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67. Improving Mekong Water Allocation

Full Title:

Improving Mekong water allocation: Searching for success with scenarios, environmental flows, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and consensus-building negotiations

Project Summary:

Today’s Mekong River Basin is the site of a number of disputes related to water allocation, either directly or implicitly.  Many of the perspectives of the vulnerable are excluded from decisions (and non-decisions) which impact on their water, ecosystems and livelihoods.  On the mainstream and tributaries disputes exist resulting from interventions to natural flow regimes and overt or default allocation decisions.  These interventions are justified on grounds of: flood control, more irrigation for food or fibre production, urban or industrial supply, improving ease of navigation, or boosting energy production via hydropower.  There are associated disputes about groundwater use, water re-use, and diversions (whether inter-state, intra-state, inter-basin or intra-basin water diversions.

Actors differ in their discourses (world views, preferences, behaviours), knowledge endowments and interpretations, powers, accountabilities, and adaptiveness to new situations.

This is what makes water allocation difficult.  For example, there are contrasting views on the importance of sustaining rural livelihoods that are dependent on living aquatic resources, vis a vis, sacrificing those resources for the ‘greater good’ of the province, country, basin or region.

The disputes are testing the strength, and exposing the limitations, of existing institutions and practices.  For example, actions taken by private infrastructure construction companies and financiers are increasingly important but not always mediated by the application of the safeguard policies of Mekong national governments, or public financial institutions, such as The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank of International Cooperation, or China Development Bank.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) which could have an important role to play, at least in the lower part of the Mekong River Basin, is constrained – or is constraining itself by the actions of one or more members – in its actions vis a vis its mandate articulated in the 1995 Mekong River Agreement.  For example, it’s mandate is ‘whole of basin’, but its action is usually restricted to the mainstream.  With the exception of Yunnan, most of the major development and water allocation action is on the tributaries.  

Project Proposal:

Technical Submission (XLS 169 Kb)
Annex A: CVs
Annex B: Bibliography (PDF 79Kb)
Annex C: Objective Tree (PDF 117Kb)
Annex D: Gantt Chart (XLS 24Kb)
Annex E: Project Team (PDF 51Kb)
Annex F: Stakeholders and Beneficiaries (PDF 71Kb)
Annex G: Environmental Impacts (PDF 52Kb)