference data such as Landsat RGBs, MODIS NDVI phenologic profiles, high resolution satellite data, and Mekong River Commission data (e.g., crop calendars). (iastate.edu)
The petition was on Sunday submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the Mekong Conservation Network in the North during a forum held in Chiang Rai province on the effect of dams on the Mekong River. (bangkokpost.com)
The country, the poorest of the four member states of the Mekong River Commission with GDP per capita of about US$2,500 per year, insists that hydropower is necessary to reduce poverty. (todayonline.com)
Hyongki Lee, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, has received about $692,410 in additional funding for a three-year extension of his research work, "Strengthening Regional and National Capacity for Operational Flood andDrought Management Services for Lower Mekong Nations via Mekong River Commission and SERVIR-Mekong. (uh.edu)
To address the problem, the Cambodian Government partnered with the U.S. Department of Interior (USDOI), the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to install a fish passage. (mrcmekong.org)
In July, the Lao government submitted the project to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to begin a six-month prior consultation process under the MRC's Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA), a clear indication that it intends to start work on the dam's construction as soon as possible. (rfa.org)
According to the Mekong River Commission, alluvium flowing down the Mekong declined from 160 million tons in 1992 to 47.4 million tons in 2020. (vnexpress.net)

The study, published in Global Environmental Change, looked at five different IPCC scenarios for global development in 49 deltas all over the world, including famous deltas such as the Nile, Mekong, and Mississippi, but also more understudied deltas such as the Volta, Zambezi and Irrawaddy deltas. (lu.se)

Now that the threats posed by the Mekong dams have become clearer, tensions have grown between the people who will profit from the dams and those who will bear the impacts. (internationalrivers.org)
It is estimated that the Critically Endangered Mekong Catfish and the Mekong River subpopulation of the Irrawaddy Dolphin face lethal threats from entanglement and ingestion of plastic. (cms.int)

When the dams were first proposed, there was limited understanding of the ways that people depend on the Mekong River and its ecosystems. (internationalrivers.org)

Before the sun peeks over the horizon, the cruiser sets sail to-wards Kampong Tralach on the Tonle River - an amazingly nar-row river. (waytomekong.com)
Before the sun peeks over the horizon, the cruiser sets sail towards Kampong Tralach on the Tonle River. (waytovietnam.com)

The tropical climate and the irrigation water provided by the river makes the peninsula well-suited for rice production . (nasa.gov)

The flood plains fed by the Mekong, sustain agricultural needs with the cultivation of rice and Lotus flowers to drive their commerce. (panasonic.com)
Their recent study found that FIER-Mekong tool could have prevented rice damages due to floods up to $87 million and $53 million U.S. dollars during the harvest time of 2020 and 2021, respectively. (uh.edu)

Native fish stocks would be particularly hard hit: more than 900,000 tonnes of fish biomass, worth US$4.3 billion, would disappear by 2040 from the Mekong as a result of dams. (wikipedia.org)

The Xiaowan, completed nearly four years ago, is one of China's biggest hydropower projects after Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, with a wall almost as high as the Eiffel Tower and a reservoir that can hold 15 billion cubic metres of water. (gulfnews.com)

Flood water has failed to arrive in the Mekong Delta in recent years, which is a very dangerous issue," Tu said. (vnexpress.net)
Flood water usually arrives in the region from August to November, but according to Vietnam's Southern Hydro-Meteorological Station, water levels in upper parts of the country's Mekong River are very low, around 50cm down from last year. (vnexpress.net)
An official from the Department of International Relations, Science and Technology under China's Ministry of Water Resources said China holds water in the upper areas but later releases it to lower areas so no water is lost in the end. (vnexpress.net)
He said China uses water as it pleases to generate electricity, not to balance water levels further down the Mekong. (vnexpress.net)
The single most significant impact-both now and in the future-on the use of water and its management in the Mekong Region is hydropower. (wikipedia.org)
Lunch is served afterwards.The ship cruises along the narrow Tonle River towards Kam-pong Chhnang, Cambodia's "water world", where everything is on sticks and balanced on water-rich soil. (waytomekong.com)
He and a friend jumped into another boat and sped down the river to see if they could find the missing vessel, steering frantically to dodge the tree branches and rubbish being swept along the swirling water. (gulfnews.com)
But what emerged from my visit to the Mekong, as I followed the story of the floods that took Den Kroolong's boat, was even stranger - a cautionary tale about the world's newest superpower, and about water, a resource under mounting pressure. (gulfnews.com)
Farmers and development organizations say they welcome the release of water from a hydropower dam on the Mekong River in China, but warn against negative effects if too much is discharged. (voanews.com)
Phork Nimul, a fisherman in O'Svay commune, Stung Treng province, said the water would help his crops and enable fishing boats to better navigate the river, bringing in more fish to feed families. (voanews.com)
If too much water is to be released, the crops will be flooded, so it could affect the people living along the river,' he said. (voanews.com)
Stored water is already 'against the natural flow' of the river, he said. (voanews.com)
The water in the Mekong River has fallen to a critical level. (todayonline.com)
In the summer of 2006 there was too much water and we got stuck in the river. (chinadialogue.net)
This means less melt water flowing into the rivers. (chinadialogue.net)
Surveys are usually conducted in March to May when dolphins congregate around deep pool areas in the low water. (worldwildlife.org)
They've also experienced an abrupt variation when water has been held back inside China, as happened in early January when for several days, the Jinghong Dam reduced by one half the amount of water it releases into the Mekong. (rfa.org)

On August 30, CDC issued an Epi-X notice encouraging public health officials to maintain vigilance for measles among Afghan evacuees because of an ongoing measles outbreak in Afghanistan (25,988 clinical cases reported nationwide during January-November 2021) (1) and low routine measles vaccination coverage (66% and 43% for the first and second doses, respectively, in 2020) (2). (cdc.gov)

