Forefront and Challenges ofWater Resources Managementin Southeast Asia
29 January 2011
Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit Hotel,
Bangkok, Thailand

Organized by
Regional Network Office for Urban Safety (RNUS),
School of Engineering and Technology,
Asian Institute of Technology
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS),
Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), The University of Tokyo
Chula Unisearch, Chulalongkorn University

Edited by
Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki

Forefront and Challenges ofWater Resources Managementin Southeast Asia
January 2011
PREFACEDue to rapid and dynamic changes in economy, society and theenvironment in the context of globalization and localization, Southeast Asia
faces many new challenges and opportunities such as politicaldemocratization, administrative decentralization and improved governance,
regional economic cooperation, trans-boundary resource management andsustainable development, infectious diseases prevention, and disaster
preparedness and response.
Among these many critical issues,consideration of the water resources management is drastically increasing in
the region due to record flooding and draughts in recent years – especially in
the Lower Mekong River basin.
To raise public awareness of these issues, a half-day symposium,"Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast
Asia," was held at the Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit, Bangkok,
Thailand, on January 29, 2011. This symposium was co-organized by theInternational Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS), Institute ofIndustrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo; the Regional Network
Office for Urban Safety (RNUS), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT); andChula Unisearch, Chulalongkorn University.
The objectives of this symposium were:- To understand critical environmental and disaster problems inSoutheast Asia
- To share and exchange knowledge, information and opinions
among geospatial researchers, practitioners, and decisionmakers.
- To discuss forefront and challenges of geospatial technologies
for solving problems
In this symposium, we invited six distinguished Thai and American
speakers in the field of water resources management from both the academic
field and government. Overall, the symposium was completed successfully,
with interesting, informative and exciting presentations and lively questions
and discussions. We also obtained many positive evaluations through thequestionnaire sheets answered by the participants. We hope this symposium
contributed to promoting information exchange, mutual communication andunderstanding and research collaboration among universities, institutes, andprivate sectors in Southeast Asia.
Akiyuki KAWASAKI

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
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Table of Contents
Page
Mekong sub-regional framework: opportunities and challenges
Ms. Nitivadee Manitkul

1Vulnerability assessment of freshwater resources in the Mekong River basin
Assoc. Prof. Mukand Singh Babel

13

Water resources management in MRC & Thailand’s perspectives on MRC’s
role
Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul

41

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development
plan by area based information system
Assoc. Prof. Sucharit Koontanakulvong

65

Who’s river is it anyhow? Some issues regarding transboundary developmenton the Mekong River basin
Prof. Peter Rogers

89

Challenges to Benefit sharing in the Mekong River basin
Prof. Suzanne P. Ogden

105

Panel discussion
6 presenters chaired by Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki

Forefrontof Water
Water Resources
Management inin Southeast
Southeast Asia
Asia
Forefront andand Challenges
Challenges ofResources Management

SYMPOSIUM SUMMARY
January 29th, 2011
The International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS), theUniversity of Tokyo, and the Regional Network Office for Urban Safety(RNUS), AIT organized a seminar titled “Forefront and Challenging of
Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia” at Novotel Bangkok
Fenix Ploenchit Hotel (Room Ruam Rudee Ballroom) on January 29, 2011.
The seminar was held in half-day with six distinguished speakers. The
seminar was inaugurated and welcome by Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki, Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety (RNUS).
The speakers consists of Ms. Nitivadee Manitkul (Director, Division of
Economic Relations and Cooperation, Department of International
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs); Assoc. Prof. Mukand SinghBabel (School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute ofTechnology); Assoc. Prof. Sucharit Koontanakulvong (Faculty ofEngineering, Chulalongkorn University); Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul(Deputy Director General, Department of Water Resources, Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment); Prof. Peter Rogers (School ofEngineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, USA); and Prof.
Suzanne. P. Ogden (Department of Political Science, Northeastern
University, USA).
Among about 150 participants, 92 audiences retuned the questionnaire sheet
to the secretariat, and their replies were as follows:
The list of the organizations in which total 114 audiences attended theseminar:Number ofOrganization
audience
80
University
AIT

54

Srinakharinwirot University

7

Kasetsart University

4

Chiangmai University

3

King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology

3

Mahanakorn University

3

Mahidol University

3aaJanuary 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Burapha University

1

Kasem Bundit University

1

Thasin University

1
Thai Government

40

Royal Irrigation Department

21

Department of Water resources

5

Department of Drainage and Sewerage

4

Metropolitan Waterworks Authority

2

National Disaster Warning Center

2

Bureau of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation

1

Department of Groundwater Resources1

Hydrographic Department

1

Pollution Control Department

1

Public Works Department

1

Thai Meteorological Department

1

Private sector

25

GTM Corporation Ltd

5

Information Construction Co., Ltd (iCONS)

4

Sun Yu Consultants Ltd. (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

4

Panya Consultant Co., Ltd

4

CMS Engineering & Management

2

ASDECON Corporation Co., ltd

1Black & Veatech (Thailand)1

Consultants of Technology

1

N-Power Co., Ltd

1

Progress Technology Consultants Co., Ltd

1

Regional Center for Geo-informatics and Space

1bb

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ICUS Report 53
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Technology, Northeast Thailand
International or foreign organization

3

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)

1

Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan (RESTEC)

1

Thai National Mekong Committee Secretariat

1

Additional desired seminar topics:
Mekong Framework• Mekong sub regional framework• Challenge & Benefit and Opportunities• IWRM of Mekong River basin• Seepage analysis and erosion study around Mekong river• Proper water management for community development• Construction of Dam along the Mekong river and its impacts• Water quality of Mekong River Basin• Natural condition of basin• Practical solve in Mekong River• Discrete impact on ecology in Mekong river• Impact of CC & adaptation measure in local level in Mekong rivercommunity• Water situation due to industry, economic etc.
Urban Infrastructure• Planning & Development of Urban infrastructure system• Integration research for urban area
• Urbanization impacts at the Basin of R.B.
Water management• Innovation for water management for reduce scarcity in dry period• Allocation water for agriculture sector in developing countries• Water management approach in different geographic locations• Gender studies & water resource management• Water supply issue due to climate change• Public participation situation in water management
Technique• Various techniques of scientific & engineering analysis of thebasin• Sediment assessment & pollution in Mekong River Basin using
GIS Technique• Remote sensing & GIS applications on water resource• Technique for waste water treatment and reuse
ClimateForefront
Managementin Southeast
Asia
Forefront andandChallenges
ChallengesofofWater
WaterResources
Resources
Managementin Southeast
Asia

cc

January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand• The impact of climate change on water resource management in
SEA• Ecological change & water resource management in SEA• Climate change in water resource in LMR Basin• Effect of building dam due to climate change
Other• Previous research papers and modeling works• Conservation practical applied research on watershed area
• Sustainable development• Hydropower projects / Dam versus biodiversity protection• SEA and Dam projects
Comments:
Time management• Speakers should keep their time frame of presentation• Time duration is short• Some speaker is go so fast
Venue
• Air condition is too cool in seminar hall
• Convenient for public transportation• Venue & Speaker are preferable• Not appropriate for parking
Contents• The seats are too fit & too close• Lecture setting is preferable (seat with desk)
Other• Overall it was a nice arrangement• Overall the event was very well-organized• Nice information for further study• The symposium should place in morning• Less photo taking during presentation period• The symposium should announce earlier
Location & Setting• The start time was convenient:
Strongly Agree (36)Disagree (9)• The duration was appropriate:
Strongly Agree (25)Disagree (10)• The location was convenient:
Strongly Agree (46)Disagree (3)• The facilities was appropriate:ddAgree (45)
Strongly Disagree (2)Agree (32)
Strongly Disagree (-)
Agree (41)
Strongly Disagree (2)Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
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Strongly Agree (42)Disagree (6)Agree (42)Strongly Disagree (1)Which do you prefer to attend the seminar?
•••

Week day (21)Week end (Sat or Sun) (50)
Any day is OK (21)What is your occupation?
••••

Research, Faculty (10)Governmental Officer (25)Working at private sector (9)Student (47)

Forefront
Managementin Southeast
Asia
Forefront andandChallenges
ChallengesofofWater
WaterResources
Resources
Managementin Southeast
Asia

ee

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
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Registration

Registration

Opening ceremony (Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki)

Welcome participant

Ms. Nitivadee Nanitkul

Assoc. Prof. Mukand Singh Babel

Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul

Prof. Sucharit Koontanakulvong

Forefrontof Water
Water Resources
Resources Management
Management inin Southeast
Southeast Asia
Asia
Forefront andand Challenges
Challenges ofiiJanuary 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Prof. Suzanne P. Ogden

Prof. Peter Rogers

Panel discussion

Participants

Question and discussionii
ii

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

Mekong sub-regional framework:
opportunities and challenges
Ms. Nitivadee Manitkul

MEKONG SUB-REGIONAL FRAMEWORK:OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Nitivadee Manitkul
Director, Division of Economic Relations and Cooperation,
Department of International Economic Affairs,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
nitivadeem@hotmail.com

Mekong Sub-regional
Frameworks:
Opportunities & Challenges
Nitivadee Manitkul
Director of
Economic Relations and Cooperation
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
29 January 2011

Strategic Location of Thailand in Southeast Asia
Korea

China

Afganistan

Japan

Pakistan

India

Bangladesh

Middle East
EuropeAfricaUSA

Myanmar

Bay of Bengal
Market Potentials:
� 312 millions of pop. in GMS
Sri Lanka
� 67.5 millions of pop. in IMT-GT
� 2,400 millions in PR China & India

� Southeast Asia’s Population = 555

million in 2006 -- 700 million
expected in 2030
� GNI accounts for 785 billion USD in2006 -- could attain 2,465 billion USD
in 2030

Laos

South China Sea

Thailand Vietnam
Cambodia

Philippines

Gulf of Thailand

Malaysia
BruneiSingapore
Indonesia

11

January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)

People’s Republic of China
Land area: 633 thou sq km
Population: 93.8 M
GDP per capita: US$1,032(figures for Yunnan and Guangxi only)

