Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ings in Oregon, where conversation shifted back and forth from the binational agreement
between the United States and Canada governing the Columbia River watershed to the
challenges facing the Greater Mekong Subregion. One delegate from Cambodia, a young
woman studying for a master's degree, pointed out the importance of collaboration: “We
havetomakelinksbetweenlocalpopulations,academics,managers,andgovernmentagen-
cies.… Sometimes, when there are multiple data sources, we don't know whose data to
trust.” The delegate from Laos, expressing some frustration, concurred, pointing out that
“some data is [
sic
] difficult to share between governments because it's political.”
The elephant in the room, which few delegates explicitly acknowledged in these meet-
ings, was the fact that China occupies the headwaters and upper drainage areas of the
Mekong but does not participate in many of the MRC's initiatives. Downstream govern-
ments and residents perceive issues of water scarcity and water quality downstream—from
the Mekong delta in Vietnam to the middle reaches of the river in Cambodia and bey-
ond—as connected to the Chinese dams.
Seasonal fluctuations in the Mekong's hydrograph—its rate of flow over the course of
a year, driven by the monsoon rains—regulate a profoundly complex riparian ecosystem.
Nowhere are the effects of an altered hydrograph more apparent and more acutely felt than
at Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake. Located in central Cambodia, Tonle
Sap, whose name means “Great Lake” in Khmer, is a critical migratory bird habitat, an im-
portant source of food security in a relatively poor nation that depends heavily on fisheries
(Grumbine, Dore, and Xu 2012), and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Each year during the
monsoon floods between May and October, the water levels at the Mekong delta rise high
enough to cause the Tonle Sap River to backflow into the lake, quadrupling its surface area.
This ebb and flow are the region's “hydrological heartbeat” (Bonheur and Lane 2002) and
the mainstay of livelihoods for millions of people.
Since the completion of Manwan Dam, fishermen at Tonle Sap and elsewhere along the
Mekonghavenoticedunusualchangesintheriver'sseasonalhydrographandacorrespond-
ing downturn in fish stocks (Santasombat 2011:40). The potential impacts on food security
for the tens of millions of people who live along the lower reaches of the Mekong and who
depend on fish as a major protein source and on crop production in floodplain areas adja-
cent to the river are obvious, but they are also characterized by a great deal of uncertainty.
Asthe Save the Mekongletter made clear,transnational data-sharing arrangements are few,
and no one knows much about the volume of water being stored behind the Chinese dams.
Under the operating rules of the MRC, infrastructure projects that affect hydrology are
subject to “notification” and “consultation” of the governments of downstream countries;
however, there is no effective way for member states to veto projects that they deem unac-
is not the only regional player pursuing its own financial best interest at the expense of
its neighbors: in late 2012, the People's Democratic Republic of Laos announced that con-
