MEKONG UNDER GRAVE THREAT

Reference is made to the recent media report in which it is announced that by 2022, as a key project, the first phase of the water diversion project of the Mekong-Loei-Chee-Moon project will be implemented at a cost of 158 million baht.

This controversial project pops up at regular intervals. The last time was in 2016 after which it was dumped following protests from farmers in the North and environmentalists questioning whether the benefits of such a costly commercial investment would ever be recovered by cash-poor farmers to pay for the pumped Mekong water in their paddy-fields.

But since this project is challenged by Section 5 (Reasonable and Equitable Utilisation) of the 1995 Mekong Agreement and apparently not in line with the water utilisation project (Section 26 of the 1995 Mekong

Agreement) signed by all four member countries, it is questioned whether this ambitious water-diversion project would be harmful to downstream countries like Cambodia and Vietnam, which are equally in dire need of water.

The government of Thailand is searching all means to stop the silt progressing in the Chao Phraya River but gives little or no concern for the downstream Mekong countries which are struggling as well to keep their Mekong Delta free of intruding seawater. The Mekong Delta with its two to three crops a year is the rice barn of Vietnam and is at stake.

Water-diversion projects (during wet as well as dry seasons) are always subject to notification to the joint committee and, as good neighbours, such projects should show genuine concern for the harm and damage that could be caused to its neighbours in accordance by Section 7 of the 1995 Mekong Agreement (Prevention and Cessation of Harmful Effects).

This controversial Mekong-LoeiChee-Moon project seems to be an uphill battle that will make nervous neighbours with many eyebrows raise. It may be the end of the Mekong River Commission!

Jacques Dezeure Waterways expert