MyanmarLand area: 677 thou sq km
Population: 54.8 M

Viet Nam

GDP per capita: US$255

Land area: 332 thou sq km
Population: 83.1 M
GDP per capita: US$622

ThailandLand area: 513 thou sq km
Population: 65.3 M

Lao PDR

GDP per capita: US$2,727

Land area: 237 thou sq km
Population: 5.6 M

The GMS in 2005

GDP per capita: US$491

Land area: 2.6 M sq km
Population: 316 M

Cambodia

GDP per capita: US$1,102

Land area: 181 thou sq km
Population: 13.8 M
GDP per capita: US$393

3

Changesin the Region’s Landscape• Moving to Economic
Integration: AEC• Emerging of Sub-region
frameworks: GMS,ACMECS, IMT-GT,
BIMSTEC, MekongJapan, US-Lower
Mekong, Mekong-Korea

22•

Increase intra-trade/investment; less reliance on
external trade; develop valuechains; enhancecompetitiveness•narrow development gap;
create income and growth;
increase infrastructure
connectivity, promoter border
trade and investment

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
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GMS
Connectivity
Road
Transport
Network
1992

6

Industrial Estate and Economic Zone under ACMECS

Thialand’s Border
Economic Zone
1.Tak SBEZ
2.Chiang
Rai SBEZ
Industrial Estate
Establishment
Thailand provide
assistance to Myanmar
LaoPDR and Cambodia

Savan Xeno
SBEZ

Chiang Rai SBEZ

Mae Sot SBEZ
and IE in
Myawaddy
Pa-an
Mawlamyine and
Maw Taung

Koh Kong
Industrial
EstateExisting Thailand’s SBEZ and
IEAT’s projects in CLM Countries

MekongMekong sub-regional
sub-regionalframework:
framework:opportunities
opportunitiesandandchallenges
challenges

33

January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Other Attempts to Support ACMECS
Facilitation of Import & MOU of Contract Farming;
R&D on field crops,livestocks, SPS Tech Transfer
Thailand and Cambodia as a Pilot Project;
Details had finalized, will signed MOU in 2007

Agriculture
Single VISA
Trading

OSS at 10 Checkpoints in THA; Study ofWholesales Market & Distribution Centers in
Cambodia; Providing AISP for CLMV products

Use of Local Currencies

BOT’s Study finished.Implementing pilot projects
at Commercial Banks at Thai-Lao borders.

Energy Security

Regional Power Grids, Alternatives Energy i.e.
Biofules,Biomass,Hydropower
Scholarship provided by Thailand and VN for
Vocational Trainings and Other Areas
Implementing Sister Cities; Coordination
Mechanisms Established at the Local Level
ACMECS Business Council at Local Level

Capacity Building
Community

Co-Production Concept

MYAMAR City
SMEs byIndustrial Clusters

Border Line
Road Link
Checkpoint
SMEs byIndustrial Clusters

44

THAI City

Border Market
Economic Zone

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53แหลงกาซธรรมชาติ ท ี่ ม ี ศ ั กยภาพมี อยู ในประเทศเพื่ อนบ านของไทย
นําเขาปจจุบัน/อนาคต

แหลงในอนาคต

Puhom

Nampong

Karnchanaburi

YadanaKaeng Khoi

Tha Luang

YadanaWang Noi

Ratchaburi

SBK

Bang Pakong

M9RayongYetagunYetagunExisting 1st Pipeline

Thap Sakae

W.Corridor/Myanmar

Expansion Under
Master Plan 3

Existing 2nd Pipeline

Existing Transmission Networks (2,501 km.)
East
West
Total
Capacity
2,240
1,300
3,540

Benjamas
Tantawan
Chevron Add.

ErawanTrans Thai-Malaysia Pipeline (365 km.)1,020

Khanom

East

West

Total

700

4,000

Arthit FPSO

PailinArthitNatunaBongkot(1,500 km.)
3,300

PRP
Pailin Add.

Expansion under Pipeline Master Plan 3

Capacity

E.Natuna-Indonesia
E. Natuna-Indonesia

Platong(MMcfd)Capacity (MMcfd)

OCA-Cambodia
OCA-Cambodia

TTM Pipeline

South Bongkot

JDA(MMcfd)Total Capacity (4,366 km.)
East
West
(MMcfd)
5,540
2,000

Total
8,560

Power Plant

12

Gas Field

Movement of Workers• Economic driven demands & Social
impacts• Migrant workers in Thailand 1,544,902
from 2008-2009 (210,745 registered
workers and 1,334,157 illegal migrants• Illegal migrants: mostly unskilled labours inlabour-intensive industries

Thank You

MekongMekong sub-regional
sub-regionalframework:
framework:opportunities
opportunitiesandandchallenges
challenges

55

January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Transcript
As Khun Aki introduced me, I work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, andactually, when I see most of the audience, I think they come from theengineering sector. That is very, very far from the sectors the Ministry ofForeign Affairs is working on.
Anyway, I am pleased to share some of the information and someviews, including comments for the water resource management in Southeast
Asia.
Actually, my presentation will be more on a broader scope, and I willcatch on what happens in the Mekong Subregion. When we talk about water
management, most people talking about Mekong River [know] that it is themain river in Southeast Asia and it crosses through many countries andsome might worry about the situation of the Mekong river but some might
see the opportunities also. So my presentation will be on a broader scope,trying to draw your attention to see the opportunities and also the challenges
that the countries in the Mekong Subregion and the people in this subregion
will face within the next twenty years, because don't forget that we are partof the ASEAN community and what happens in the ASEAN community
will apply to Mekong countries also.
OK, let me show you this map. The Mekong countries comprise
Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and also China, especiallythe southern part of China with the two provinces Guangxi and Yunnansituated along the upper northern Mekong river. I will show you somepotentials that are based on figures and information from someorganizations like ADB. They mention that the future Southeast Asian
population is expected to reach nearly 700 million by 2020, so that is a hugemarket in this area when you see that the potential for the GNI account will
be nearly 2.500 Billion USD in 2020. So that's a big market and that's whyright now we try to promote and influence the intra-trade among ourselvesrather than relying on other regions because we can go together and rely oneach other.
This is a map where you can see the area, the land (?), the whole
population, GDP. This picture is not really up-to-date but we can see thepotential existing in these Mekong subregion countries.
OK, this is what happens in this region right now. I just mentionedthat in ASEAN, right now we are moving to economic integration in what iscalled the ASEAN economic community. As a result, in this ASEAN
economic community, we will encourage, as I mentioned, the intra-tradeand investment between the countries in this region and also raise (?)
reliance on external trade and develop one [value] chain and enhancecompetitiveness. And because of this, this idea, this objective you have seenthat during the last two years when the economy had a problem at the global
level, we have raised the growth impact on our economy (?), better than ten

66

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years ago because of our exports which especially Thailand still relies on as
nearly [fifty percent] of our GDP growth is due to export. So that's why weshould not rely [only] on [certain] countries. And from the economic crisis
in 1997 on, we have tried to diversify markets. The Southeast Asian market
is also one of our targets. And what we see occurring right now is two major
powers in Asia arising, two countries we call emerging powers right now
though one of them we wouldn't consider emerging any more as it is alreadyat the level of the United States in terms of economy, which is China. The
other one is India. So Southeast Asia, particularly the Mekong area has both
powers, India and China [as neighbors]. So we would like [to be] the link
between these to countries so we can act as servers [offering] opportunities
for people who would like to engage in the market.
Just yesterday, I read in the new Economist about the trade from south
China to the Mekong countries to the south, and many of you may have readin Thai newspapers also that China is heading south with trading. Now,
China has already signed an MoU on trade building with Laos. Now it isalready negotiating with Thailand and we are preparing to submit this toparliament for approval of the framework for trade building between China
and Thailand. That is also an opportunity, not only for construction but also
for trade and investment and this can use mechanisms like transportation toincrease trade and investment.
What has happened in the subregion which is very phenomenal, has
never happened before and makes me so busy right now is the emergence ofsubregional frameworks. Many of you may have heard about the Greater
Mekong Subregion which has been established almost twenty years ago
which comprises two provinces of China, Yunnan and Guangxi[Guangzhou], Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. These six
countries' joint objective is to narrow the development gap and to build up
the economy to create income and growth by increased infrastructure
connectivity. Connectivity has been an issue in ASEAN as well since
Thailand pushed better connectivity during the summits of the last two years.
And that's a aim for ASEAN and that's why we put more emphasis onconnectivity because we think that when we have more like hardware
connectivity to each nation, this will connect people and the economy andminds and souls of people to [induce] integration towards a single economy
like in Europe in the future. But right now, we still are at the beginning of
the development of a single economy like Europe.
Apart from GMS, around ten years ago, the Thai government initiated
ACMECS which stands for “Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong
Economic Cooperation Strategy”, which is another framework [notincluding] China. Thailand plays a small role in this. Some of the practicalissues you may have heard [concern] contract farming which means thatsome investors request and plan certain agricultural production in ourneighboring countries. The idea behind is to allow them to sustain
themselves by creating income and building up knowledge how to growproduce on their own. This is almost an inland scenario, because theproduce we invest into contract farming in our neighboring countries will
MekongMekong sub-regional
sub-regionalframework:
framework:opportunities
opportunitiesandandchallenges
challenges

