ID :
112704
Sat, 03/20/2010 - 15:36
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Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/112704
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China to attend regional meeting on low Mekong River water level
BANGKOK, March 20 (TNA) -- China will for the first time attend a meeting with members of the Vientiane-based Mekong River Commission (MRC) in Thailand's Prachuap Khiri Khan province early next month to discuss the low water levels in the Mekong River which has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 20 years and has affected local residents and businesses dependent on the river, a senior Thai official said.
Saksit Treedech, Thailand's permanent secretary for natural resources and the environment, said members of the MRC comprising Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand will invite representatives from China and Myanmar to attend the meeting held on April 2-5.
The Chinese delegates may be led by their deputy prime minister, he said. This should be considered a positive sign because MRC members have in the past received information from China only on its water storage and release from the upstream reaches of the Mekong in China.
MRC members want China to join the grouping so that water management from the river could become more efficient.
The Chinese government has built four large dams on the mainstream river and has said that the current low water levels in the Mekong should be attributed to low rainfall during the rainy season last year.
China has earlier denied that the lower water level of the Mekong River was caused by dams in China, saying that their construction had reduced the river's flow by only four per cent.
Counsellor Chen Dehai of the Chinese embassy in Bangkok said the accusation was baseless and incorrect. He said the water volume of Lancang River that becomes the Mekong was only 13.5 per cent of the total.
Hydroelectric dam construction in China had affected only 4 per cent of the overall water volume and would definitely not be the cause of the record low levels of the Mekong River as it flows through the Southeast Asian heartland. (TNA)
Saksit Treedech, Thailand's permanent secretary for natural resources and the environment, said members of the MRC comprising Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand will invite representatives from China and Myanmar to attend the meeting held on April 2-5.
The Chinese delegates may be led by their deputy prime minister, he said. This should be considered a positive sign because MRC members have in the past received information from China only on its water storage and release from the upstream reaches of the Mekong in China.
MRC members want China to join the grouping so that water management from the river could become more efficient.
The Chinese government has built four large dams on the mainstream river and has said that the current low water levels in the Mekong should be attributed to low rainfall during the rainy season last year.
China has earlier denied that the lower water level of the Mekong River was caused by dams in China, saying that their construction had reduced the river's flow by only four per cent.
Counsellor Chen Dehai of the Chinese embassy in Bangkok said the accusation was baseless and incorrect. He said the water volume of Lancang River that becomes the Mekong was only 13.5 per cent of the total.
Hydroelectric dam construction in China had affected only 4 per cent of the overall water volume and would definitely not be the cause of the record low levels of the Mekong River as it flows through the Southeast Asian heartland. (TNA)
