Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit

( The Mekong river in Kandal province, north of Phnom Penh.)

Dam debate looms large over Mekong summit
Posted: 02 April 2010 1358 hrs





BANGKOK: Leaders of Southeast Asian nations straddling the shrinking lower Mekong River are set to lean on China at talks Sunday as controversy builds over the cause of the waterway's lowest levels in decades.

Beijing's Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao will join the premiers of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin to discuss management of the vast river, on which more than 60 million people depend.

A crippling drought in the region and the much-debated role of hydropower dams are due to dominate the two-day summit of the inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) - the first in its 15-year history.

China, a "dialogue partner" of the MRC, is expected to staunchly defend its dams, which activists downstream blame for water shortages, after the Mekong shrivelled to its lowest level in 50 years in Laos and Thailand's north.

Nations in the lower Mekong basin may press China to share more information on the river, said Anond Snidvongs, director of the Southeast Asia START Regional Centre, which researches environmental change.

In addition, "they will request resources from China, ie, more money. I don't think there will be confrontation, at least from official appearances, but behind closed doors there will be strong debate," he told AFP.

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