77January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

help poor areas but at the same time, it will come back to Thailand as raw
material for more value-added products like seeds which can be used asanimal feed we can export to the world market. But at present, the contract
farming idea was accused as a victim, well, I may call it victim because wehave measures for contract farming (?). Because when we have projects by
the fund-making parts to repay for the funds and to keep it for what is “Khogann jamm namm” in Thai, some of the produce from our neighboring
countries has been trafficked to Thailand as a reserve for [speculation with]an expected price increase. So that is why this project has been accused as a
victim for the results of the management in our countries (?).
But anyway, there is another project which is very popular. And whatelse is there? I will talk about ACMECS later.
The third one is IMT-GT which stands for Indonesia-MalaysiaThailand-Growth-Triangle between the three countries to the southern sideof Thailand.
BIMSTEC is interesting because it is one of the forums linking
Southeast Asia and South Asia with seven [member] countries, five of themin South Asia, which are India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri-Lanka. And
the other two are Myanmar and Thailand. Here we see the huge potential ofSouth Asia, especially India that can [provide] both raw materials and amarket. This framework has been established nearly ten years ago. We just
had a ministerial meeting. We already had two summits for BIMSTEC and aministerial meeting in [opaque] last week and we are going to have asummit in Myanmar this year.
Concerning ACMECS, as mentioned, and contract farming, we just
had a summit in Phnom Penh. If you can recall that the Thai Prime Minister
visited Phnom Penh in November last year, this was to attend the ACMECS
summit.
The next are the Mekong-Japan and US-Lower Mekong- andMekong-Korea [frameworks]. The Mekong-Japan [framework] wasestablished just two years ago by the initiative of the Japanese government.
So we see why they established the stand-alone frameworks. Usually, Japanand the US contribute quite a lot in the Greater Mekong Subregion
frameworks or GMS through ADB, but now they come into this region[establishing] stand alone forums. So this means something why they comehere and why they [set up] stand alone forums. So this means quite more
geopolitical and economic competition.
For the Mekong-Japan [framework], we had two summits already.
The first one in Tokyo. At that time, the media payed attention because thePrime Minister went there amid the conflict between Thailand andCambodia and the media payed attention not to the summit but to therelation between Thailand and Cambodia. The second [summit] was held in
Hanoi last year. We are going to have this one again back to the [unclear]
ASEAN summit.
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Concerning the US-Lower Mekong [framework], it was just [set up] at thelevel of Foreign Minister meeting when Madam Clinton came to the
ASEAN meeting and launched the idea of an engagement in the Mekong[area], especially in the Lower Mekong [region].
This forum admitted only four countries in the Mekong [area], without
China and Myanmar.
Getting back to the Japan-Mekong [framework], [it includes] fivecountries of ACMECS: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam,
without China, so there is Japan [together] with five countries. While the US-Lower [Mekong framework] includes four countries, without China and
Myanmar.
So you see the significance and the symbolism of each forum, andThailand is member of both.
Concerning Korea, we haven't got a forum yet but we are going tohave it this year because the initiative was endorsed during the ASEAN
Korea Summit last year where Korea approached us to [set up] a senior
official and a foreign ministerial meeting. We see also that Korea plays
quite a great role in this subregion both in terms of infrastructure andsoftware science (?) which means for the customs, for the facilitation ofcross-border trade, something like that.
So all these forums share quite the same objectives that I put on theslide: narrow the development gap, create income and growth, increase
infrastructure connectivity, promote [trans-] border trade and investment.
This picture {slide5} looks quite familiar to some people who workfor the Mekong region because [it depicts] the idea we call the GMS
corridor: to construct roads connecting the six Mekong countries which
ADB launched in 1992 when it looked still like [shown on] this slide {slide6} but this {slide 5} is what we expect for 2015.
This is the North-South Corridor, [depicted by] the red line. This roadcalled R3 East, some of you may have traveled from Chiang Rai to Chiang
Khong, west side (?), then you go on to Kunming by this road, [passing]
Boten and Mohan, some of you may be familiar with this road. It's a one day
trip but one you start at 6 o'clock in the morning and end maybe close to
midnight. That's a one-day trip.
So far, the road is pretty good but there are some things we have toinvest in like rest areas and some activities we have to promote at this road.
There's some missing link over here across the Mekong river which rightnow, Thailand and China are building what we call the Mekong Bridge
Number 4, of course [connecting] Chiang Khong – Hoay Sai in Chiang Rai
and Laos. And if the missing link is finished this road leads down from
China on this route to the sea here and some time [later] maybe to – here,
but we have to talk more about this.
MekongMekong sub-regional
sub-regionalframework:
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challenges

99January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

The other one we call R3 West, which passes Myanmar and causes
still some problems for getting back to this route but some goods from
China also pass this route. But maybe one day we will use the one route to
go up and on the next day the other one to get back. It is not finalized yet for
passage.
But concerning this route, the bridge is expected to be finished within
the next two years so we can go by road.
What will be next? Not only the road but we also plan to build arailway along this route. That's in the plan of GMS.
Now, this is R3, and here we have this one, road number 9 we call theEast-West Economic Corridor from Tak province passing Phitsanulok andthen ends up at Mukdahan, crossing the Mekong to Savannakhet. We havethe bridge over there some of you may have visited. This is the bridge wecall the Second Bridge built by Japan [opaque]. This one is mainly used fortransportation of goods and maybe also for tourism because over here iswhat we call the historic cities of Dompha and Damnan (?) which are very
famous. But we have to promote also more economic activities along thisroute.
The third one is more interesting right now and many people aretalking about this now because this one will [connect to] Dawei port or
Thawai port as we call it in Thai. That's why it is much more importantright now. Dawei port is more important right now because we have to findsome deep sea port that may substitute another deep sea port we have in theeastern part of Thailand. Although the government tries to encourage somedeep sea port along the Andaman in the south of Thailand, the depth of thewater is not equivalent to what Dawei port offers. And we also have tomanage the misunderstanding of the local people so right now, one of thecompanies given the concession to build Dawei port is [opaque] and thegovernment quite supports the construction of Dawei port because there will
be heavy industry [situated] behind the port which can become a substitutefor Maptaphut and also Laem Chabang. And if we can use Dawei port theships don't have to go down to Malacca [Strait] and we see the opportunity
right now that ships can go either to Laem Chabang and [freight carriers]
can then use Thai corridors while on the way to South Asia and Europe,
ships don't have to go down to Malacca. That's the big opportunity.
(OK, I'll skip this one.) The next slide deals about ACMECS. As I
mentioned before, apart from ASEAN connectivity, the idea is to narrow thegaps and to create incomes, for Thailand especially [ important consideringwe] have neighbors with wide development gaps. So some ideas have beenbrought up to build special economic zones or activities along the corridors
or along the borders. [Referring to] Thailand, in the past, we had ideas tobuild up Tak and Chiang Rai special economic zones but right now, what
the government has just approved is to build Tak Economic Zone because

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Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

we [decided to] realize the special economic zone in Tak first as in Chiang
Rai, there are still some problems among the stakeholders.
The idea behind is that if we can [establish] the Chiang Rai Economic
Zone, [this would benefit] Mae Sot [situated at the border to Myanmar]
opposite Myodee (?), Myanmar, and Kho Khom. But Koh Khom is seen as
inviable at the moment because there is still a lack of facilities, especiallyenergy facilities, there is just one gas agent so if you would invest in theeconomic zone without any facilities then this wouldn't be very good foryour future industry. So that's the concern.
But we push forward for the Maesot Economic Zone and we may
realize some proliferation through this zone and use it to promote trade
between Thailand and Myanmar and also to other nations.
OK, that's the idea behind ACMECS I mentioned, also [concerning]
agriculture where we try to apply contract farming.
The Single Tourist Visa is also interesting as we try to promote
tourism in this area and the single visa zone is like Schengen for third
countries. If you apply for a visa, supposed you are French and you have
only a Thai embassy in Paris but no Cambodian embassy, you can apply fora Thai visa with the permission of entering Cambodia. But you [will still]
have to pay a fee at the border because this [agreement] does not deal withfees but just with the representation of third parties in this area and rightnow, it's already implemented between Thailand and Cambodia. And Laosand Vietnam (maybe as the last one) will join in the future. Laos expressed
key interest in joining Thailand and Cambodia in the meantime.
And [concerning] the local currency [regulation] that is already inplace between Thailand and Laos along the borders [allowing you] to use
Kip instead of Baht or Dollars that are also accepted to facilitate trade thenit is clear that the idea behind is to have manageable power grids and also
alternative energies. [We are] talking about security and community also (?).
OK, that's the idea of co-production and contract farming that I
mentioned: you invest in agriculture along the border and import to
Thailand or export to third countries by using what we call GSP.
And this slide [shows the] Mekong-Japan framework I mentioned
before. These are some pictures, first from the summit and the third is fromthe prime minister meeting.
This one deals about water resource management in GMS. Even somecountries like Vietnam come to attend the GMS water management forum
but so far China rejects to discuss this in the GMS forum. But in the
Mekong-Japan forum, Japan proposed two anchors, one concerns
infrastructure, and the other one the “Green Mekong”. In the Green Mekong
initiative, we are talking about reforestation, water management, urban
management and something like this.

MekongMekong sub-regional
sub-regionalframework:
framework:opportunities
opportunitiesandandchallenges
challenges

11
11January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Another idea behind is that the Japanese can come to cooperate to help insomething like dolphin conservation in the Mekong river.
And this slide shows you some pictures related to energy [explaining]
why Thailand still relies on her neighboring countries.
Actually, the idea behind the subregion is to let the people in ourneighborings countries earn their own income, have their jobs but
sometimes [some] have to migrate to Thailand and this are the data thatshow the number of countries' migrants coming to Thailand. That's also asocial problem that we have to tackle, these [are] also challenges that wehave to tackle. Because of the social situation in Thailand [there are fears]
among Thais that labor from neighboring countries would replace them but
we also have to get to tackle the submissions.
OK, that's all I'd like to say but I am happy to answer any issues thatmaybe I spent too little time on. Thank you very much1212

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

Vulnerability assessment of freshwater resourcesin the Mekong River basin
Assoc. Prof. Mukand Singh BabelVULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OFFRESHWATER RESOURCES IN THE
MEKONG RIVER BASIN
Mukand Singh Babel
School of Engineering and Technology,
Asian Institute of Technology
msbabel@ait.ac.th

Vulnerability Assessment ofFreshwater Resourcesin the Mekong River Basin
Mukand S. Babel (msbabel@ait.asia)
Water Engineering and Management
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)Thailand

Outline� Project background� Water issues in
Mekong
� Method development
� Assessment results for
Mekong� Conclusions andrecommendations

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Project background

Vulnerability Assessment of Freshwater
Resources in Asia
UNEP, AIT and Peking University (PKU)
Development of methodological
guidelines
Application in selected trans-boundary
river basins in Asia

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)South Asia: Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna,
Helmand and Indus
South East Asia: Mekong

PKU and Mongolia Water InstituteNortheast Asia: Huanghe, Chang Jiang,
Song-Liao, Tuul and Orkhon

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ICUS Report 53
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Water issues

Mekong river basin� Lifeblood of about 65 million
people� High Pop. Density - arable
land wise� Lao PDR (465/km2)
� Viet Nam (395/km2)
� 75% of the population dependent on agriculture andfisheries� Development coming fast….
� Rapid development
associated with
globalization
� Greater Mekong Subregion Project� Bilateral assistance topower projects

Mekong: Waters at the crossroads

Manwan dam, China

Cruise boat, Thailand

Vulnerability
in inthetheMekongRiver
basin
Vulnerabilityassessment
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resources
MekongRiver
basin

Rice harvesting in Mekong Delta, Viet Nam

Fishing, Tonle Sap, Cambodia

15
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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Water resources availability
� Assessed in 23 hydrological units
� Estimated based on annual runoff factors
� Runoff factors of the sub-basins wereused to generate monthly runoff in each
sub-basin
� Annual per capita water resources
availability > Asian average of
4,900m3/person/yr� Varies in space and time
�>80% of available water generated inmonsoonPer capita water availability

Runoff, MCM/yr.