Yet the four governments have revived plans to build a series of mega-dams across the river to generate electricity, even though better options exist. (internationalrivers.org)

China embarked on a massive dam programme with 11 dams already operating on the Upper Mekong. (todayonline.com)

This rich transboundary river is a global natural heritage, and its ecological vulnerabilities to climate change are profound. (nbr.org)
The planned Luang Prabang Dam would drastically worsen the impacts of climate change, which already had a significant effect on the region this year, the Save the Mekong coalition said in a press release. (rfa.org)

Plans for a series of dams on the Lower Mekong River date back to the 1950s, but war and instability in the region made these proposals impossible for several decades. (internationalrivers.org)
In 2015, the Chinese government announced plans to set up a new nature reserve in the Sanjiangyuan ("three river source") region of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. (chinadialogue.net)
The Kbal Hong ladder is considered one of the most effective fish passages in the Mekong region and stands as an example of effective regional collaboration. (mrcmekong.org)
For thousands of years, the Mekong's natural flooding cycle has nourished fertile fishing and farming grounds, ultimately creating the Mekong Delta, which is home to 20 million people and Vietnam's most important agricultural region. (mongabay.com)
While the river's flow has not matched what it naturally would without the dams in place, the Lower Mekong Basin's fishing grounds and agricultural land have stayed in relatively good health, maintaining the lives of farmers, fishermen and their families in the region. (mongabay.com)

He says the Rhine River Delta in the Netherlands and the Mississippi River Delta in the U.S. encountered similar problems, but it took more than 100 years to turn so severe there as it took the Mekong Delta 20 years. (vnexpress.net)

Through its Living Mekong Programme , WWF aims to ensure that environmental and social impacts are taken into account in the development of additional hydropower infrastructure. (panda.org)

This process helps prevent floods and droughts in lower areas," the official said. (vnexpress.net)

Most recently, in December last year, three houses found their fate in the waters of the Mekong in Kratie's Chhlong district. (phnompenhpost.com)

The report, "Risk assessment of plastic pollution to migratory species in the Mekong and Ganga River Basins", was prepared under the UN's Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). (cms.int)
The report maps plastic hotspots and assesses the risk of plastic pollution on migratory species in the Ganges and Mekong River basins which are protected under CMS. (cms.int)
A concrete ladder was constructed at Kbal Hong Dam in the Pursat River, a main tributary of Tonle Sap Lake, Southeast Asia's largest lake, to provide a route for more than 100 fish species to swim past the 4-metre-high barrier, reopening around 100 km of the river. (mrcmekong.org)
Fig. 4: The spread of non-native species within the River Rhine and other rivers in Europe 155 . (nature.com)
The protection of the Irrawaddy dolphin is crucial for the overall health of the Mekong River-home to an estimated 1,100 species of fish. (worldwildlife.org)

Over 60 million people depend on the Lower Mekong River for food, income, health, and their cultural identity. (internationalrivers.org)
Protecting rivers and defending the rights of the communities that depend on them. (internationalrivers.org)

The Mekong River is one of the world's great rivers. (internationalrivers.org)
Prioritizing the fate of the world's great river corridors on an international political stage is imperative. (nature.com)

Before 1990 the river carried an average 160 million tons of fine silt and 30 million tons of sand and gravel to the delta, a crucial supply of resources strengthening the river, its estuaries and more than 30,000 km of channels. (vnexpress.net)

Each year, the Cambodian Mekong Dolphin Conservation Project conducts at least two population surveys of Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River. (worldwildlife.org)

That was about $460 (Dh1,688) , a large sum for a man who had been making around $6 a day selling the fish he pulled from the river. (gulfnews.com)
fish in the river will be gradually wiped out," she said. (bangkokpost.com)
Without the ability to move up and down rivers, the fish have fewer opportunities to breed. (panda.org)
Continuing this flow pattern could have an impact on river transport, fish migration, agriculture and river weed collection," Winai said in the report. (benarnews.org)
Weatherby says the Mekong river system produces 2 million tons of fish every year, which is more than all the rivers and lakes of North America combined. (rfa.org)

An additional 134 projects are planned for the lower Mekong, which will maximize the river's hydropower generating capacity. (wikipedia.org)
Loss of livelihood has become more significant as more dams are constructed along the Mekong River and this has become more evident by the change in the river's biodiversity. (wikipedia.org)

05/01/2012) Six years after the Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), or baiji, was declared "functionally extinct" by scientists, another marine mammal appears on the edge of extinction in China's hugely degraded Yangtze River. (mongabay.com)

Organisms5

Diseases2

Chemicals and Drugs3

Phenomena and Processes4

Health Care7

Geographicals5

Basin29

Tributaries13

Cambodia31

Vietnam13

Phnom Penh3

Help the lower Mekong countries2

Laos21

Upper Mekong River3

Thailand7

Region's3

Downstream4

20194

Livelihoods5

20183

19951

Drought7

Southeast Asia4

Mainstream3

Freshwater9

Giant catfish7

Countries20

Rainfall2

Various stakeholders1

Sediment4

Fisheries2

Upstream5

Tributary dams1

Flows3

Cooperation2

Ecosystem4

Lancang4

Commission8

Deltas1

Threats2

Ecosystems1

Kampong Tralach on the Tonle River2

Irrigation1

Rice2

20401

Hydropower projects1

Water17

20201

Governments1

Dams already1

Climate change2

Region5

Severe1

Infrastructure1

Floods and droughts1

Waters1

Species5

Depend2

World's great2

Estuaries1

Conservation1

Fish5

River's2

China's1