Runoff: dry vs. wet season
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000

Wet Season

Dry Season

80,00060,00040,00020,000
0
Yunnan Prov.,
PRC

MyanmarLao PDR

ThailandCambodia

Viet Nam

Dry season water availability restricts use in Mun
Chi sub-basin of Thailand and Mekong Delta andCentral highland sub-basins of Viet Nam

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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Runoff: country contribution
Basin area as % of total

Viet Nam, 8 ,Cambodia,20

YunnanProv.,
PRC, 21

Runoff as % of total

Myanmar, 3

Thailand, 23

Lao PDR,
25

Viet Nam,
11

YunnanProv.,
PRC, 21,

Cambodia,
17

Myanmar, 2Thailand, 14

Lao PDR,
35

Irrigation development and use
30,00025,000Lao PDR

20,000Thailand

15,000

Cambodia

10,000Viet Nam

5,000
0
Wet
Dry
AnnualWet
Dry
Annualseason season
season season
Irrigation water demand in Irrigation water demand in2001 (MCM)
2010 (MCM)� Over-dependence on Irrigated Agriculture� Mekong Delta - 40% of the agricultural production
in Viet Nam
� Significant opportunity costs to irrigation
expansion are likely

Domestic and industrial water use� Estimated based on
population data andcriteria for the capita
consumption
�Lao PDR, Thailand,
Cambodia, Vietnam,
Yunnan - Demand per
capita - 64, 115, 64,
67, 64 (litres/day)� Demand will behighest in Thai andViet Nam sub-basins

Vulnerability
in inthetheMekongRiver
basin
Vulnerabilityassessment
assessmentofoffreshwater
freshwaterresources
resources
Mekong
River
basin

UMRB

Nam ouNam NgumNam Loei

Nam CaDinh
Se Bang Hieng

Mun ChiSe DoneTonle Sap
Kratie

Delta

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Sedimentation and the ecosystem� The Mekong River andfloodplain, sustains a richflora and fauna
� Annual sediment load at
Pakse = 187 million tons =½ that at Chiang Saen
� Rate of sedimentation ofTonle Sap = 0.08 mm per
year (slow to silt the lake)� Colossal dams in theupper Mekong will trap
more sediments ->lowering of the fertility of
Mekong waters

Water pollution
� Hydropower stations – danger of release of anoxic
bottom waters from reservoirs; reduction intemperature in water� Industrial pollution – rapid development in Yunnan(e.g. paper mills)
� Urbanization – 2 large urban areas (Vientiane in Lao
PDR, and Phnom Penh in Cambodia) are of concern
� Delta region – acidification, salinity and organic
pollution
� Nam Chi and Nam Mun tributaries (Khorat Plateau) mineralization (deposits of rock salt-halite ) and highorganic matter (intensive agriculture) is a concern

Hydropower Generation
� Rush to exploit huge hydropower
potential (about 8.4% of thefeasible hydropower potential
exploited currently)
� China: power to Guandong
Province/ eastern seaboard anddevelopment of impoverishedSouthwest
� Laos: aspirations to be the“battery” of Southeast Asia� Other Lower Mekong countries
also plan to fully exploit
tributaries
� Planned development may impact
� River flow volume and timing� Water quality deterioration andloss of biodiversity

A section of the controversial Theun-Hinboun
Dam

Nam Ngum dam in Laos18
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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Maintenance of wetlands andfloodplain ecosystems
� Lower reaches of the
Mekong floodplain - flood
will linger longer
� Oxygen concentrations will
decrease during the risingflood - harmful for the fish� Decreased sedimentconcentration andsedimentation may affectadversely productivity of
the wetlands andfloodplain system

Flooding
June 16, 2006
- Rice field under preparation

Flooding in the Mekong
Delta is mainly causedby storm precipitation in
the upstream catchment,
shortly after the onset ofthe summer monsoon

July 9, 2006

Flooding around theTonle Sap Lake in
Cambodia (Jul 2006)

Transboundary water management
� Mekong River Commission(MRC) 1995
� In June 2006, MRC countries
agreed to implement key
1995 goals:
� Acceptable dry seasonflows
� Acceptable flow into Tonle
Sap� Prevention of peak flood
flow greater than normal
levels� China and Myanmar havedeclined to join MRC but holdobserver status.

Vulnerability
in inthetheMekongRiver
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Vulnerabilityassessment
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River
basin

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Key questions

� Is Mekong water resources vulnerable?
� If yes, what contributes to vulnerability?
� How would vulnerability change along
space and time?

Assessment Method

What is vulnerability?
� Characteristics of water
resources system’s
weakness and flaws tomaintain its functionality
in the face ofsocioeconomic andenvironmental changes
Desert water – Israeli
children learn to reuse
early

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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

What contributes to vulnerability?
StressAdaptive
capacity

Cooperation

State of water
resources inmeeting thedemands ofoverallsocioeconomic
development

Capability ofsocieties andecosystems tocope withstressRelated toownership/use
issues and thewillingness tocooperate

Conceptual framework
How would vulnerability change under different conditions?

WR Management

WR Dev & Use

WR for Ecology

A healthy water resource system can only be realized after
establishment of a rational and coordinated relationshipbetween the three fundamental components throughappropriate management schemes

WR baseSteps (DPSIR)
Water
Vulnerability
Index- WR availability- WR development
and use- Ecological wateruse

WR Status- Seasonality- Quality- Transboundary
issues- Etc.

Key issues

Vulnerability
in inthetheMekongRiver
basin
Vulnerabilityassessment
assessmentofoffreshwater
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resources
MekongRiverbasin- Resources stress- Development
pressure- Ecologicalinsecurity- Management
challenge

Comprehensive
Assessment

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Indicators
Improved
Water use sanitation
inefficiency inaccessibility
Conflict
management
capacity

Water
scarcity
Watervariation

Resource
StressManagement
challenge

Water
Ecologicalinsecurity

Pollution

Development
pressures

Exploitation
Safe drinking
water
inaccessibility

Ecosystem
deterioration

Resource stress
Water scarcity parameter� Expressed by per capita
water resource of a regionin comparison to thegenerally agreed minimum
level of per capita water
resources(1,700m3/person)
1700 − R RS s =( R ≤ 1700)

1700

RS s = 0( R > 1700)

� RSS – Water scarcity
parameter� R – Per capita water
resource, m3/person

Water variation parameter� The variation of the water
resources can be
expressed by thecoefficient of variation (CV)of precipitation over thelast 50 years
 RS v = cv / 0.30(cv < 0.30)
 RS v = 1(cv ≥ 0.30)

� CV = 0.30 is taken as thethreshold for vulnerability

Development pressures
Exploitation parameter� Percentage of watersupply to the total water
resources used todemonstrate basin's
inability for a healthy
renewable process
DPe =

WRs
WR

� DPe – Water resources
exploitation parameter� WRs – Total water supply(capacity)� WR – Total water resource

22
22

Safe drinking water
inaccessibility parameter
DPd =

Pd
P

� DPd – Safe drinking water
inaccessibility parameter� Pd – Population without
access to improved water
sources for drinking
� P – total population

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Ecological health
Pollution parameter� WR vulnerability in terms ofpollution assessed - ratio
between total untreatedwastewater discharge andtotal water resources� 15% is used as the threshold

Ecosystem deterioration
parameter
� Loss of vegetation may
change the hydrologicalregime� Land area without vegetation
coverage (forests andwetlands), Ad is taken as theindicatorWW
WR (WW < 0.15 *WR)
 EH p =0.15
 EH p = 1(WW ≥ 0.15 *WR)

EH e =

� EHp – Water pollution
parameter� WW – Total wastewater
discharge (m3)� WR – Total water resource
(m3)

Ad
A

� EHe – Ecosystemdeterioration parameter� Ad – Basin area without
vegetation� A – Total basin area

Management capacity
Water use inefficiency
parameter

Improved sanitation
inaccessibility parameter� GDP value from one cubic
meter of water� Inefficiency of a management
system can be demonstrated
through the gap between
water use efficiency between
a basin and defined world
average� Accessibility to improved
sanitation is used as a typicalparameter to measure themanagement capacity tomeet the livelihood needs
MC s =

WE wm − WE
(WE wm > WE )
MCe =
WE wm

MCe = 0(WE wm ≤ WE )Ps
P

� MCs – Improved sanitation
inaccessibility parameter� Ps – Population without
access to improved sanitation
� P – Total population

� MCe – Water use inefficiency
parameter� WE – GDP value produced
from one cubic meter water
� WEwm – Mean WE ofselected countries

Management capacity
� Conflict management capacity parameter
Category ofinability

Description

Scoring Criteria

Institutional
inability

Transboundary
institutionalarrangement for
coordinated water
resources
management

Solid institutionalarrangement

Loose institutionalarrangement

No institution
existing

Agreement
inability

Writing/signed
policy/agreement forwater resourcesmanagement

concrete/detailed
agreement

General agreement
only

No agreement

Communication
inability

Routinecommunication
mechanism for water
resources
management (annual
conferences etc.)

Communications at
policy and operational
levelsCommunication
only at policy level
or operational level

No communication
mechanism

Implementation
inability

Water resourcesmanagement
cooperation actions

Effective
implementation ofriver basin-wide
projects/programs

With joint
project/program, butpoor management

No joint
project/program

0.0

Vulnerability
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Vulnerabilityassessment
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resources
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River
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0.125

0.25

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Vulnerability Index calculation
Parameter

Resource stress

Development
pressure

EcologicalInsecurity

RSs

RSv

DPs

DPd

EHp

EHe

MCe

Management
challenge
MCs

MCc

Calculated

0.68

0.34

0.65

0.25

0.45

0.52

0.99

0.25

0.4

Weight for parameter

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.5

0.33

0.33

0.33

Weighted

0.34

0.17

0.32

0.12

0.22

0.26

0.33

0.08

0.13

Component total

0.51

0.45

0.48

0.54

Weight for component

0.25

0.25

0.25

0.25

Weighted

0.12

0.11

0.12

0.11

Vulnerability index

0.47

Vulnerability Index interpretation guide
Vulnerability
Index

Interpretation

Low(0.0 - 0.2)

Healthy basin
No serious policy change is needed
Careful examination of the VI structure needed

Moderate(0.2 –0.4)

Basin is generally in a good condition toward realization ofsustainable water resource management
Policy focus - the identified challenges and constraints of theriver basin

High(0.4 – 0.7)

High priority to policy formulation to mitigate the high pressures
A longer term strategic development plan needed

Severe(0.7 – 1.0)

Restoration of the river basin’s water resource management willneed high commitment from both government and generalpublic. It will be a long process for the restoration, and an
integrated plan should be made at basin level with involvementfrom international, national and local level agencies.

Assessment results

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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Water resources base
� No water scarcity(annual per capita
water > 1,700
m3/person/year)� Large averagemonthly
precipitation
variation during
Nov-Mar (CV>1) inthe middle part

Water resource exploitation
� % of water supply(agricultural, domestic
and industrial sectors) to
the total available water
resources� Annual scale < 40%� Dry season > 40% in
Mun Chi, Mekong Delta,
Sekong-Sesan-Srepok
sub-basins

Access to safe drinking water� On a sub-basin scale,there are six sub-basins(population 20% of
MRB) where more than
50% of the population
lacks safe drinking water
access.
� 38% of the population in
the LMRB is without
access to safe drinking
water.

Vulnerability
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Vulnerabilityassessment
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resources
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River
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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Ecosystem deterioration
� LAO PDR� Only 4.5% commerciallyvaluable forest left

� CAMBODIA
� Forest loss 250,000
ha/year (1.4% of total)

� THAILAND
� 13% forest cover;decreased 69% in 30
years� VIETNAM
� 30% forest cover lost in
past 30 years

Water use efficiency
� GDP value produced from one cubic
meter water use in all sub-basins is low(US$ 2.4)
�Less than one third of the world average(US$ 8.6)
�Only 6% of the average of world’s fourlargest economies (US, Japan, Germany
and China)
�Approx. 10% of the average of world’s top
five food producing countries (China, USA,
Mexico, Brazil, France)

Improved sanitation accessibility
� In Lao PDR,
Cambodia andVietnam, 41-72% of
population lacks
access� On a sub-basin scale,the largest number ofpeople (72%) lacking
access to improved
sanitation facilities isin the Nam San subbasin in Lao PDR

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ICUS Report 53
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Conflict management capacity
� Hydro-politically unique transboundary water basin� Enjoys long-standing comprehensive river basin
management organization
� MRC - Agreement on the Cooperation for the
Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basininclude Helsinki rules and UN Convention on the Lawof the Non-navigational Uses of International
Watercourses
� Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) - power trade
agreement, promotion of regional tourism, trade andtransport
� Moderately vulnerable

Vulnerability Index
Sub-basin

RS

DP

ES

MC

VI

Tonle Sap

0.22

0.36

0.24

0.65

0.37

Nam Khan

0.25

0.29

0.20

0.67

0.36

Sekong-Sesan Srepok

0.14

0.41

0.22

0.65

0.35

Kratie

0.15

0.32

0.23

0.71

0.35

Mekong delta

0.23

0.43

0.13

0.59

0.34

Nam Suang

0.21

0.36

0.17

0.62

0.34

Nam San

0.12

0.27

0.25

0.71

0.34

Se Done

0.16

0.26

0.23

0.70

0.34

Nam Kam

0.22

0.26

0.26

0.60

0.33

Nam Nhiep

0.19

0.22

0.24

0.64

0.32

UMRB

0.13

0.24

0.23

0.67

0.32

Nam Ou

0.18

0.28

0.17

0.63

VI: Vulnerability index
RS: Resource stresses
DP: Development pressures
ES: Ecological insecurities
MC: Management challenges

0.31
Low
ModerateHigh

Color guide

SevereVulnerability Index
Sub-basin

RS

DP

ES

MC

VI

Se Bang Hieng

0.21

0.19

0.23

0.63

0.31

Se Bang Fai

0.21

0.19

0.21

0.64

0.31

Nam Ngum

0.18

0.23

0.20

0.60

0.30

Nam Ca Dinh

0.17

0.16

0.24

0.59

0.29

Nam Mae Ing

0.20

0.22

0.20

0.52

0.28

Mun Chi

0.20

0.20

0.26

0.47

0.28

Nam Loie

0.23

0.13

0.24

0.48

0.27

Nam Luang

0.29

0.09

0.25

0.43

0.27

Huai Ban I

0.24

0.13

0.26

0.41

0.26

Nam Mong

0.24

0.10

0.22

0.47

0.26

Nam Songkhram

0.16

0.13

0.23

0.46

0.24

Mekong River Basin

0.15

0.25

0.22

0.60

VI: Vulnerability index
RS: Resource stresses
DP: Development pressures
ES: Ecological insecurities
MC: Management challenges

Vulnerability
in inthetheMekongRiver
basin
Vulnerabilityassessment
assessmentofoffreshwater
freshwaterresources
resources
Mekong
River
basin

0.31
Low
ModerateHigh

Color guide

Severe27
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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Conclusions andRecommendations

Conclusions
� Overall vulnerability index of the MRB is 0.31 good condition toward realization ofsustainable water resources management
� No water shortages or open conflicts
� Challenges - development pressure andpoverty …
� Per capita water availability in the Mun Chi islowest� Tonle Sap, Nam Khan and Sekong-Sesan
Srepok are the most vulnerable sub-basins

Conclusions
� Vulnerability is most related to lack ofmanagement capacity..
�Reflects poor economic situation and low GDP
production from the use of water� To a lesser extent development pressure...
�Reflects lack of access to safe drinking water
�More than 50% of the population lack safe
drinking water access in six sub-basins28
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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Recommendations
� Given the contrasting scenario of rich water
availability in volumetric terms and lack ofwater services provision, challenge is to strikea balance between resources exploitation andmaintenance of ecological health� Resources exploitation through massive
infrastructure development coupled toindustrialization should be envisaged withcaution� Equitable utilization between upstream anddownstream co-riparian countries including
environmental flow requirement holds the key

Report can be downloaded:
www.roap.unep.org/publications/sea_water_report.pdf

Thank you for your kind attention

msbabel@ait.asia

The Mekong basin
CountryorProvince

Area
(km²)

Basin

% of
countryorprovince
YunnanProv.,
PRC

165,000

38

Population

% of
MRB

% of
MRB

total
(10^6)% ofcountryorprovince

21

9.6

25

15

<1

Myanmar24,000

4

3

0.9

2

Lao PDR

202,000

97

25

4.9

94

8

Thailand

184,000

36

23

23.1

37

35

Cambodia

155,000

86

20

9.8

80

15

Viet Nam

65,000

20

8

16.9

22

26

MekongRiver
Basin795,000

100

65.2

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Physiography� Lancang River Basin (China)
� Parts of Qinghai province, Tibet
Autonomous region, Yunnan
province in China
� Northern Highlands� Parts of Yunnan Prov. Lao PDR,
Myanmar and Thailand� Korat-Sakon Plateau
� parts of northern Thailand andsouthern Lao PDR� Eastern Highlands� parts of Lao PDR and Viet Nam
� Southern Uplands (parts of
Cambodia)� Lowlands� parts of Cambodia, Lao PDR and
Viet Nam including the Mekong
Delta and its associated coastal
area

Lancang River Basin� Steep narrow gorges� Elevation from 6,740317m
� Fall ratio reaches 4.5%
� Middle reach – erosionprone� Lower reach – lowaltitude area

ClimateCool/Cold
Hot/DryJan
Feb Mar Apr May
NE Monsoon

Transition

Jun

Jul

Wet
Aug

Sep

Oct

SW Monsoon

Cool/Cold
Nov Dec
NE
Monsoon� UMRB� Annual mean precipitation > 1,000mm
� South - tropical and subtropical monsoons
� North - temperate monsoons
� LMRB� Tropical monsoon (wet and dry)
� Annual mean precipitation 2000–4000mm

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Land Use
2%

Forest land

1%
Grassland, savanna andshrubland
Wetlands

31%
40%

CroplandDrylandUrban and industrial area

17%

9%

� Croplands and forests major land use
� Shifting cultivation ispracticed on hill slopes
and wet rice farming invalley flats
Source: World Resources Institute, 2003

Ecological water requirement
400,000

Flow (km3).

350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Year
Chiang Saen

Luang Prabang

Thak Hek

Pakse

20,00018,000Flow, m3/s .

16,00014,00012,00010,000
8,000
6,000
4,000
2,000

Pakse
Eco. Flow req at Chiang
SaenEco. Flow req at Pakse

Ja
nu
a
Fe ry
br
ua
ry
M
ar
ch
Ap
ril
M
ay
Ju
ne
Ju
Au ly
g
Se ust
pte
m
b
Oc er
t
N obe
ov r
em
De ber
ce
m
be
r

0

Chiang Saen� to some extent arbitrary
� flow volume (1998-2003) at
Chiang Saen and other main
tributaries compared with flow
volume at a downstream
location - Pakse� monthly and yearly wetted
perimeter-discharge
relationship Chiang Saen and
Pakse studied� dry monthly flow requirement
at Pakse is approximately six
times less than the yearly
ecological flow requirement

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Transcript
Thank you very much, Dr. Kawasaki, and a very good afternoon to
everyone. Thanks to Professor Kawasaki again for briefing the audience
about myself. I've worked with the Asian Institute of Technology for the lasttwelve years or so, and before that I was in a consulting company in
Bangkok for about seven or eight years, and before that I was teaching inIndia. So that's the summary of my 25 years of occupational and academic
experience.
I was in Bonn, Germany, last month when Dr. Kawasaki asked me tospeak on this particular symposium and I said OK, I'm coming back and wewill talk about this, what should be the topic of the presentation. And hissuggestion was that something related to Mekong because we'll have avariety of presentations around Mekong.
Slide 1
So I thought of presenting this which is a study which AIT was involved inabout two years ago. I'll give you a brief of this project which we did for
UNEP.
Slide 2So this will be my outline: Go to brief in the water issues which many ofyou might be aware of. We developed a method of assessing thevulnerability of freshwater resources. The whole idea of development of thismethod was that the governments can use it. So the specific motivation was
not to make it too academic. Where you do not have data and you do nothave [unclear] - so the whole idea was to make it as simple as possible. But
it MUST try to cover the aspects of vulnerability. So this was the objective
and it took us about a year to come up with this methodology opaque].
Then I will give you brief results of the assessment of vulnerability in
the Mekong [area] and then some conclusions and recommendations.
Slide 3So, the project background goes like this: This was an initiative of UNEP,
the United Nations Environment Programme, to develop this vulnerability
assessment methodology and [its] application on two continents: Africa andAsia.
Slide 4
For Asia, AIT and Peking University of China were involved heavily with
UNEP in coming up with this. So there were two parts, development ofthese methodological guidelines as I said, and another one is the application
in a trans-boundary river basin. So this was the given task.

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Slide 5
AIT was responsible for South Asia and Southeast Asia. In South Asia, we
looked into three trans-boundary river basins, and in Southeast Asia,
originally, we wanted to look into two but finally, we considered only
Mekong as one place.
Slide 6
In Northeast Asia where Peking University was working with Mongolia
Water Institute, again five to six international river basins were studied.
Slide 7
So going into the Mekong water issues, as also mentioned earlier by Miss
Nitivadee, Mekong is an important river basin especially for the Southeast
Asian region. There are about 60 to 65 million people relying on it. You willknow more about it later on as we go along.
The population as such is not that high considering the whole area.
But looking into the arable land, then, as we can see, the population density
is quite high. Development is coming very fast, we will see that also as wego along. A lot of bilateral projects, a lot of GMS projects which werementioned earlier – a lot of development projects which are taking place andare going to bring a lot of development in the region.
Slide 8As such, water is a common [good] for all of the six countries, but then,these six countries are at different levels of development and and their needs
are different.
Slide 9The issue of water availability, if we look into very simple, so our approach
was to divide this whole basin into 23 sub basins and we applied a very
simple hydrological model.
You see that the annual per capita water availability is much higher
than the Asian average of about 5,000 cubic meters per person per year. And
there is, as in most other river basins, 80 percent of the water is in the
monsoon season of four to five months.
Slide 10 and 11
Our study looked into on monthly basis - these are the detailed results which
I would not cover here – but again, as I said, the majority of water
availability is in the wet season, and dry season issues are very important,especially in some of the river basins like Mun and Chi in Thailand, and the
Mekong delta in Vietnam.
Slide 12This particular slide, probably known to many of you here, shows how thebasin area is distributed among six countries and at the same time put in thecontribution.

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Interesting to note here is that about 25 percent in area, except
baseline [?] area, [lie] in Laos but contribute about 35 percent of the flows.
Slide 13
Irrigation development - food security issues are important. Again, thedemand for irrigation in the dry season is huge and is going to develop
further and there are estimates that this demand will grow by 50 percent
within the next nine or ten years or so - and a lot of over-dependence on
irrigated agriculture. The importance is very well known, the way the riceproduction in the Vietnam delta is contributing to the production and theexports.
Slide 14
Domestic and industrial water use is not that much. We again used a very
simple estimation approach. But some of the basins again in Thailand andVietnam because of the industrial development and the population pressure- the demands are quite high, as far as - not much, but has been reportedwith respect to ecosystems and sedimentation which is very, very importantfor maintaining the flood plains and low-lying column, the wetlands, quite
important, one of them is very well known to us, it's the Tonlesap Lake in
Cambodia.
Slide 15
What will happen with the development with respect to hydro-power whichis going to take place or is taking place in China and this is not too far – is it
going to affect with respect to sedimentation? Because it is very important
to maintain our wetlands and ecosystems.
Slide 16
Water pollution - because of this hydro-power development, impact on
pollution with respect to temperatures, with respect to dissolved oxygen in
the water, industrial pollution is not to that extent but still industries arecoming up, urbanization is taking place at a faster rate. There are estimatesthat 50 percent of the population of the Mekong basin live in urban areas inanother 20, 30 years, so urbanization is very much linked to pollution.
Apart from this we have this mineralization problem, especially in
Mun and Chi river basins and also very high organic matter [levels] becauseof the extensive and intensive agriculture.
Slide 17
Hydro-power generation, as was also mentioned, renewable energy, hydropower renewed interest, [e.g.] in Cambodia, and Laos would like to be thebattery of power, going in a big way, China upstream. These are some of theplans. I don't have figures here to explain but there are a huge number ofhydro-power plants going to come, even in the main stream and in thesetributaries, especially in Laos.

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What is the effect going to be in terms of river run-offs? - The design,
the sediments, how the water quality is going to deteriorate because of
these?
Slide 18
We have already seen these wetlands - I just mentioned the wetlands and the
management of flood plains because of the so called decreased sedimentconcentration and the sedimentation will affect this productivity of thesewetlands.
Slide 19
Flooding is a very, very common issue in the Mekong [area].
Slide 20
Trans-boundary water management - as we are also aware of theestablishment of the MRC. The cooperation among these countries goesback as far as 1957. But then, in 1995, the MRC was established. The wholeidea is for the sustainable development of the water and related resources inthe basin.
Slide 21
So the key issues which we had are like this: are the Mekong water
resources vulnerable? If yes, what contributes to this vulnerability? And
then, how does vulnerability change with space and time? So these were thethree questions.
Slides 22 and 23
So as I mentioned that we developed, this assessment method, this is thedefinition we used from the perspective of vulnerability of freshwater
resources: we read it like characteristics of water resource systems,
weaknesses and flaws to maintain its functionality in the face of socioeconomic and environmental change. That's the basis.
Slide 24
Now we use: What can contribute to vulnerability? Three measures arepoints here. One is the stress, adapting capacity, and the cooperation. Stressrelates to the pressure on the resources and the demand of the overall socioeconomic development.
As far as adaptive capacity is concerned we are looking into two
aspects: the capacity of the society and the capacity of the system itself. And
cooperation is related to ownership, use issues and willingness to cooperate.
Several examples were mentioned by the speaker before me how thecountries can come together and cooperate on. She mentioned both rail
network and road network. But water can play a measurable role to bringthe countries together.

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Slide 25
Our conceptual framework: We had three main components: One is theresource base, the development and use of water resources for sustainable
development, and the water resources required to maintain our ecosystems,
to maintain our ecology, nature, and on top of it we have water resource
management. So that's the basis.
Slide 26
The approach which we followed is based on a value-analytical framework
or VBSIR and this is the way we [unclear] to. This is an indicator-based
approach we followed.
So we started with water resources status, identified what are the main
key issues, this was done as I said on a sub-basin level, we divided thewhole basin into 23 sub-basins. And then we went into vulnerability
comprehensive assessment, into four major components.
Slide 27
And these are the four components: One is looked into resource stress,
second one is on development pressures, third one is on ecologicalinsecurities, and the fourth one is on management challenges. And we had
started, that's what I remember, we started with 50 indicators, we trimmed
them down to about nine, which are listed here. With respect to water space,
there are two indicators, then we have two indicators related to development
pressures – I will give you more details about this in a minute or so.
So these are some of the questions. I will probably not take them up in
detail but resource scarcity and water availability are the two indicators we
use with respect to resource stress. And we used some threshold values forthese two parameters.
We have two indicators or parameters related to development
pressures, one is related to: what is the status of exploitation? And anotherone is related to: what is the safe-drinking-water-inaccessibility?
With respect to ecological health, again, the idea was to use only two
indicators or parameters. One is related to pollution, the other is related toecosystem deterioration level in the sub-basin.
Management capacities - and I said that we used three different
parameters, one related to efficient we are with respect to water use, and we
related it with the respect to how much you produce in terms of GDP per
cubic meter of water, and we compared it with some top food producing
countries and we tried to see how the Mekong [region and its] sub-basinsare performing in terms of efficiency of water use. Another indicator related
to management capacity is the improved sanitation inaccessibility parameter.
How and why we have linked it with respect to management is with respect
to: How much investment is required? Why are we not doing well withrespect to sanitation? The third indicator was related to: how do we manage
our complex?

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And the details here I will skip to the benefit of time.
Slide 33
We developed this VI indicator or Vulnerability Index which considers
these four components, nine parameters, and we can give them weights,
based on some criteria and we can try to assess each of these sub-basins in
how they are performing in four aspects of vulnerability.
Slide 34
The interpretation of these was done like this: So we tried to develop theseparameters and indicators and the index in a way we would reach a level ofzero to one. Between zero and 0.2 we say that the particular basin or subbasin is healthy, no serious policy change is required at a particular time –this may change based on time [frame] – and similarly, the meanings ofthese VI values have been given here. I will quickly take the resources of
Mekong: We found that as such, Mekong is having plentiful water – nowater scarcity.
Slide 35/36
Now, this is at the stage of sub-basin level. But we know: at many places
during a particular time of the year, still we face water shortages.
Then, [there is] a large variation of monthly precipitation, especially during
November and March which is quite expected.
Slide 37
With respect to exploitation, percentage of water supply for agricultural,
domestic and industrial sectors is less than 40 percent on an annual basis.
But during dry season, it is more than 40 percent of what is available,
especially in Mun-Chi river basin, Mekong-Delta and Triple-S Basin in
Vietnam and Cambodia.
Slide 38
Access to safe drinking water: On a sub-basin scale, there are six sub-basins
where more than 50 percent of the population is lacking safe drinking water.
And 38 percent of the population are without access to safe drinking water
as a whole, in the lower Mekong basin.
Slide 39
Ecosystem deterioration: We had a lot of difficulties in assessing this.
Finally, we reached to this [result] that in different countries, let me take theexamples of Vietnam and Thailand, 30 percent of forest cover havedecreased from 69 percent over the last 30 years or so.
Slide 40
GDP value: Interesting results came out of this study: This basin is
producing 2.4 Dollars per cubic meter of water. In comparison, this is only
six percent of the top four largest economies, the US, Japan, Germany andChina. But if you compare it with the five top food producing countries –China, US, Mexico, Brazil and France – then it is about ten percent. So 24

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Dollars per cubic meter of water is produced in these five countries on
average. And the basin is producing only 2.4 [dollars].
Slide 41
Improved sanitation: Mostly support between 41 and 42 percent, only one
sub-basin is lacking more than 70 percent, more than 70 percent of the
population lacking sanitation.
Slide 42
Conflict management: MRC, with respect to the agreement on cooperation
for a sustainable development of the Mekong river basin, based on theHelsinki Rules and the UN convention, we will listen more on this later on.
Slide 43/44
These are the summary results for all 23 sub-basins sub-basins, they arechronologically put with respect to which sub-basins are having highvulnerability.
Slide 45/46
Now to conclude, I have two and a half minutes conclusions, (I amfollowing it – perfectly...): Overall, our conclusion says that thevulnerability index for the whole Lower Mekong river basin is about 0.31.
That means, the basin as a whole is a good condition toward realization ofsustainable water resources management – at this stage. We need somestrategies: What will happen under climate change conditions? What will
happen in the future with the population growing? These results are notshown here.
No water shortages, no open conflicts, challenges are there,
development pressures are there, and poverty is a big issue.
Per capita water availability in the Mun-Chi [basin] is the lowest because
rainfall is low, and Tonlesap, Nam Khan and Triple-S are the mostvulnerable sub-basins out of 23.
Slide 47
Vulnerability we found most related to lack of management capacities and,to a lesser extent, because of development pressures.
Slide 48
Some of our recommendations are that given the contrast scenario of richwater availability in volumetric terms and the lack of water services – wehave a lot of water and still there are 50 to 60 percent of the population nothaving access to safe drinking water [the question is:] Where is the
problem?
The challenge is to strike a balance between resources exploitationand maintenance of ecosystems.

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Resource exploitation through massive infrastructure development
coupled with industrialization should be envisaged with caution.
And equitable utilization between upstream and downstream which isvery, very crucial and difficult to achieve, including environmental flow
requirements.
These reports are available, it's a kind of report. And also for South
Asia where researches are quite interesting, for example in Indus river basin,in India and Pakistan where water use is more than 90 percent [of available
sources] and [the level of] pollution is very high. For those of you [whowant] to read the report which is separate for South Asia, and this is forSoutheast Asia.
Thank you very much. If you would like to reach me: msbabel@ait.asia

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Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

Water resources management in MRC &Thailand’s perspectives on MRC’s role
Mr. Chaiporn Siripornpibul

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN
MRC & THAILAND’S PERSPECTIVES ON
MRC’S ROLE
Chaiporn Siripornpibul
Deputy Director General,
Department of Water Resources,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN
The Mekong River Commission(MRC)
andThailand , country perspective on MRC’s role

Thai National Mekong Committee Secretariat, Department of Water Resources,
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,
29 January 2011

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Contents
I. General Information of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB)
�
�
�
�
�
�

Physical Characteristic
History of Corporation
1995 Agreement
Organizational Structure of MRC
MRC Strategic plan and work programme
MRC’s Budget

II. Thailand, Country perspective

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

1
Mekong Basin Profile

Total

Upper Basin

Lower Basin

Catchment Area (km.2)

795,000

189,000

606,000

Discharge (Million cu.m.)493,590

83,530410,060

THAI NATIONALMEKONG COMMITTEE
SECRETARIAT:
TNMCS
4,800
2,200
Length (km.)
MekongBasin Profile

Area

Discharge

21%

16.5%

Area

Discharge

25%

41.2%

MYANMARArea

Discharge

3%

0.5%
Area

Discharge

23%

14.5%

2,600

Area

Discharge

20%

19.4%

Area

Discharge

25%

8.0%

MYANMAR

Source: Presentation on flow contribution to the Mekong Mainstream (1985-2000-using DSF), The 7th Meeting of the Technical Working Group, 3-5 October 2007

4

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

General information: Lower Mekong Basin, LMB

LMB area 795,000 sq.km.
� Population ~80 million persons
� Water Quantity ~475,000 million cubic
meter/year� Aquatic production 1.5 – 2 million
ton/year : 15% come from cultivation.
� Hydropower (developed)~ 3,500 MW ,Total capacity ~30,000 MW
�

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Mekong River Basin Data in Thailand
2T

Sub-area 2T (Chiang Rai)� basin area
18,859 square km.
� population
1.8 million
� water quantity 6,559 million cubic meter/year
� Sub-area 3T (Nong Khai/ Songkram)
� basin area
46,460 square km.
� population
6.1 million
� water quantity 26,475 million cubic
meter/year
� Sub-area 5T (Mun / Chi)
� basin area
119,177 square km.
� population
16.4 million
� water quantity 30,744 million cubic meter/year
�

3T
5T

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

The History of Cooperation and Development
�1957 (B.E.2500) Mekong Committee for Coordination of Investigations of theLower Mekong Basin
�1975 (B.E.2518) The Joint Declaration of Principles for Utilization of the Water in LMB
�1978 (B.E.2521) The Declaration Concerning the Interim Committee for Coordinationof Investigations of LMB
�1995 (B.E.2538) Mekong River Commission: MRC “ The Cooperation for the
Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin”“THE 1995 MEKONG AGREEMENT”

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Role of MRC
The 1995 Mekong Agreement outlines the legal
mandate for the MRC to be the institutional frameworkof the regional cooperation for sustainable developmentof the Mekong basin.
Due to the strong interdependency of different users
and countries within the Mekong River Basin, the role ofthe MRC as a promoter and coordinator of sustainable
development of the Mekong’s water and relatedresources is extremely important.

Waterperspectives
on on
MRC’s
rolerole
Water resources
resourcesmanagement
managementininMRC
MRC&&Thailand’s
Thailand’s
perspectives
MRC’s

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Agreement on the Cooperation - Reaffirming

Reasonable and equitable sharing of water� Most beneficial use of Mekong River� Poverty reduction
� Ecological Balance� Member state settle annual contributions
�

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Agreement on the Cooperation - Opportunity
�

�

�

�

Water Use from Mekong River without significant
impact on other riparian countries.
Country’s Economic Developmenet with riparian
countries as partnership.
Poverty Reduction at national and regional level.
Conservation of Natural resources and ecologicalsystem for sustainable use.

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Agreement on the Cooperation - Realizing
�

�

�

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44

Development tools for Riparian
country
Information exchange and sharing
Monitoring and Assesment ofRegional Environmental Situation

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53
THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSMRC Rules of Procedures for Utilization of
Water in the Lower Mekong Basin
1. Procedure for Data and Information Exchange andSharing(PDIES)
2. Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation andAgreement(PNPCA)
3. Procedure for Water Use Monitoring(PWUM)
4. Procedures for Maintain Flow on Main Steam(PMFM)
5. Procedures for Water Quality(PWQ)

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSMRC Permanent Bodies
MRC consists of 3 permanent bodies:Council: one member from each participating riparian
State at Ministerial and Cabinet level ( no less than Vice
Minister level)�� Joint Committee: one member from each participating
riparian State at no less than Head of Department level

MRC Secretariat: shall render technical andadministrative service to the Council and the Joint
Committee, and shall be under the supervision of the Joint
Committee
�

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSORGANISATION OF THE MRC
Government of
CAMBODIA

Government of
LAO PDR

Government of
THAILAND

Donor Consultative Group
Donor countries andcooperating institutions

COUNCIL
Members of Ministerial
and Cabinet level

Our Dialogue Partners

JOINT COMMITEE
Members of Head of
Department level or higher

China

MyanmarGovernment of
VIET NAM
National MekongCommittees (NMCs)
Line Agencies

MRC SECRETARIAT
Technical andadministrative arm

Water
perspectives
on on
MRC’s
rolerole
Water resources
resourcesmanagement
managementininMRC
MRC&&Thailand’s
Thailand’s
perspectives
MRC’s

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Organisation of the MRC Secretariat
CEO
OCEO

Environment
Division

Planning
Division

Technical
SupportDivision

Operations
Division

Environment
Programme

Basin
Development Plan

Information andKnowledge
Management
Programme

Agriculture,
Irrigation andForestry
Programme

Finance andAdministration
SectionGEF 2
Programme

International
Cooperation andCommunication Section
Human
Resources
SectionFisheries
Programme
Drought
Management
Programme

Intergrated Capacity
Building Programme

FloodManagement &Mitigation
Programme

Navigation
Programme
Hydropower
Programme
Tourism
Programme

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

The 1995 Agreement
VisionFor the Mekong River Basin“An economically prosperous, Socially just and environmentallysound Mekong River Basin”
For the Mekong River Commission“A world class, financially secure, international river basin organization
serving the Mekong countries to achieve the basin vision”

Mission“To Promote and coordinate sustainable management and development
Of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit andPeople’s well-being by implementing strategic programmes andactivities and providing scientific information and policy advice

1995-2000

Focus on the projects

1999-2003

MRC’s First Strategic Plan

2001-2005

MRC Strategic Plan 2001-2005

2006-2010

MRC Strategic Plan 2006-2010

From Project toProgramme

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSMRC Programmes
CORE Programme(4)for Strategic plan 2001-2005

Basin Development Plan (BDP)
Water Utilization Programme (WUP)
Environment Programme (EP)
Flood Management and Mitigation Programme (FMMP)

Sector Programme(4)

Navigation Programme (NAP)
Fishery Programme (FP)
Agriculture, Irrigation and Forestry Programme (AIFP)Hydropower Programme (HP)

Support Programme

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(2)

Integrated Capacity Building Programme(ICBP)
Decision Support and Information Management Programme

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

From MRC’s Strategic Plan 2001-2005

Programme Approach

GOALS
CORE
Programmes
1

Rule for water Utilization

2

Dynamic Basin Planning
Process

BDP

3

Environmental Management

EP

4

SECTOR
Programmes

SUPPORT
Programmes

WUP
AIFP, WRM
NAP, FP, TP

CBPCapacity Building

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSMRC Strategic Plan for 2006-2010
Goals
Goal 1: To promote, support coordinate, sustainable and propoor development
Goal 2: To enhance effective regional cooperation
Goal 3: To strengthen basin-wide environmental monitoringand impact assessment
Goal 4: To strengthen the Integrated Water Resources
Management capacity and Knowledge Base of the
MRC bodies, NMCs and line agencies andstakeholders

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

MRC’s Strategic Plan 2006-2010

Framework for the Promotion of Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSMRC Integrated Programme/Project
Supporting Regional Cooperation for Sustainable Development of
Water and Related Resources in the Mekong River Basin

Mekong-Integrated Water
Resources management

Tourism

Drought Management

Watershed Management

Sustainable Hydropower

Climate Change and Adaptation

Navigation

Integrated Capacity Building

Flood Management and Mitigation

Information andKnowledge Management

Fisheries

Environment

Agriculture and Irrigation

Basin Development Plan

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

MRC’s Strategic Plan 2006-2010

MRC Programmes (All programmes are equally important)Basin Development Plan, BDP
Environment, EP� Mekong Integrated Water Resources Management, M-IWRM
� Flood Management and Mitigation, FMMP� Information and Knowledge Management, IKMP� Integrated Capacity Building ,ICBP� Drought Management ,DP� Agriculture, Irrigation and Forestry, AIFP� Navigation, NAP
� Initiative on Sustainable Hydropower, ISH
� Fisheries, FP� Tourism, TP��

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Organizational Structure
CAMBODIATHAILANDLAO PDR

VIET NAM

COUNCILNATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEEGroup of Donors
JOINT COMMITTEENATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT

MEKONG RIVER COMMISSION SCRETARIAT (MRCS)

OFFICE OF CEO
Finance and Administration Section

Technical Support Div Planning Division Environment Division Operations DivisionInter’l Cooperation and Communication Sectn
Human Resources Section

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FMMP
IKMP

BDP

M-IWRM

DMP WSMP

EP
CCAI

AIP
FP
NAP
HDP

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Basin Development Plan (BDP)- BDP is an Integrated Water Resources
Management and Development Plan
- Using the principles of Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM)- Aims to achieve a balance between
socio-economic
development
andenvironmental concerns

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Environment Programme (EP)

Environmental Monitoring
Environmental Decision Support
� People and Aquatic Ecosystem
� Environmental Knowledge
� Environmental Flow Management
� Climate Change and Adaptation
Initiative(CCAI)��

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Water Utilization Programme : WUP
Currently, WUP have been changed to M-IWRM(Mekong
Integrated Water Resources Management Project)

The project supporting the Legal Framework mainly on ;
� Procedure for data and Information Exchange andSharing, PDIES� Procedures for Water Uses Monitoring, PWUM
� Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation andAgreement, PNPCA
� Procedures for Maintenance of Flows on the
Mainstream, PMFM
� Procedures for Water Quality, PWQ

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Flood Mitigation and Management Programme :FMMPEstablishment of a Regional Flood Centre� Structural Measures and Flood Proofing� Enhance cooperation in address Tran -boundary
Flood Issues
� Flood Emergency Management
� Land Management
�

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Navigation Programme:NAP

Socio-economic Analysis and Regional
Transport Planning� Legal Framework for Cross-Border
Navigation
� Traffic Safety and Environmental
Sustainability
� Information, Promotion and Coordination
� Institutional development
�

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Agriculture, Irrigation and Forestry: AIFP
I. Watershed Management
�

MRC-GTZ watershed management

II. Irrigation and Agriculture
�

�

50
50

Demonstration of multi-fucntionality of
Paddy fields
Improvement of Irrigation Efficiency on
Paddy field

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Fisheries Programme:FP

Fisheries Ecology , Valuation and
Mitigation
� Fisheries Management and Governance� Aquaculture of indigenous Mekong fish
species�

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Hydropower Programme: HP

Currently, MRC implementing this activity underthe Initiation on Sustainable Hydropower
Project (ISH)
Technical input to PNPCA process
Capacity Building and Knowledge
Base Support
� Regional Planning Support; SEA andMacro economic studies
� Sustainable Assessment and Financing
��THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Integrated Capacity Building Programme: ICBP
�

�
�

�

General IWRM Competencies; Junior Riparian
Professional Programme(JRP)
Organizational Development Competencies
Gender Mainstreaming in Water Resources
Management
Capacity Building Integration and Sustainability

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Information and Knowledge Management Programme (IKMP)- IKMP provides a common information

data base and communication
platform for all MRC programmes.

- Data Exchange and Sharing- etc.

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Drought Management Programme (DMP)�

DMP will address the problem of drought in theLower Mekong Basin; its impacts upon agriculture
and water resources and what management plans
and mitigation policies might be put in place.

�

Possibly merge with the FMMP on next phase

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Tourism Programme (TP)� TP aims to promote tourism within the MekongRiver Basin in a balanced manner, which also
ensures necessary protection of the environment
against adverse effect of tourism.
� Currently, still have no fund and under the discussion in
MRC on integration of the activities relating to the TP
to other existing programmes.

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCS

Financial contribution from riparian countries
Year

ลาว

ไทย

เวียดนาม

(0.18)(0.18)(0.34)(0.30)

2001

195,000

195,000

195,000

195,000

2002

205,000

205,000

209,960

208,200

2003

215,000

215,000

227,972

224,0932003

225,673

225,673

248,132

241,8812004

237,414

237,414

270,309261,4492005

250,328

250,328

294,703282,9732006

264,534

264,534

321,536

306,649

2007:

280,160

280,160

351,053

332,6942009

316,258

316,258

419,236

Summery budget 2009 :Riparian governments
Development Partners
Total

MRC’s BUDGET
I. Contribution fromriparian countries(approx. 5to10 %)II. From Donors(approx.90 to 95%)

392,856
1,444,608 US
21,538,387 US
22,982,995 US

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSTHAILAND,Country Perspective

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective

Lesson learnt from MRC (Regional Water cooperation/Implementation)
�Played too many emphasized on the creation and implementation ofRules/Procedures for utilization of water in the LMB.
�Difficult to implement>>>>>.
� River Basin boundary Participation mean that countries boundary lessparticipation……HOW?
� Without (with little) incentives or with very few win-win situations
� ….etc
�Some kind of win-win situations/activities need to be made…..etc.

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)� There are many Rules/Regulations under MRC Programme, especially rules
for Water Utilization. These regulations hinder cooperation as each NMC
tries to protect its own interest. THUS>>

1.

Cooperation rather than regulation is necessary to drive theimplementation of the MRB (Mekong River Basin).

2.

The cooperation should be created and strengthened into trust andharmony atmosphere towards a win-win solution.

3.

It is suggested that one of many way to enhance cooperation in theregion is to promote joint projects (both structural and non-structuralprojects) aimed to raise the regional economy and well being of people.
THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

4.

The local wisdom and culture should be harmonized with thescientific knowledge in an appropriated way also need to be put into
practice for the promotion of the pro-poor development and foodsecurity matter.

5.

It is envisaged that MRC shall integrate all the programmes together
in order to assess its status. The basin development programmeshould be more focused. Some redundant activities should bedeleted. Sub-basin of Mekong needs to prepared basin plan by
employing IWRM process.

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

6.

Simulation modeling of various scenarios should tell the positive
and negative impacts of each country. Water uses scenario
should cover wet and dry seasons. Water diversion scenario
and scenario with ecological demand could be additional scenariothat should be further studied. Trade-off between development
and environment is to be decided.

7. Institutional arrangement, one benchmark of the IWRM, is to beadapted to changes and should be flexible to cope with local andnational needs.

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

8.

IWRM of the MRB would not be successful unless IWRM in eachmember country is also successful. Experience in institutionalarrangement with particular emphasis on river basin committee could beshare among riparian countries.

9. Technical assistance is required in certain areas such as multiple criteria
analysis, institutional arrangement integrating functional and area
approach, etc.

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

10. MRC should strengthen the public relation programme anddisseminate fruitful results to the public.
11. Member countries should promote the sense of ownership. They
should play more leading role in the management of development
partner/donor’s funding. Local consultants would be useful andlower the expenses.

THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

12. China and Myanmar should be involved in the MRC through GMS witha particular emphasis on navigation, hydropower and flood and droughtmanagement. Common interest is to be identified.
13. Enhancement with the others regional initiatives (e.g. GMS, ACMECS,
ASEAN, etc.) need to be made effectively for the promotion of Win-Winsolution, Trade-off, and also Benefit Sharing concept.

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THAI NATIONAL MEKONG COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT: TNMCSCountry Perspective (cont.)

14. The North and Northeastern people of Thailand expect that MRC
could contribute to mitigate drought and flood in the region.
Moreover, the information regarding the effect of Water Level on
Mekong main stream have been changing abnormally, especially,
as a result of Upper part main stream developing (e.g. China
dams, and other mainstream dams etc.) They could play a more
active role had their expectation be met.

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Transcript
Good afternoon everybody.
Before I start my presentation I'd like to tell you that this picture is a special
thing that I want to present you even not by accident because, you know, forthe past two weeks I was in China when I was informed by my colleague
that I was assigned to give a special lecture in this forum for Minister Suwit
Khunkitti who was supposed to be here today so I am only an alternative.
For the question and answer part, I will ask my colleagues to comeand help.
Slide 1
I will start my presentation on the topic “water resource management in the
Mekong River Commission and Thailand's country perspective on MRC'srole”.
Slide 2
I'll send you into the main topic. The first one is the general function of the
Mekong basin, the other one is Thailand's country perspective.
Slide 3
As you can see here, the Mekong river basin longs from the south of China
down to the main part of Southeast Asia: From China and parts of Myanmar[down to] Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Slide 4
The water way of the Mekong River is about 4,800 km long and covers
almost 800,000 square kilometers of catchment area. There are about
490,000 million cubic meters of discharge. If we look into detail, we canseparate this region into two parts: the Upper Mekong situated in Southern
China and some part of Myanmar, and the main area along the Lower
Mekong in the MRC member countries namely, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam.
The maximum discharge of approximately 41 percent comes from
Laos , 14 percent from Thailand, 19 percent from Cambodia and 8 percent
from Vietnam.
Comparing the Upper and the Lower Mekong, we can see that theUpper Mekong contributes only approximately 16 percent of the total
discharge of the MRB.
Slide 6
Concerning Thailand, the Northern and Northeast regions that are part of the
Mekong river basin have three river [sub] basins: 2T is the Kok and Ing
river basin in the Northern part, 3T – Nongkhai and Songkram in the

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
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northern part of the Northeast and 5T – Mun-Chi is a wetland in theremaining river basin in the northeastern part of Thailand.
Slide 7
From the historical background of cooperation and development in the
Mekong area, [let's shortly] talk about the beginning of the history: From
1957, we had the Mekong Committee for Coordination and Investigation of
the Lower Mekong Basin. After that, we had the Joint Declaration of
Principles for Utilization of Water in the LMB in 1975. This year, there
were many changes in Indochina when some political [systems] changed
with the invasion (4.55) of the communism. Then, in 1978, we had the
Declaration Concerning the Interim Committee for Coordination of
Investigation of the LMB. And finally, we formed the Mekong River
Commission in 1995, thereafter, also in 1995, the Mekong Agreement.
Slide 8The main function of the MRC is the cooperation for sustainable
development in the Mekong river basin. The main role of the MRC is to be
the institutional framework of the regional cooperation for sustainable
development of the Mekong basin. The role of the MRC would be [that of a]promoter and coordinator of sustainable development of Mekong's waterand related resources.
Slide 9We have three main topics in the Agreement on Cooperation. The first one
is the reaffirmation concerning “reasonable and equitable sharing of water,most beneficial use of the Mekong river, poverty reduction (6.24),
ecological balance etc.”.
Slide 10The second is “opportunities”. Here, it means that (6.28) we should havegood objectives for “water use of the Mekong river without significant
impact on other riparian countries”, so this is more a theoretical thing but
impractical, which means that at this time, (6.52) there are still many
processes to follow.
The others are “countries' economic development with riparian
countries in partnership”and “poverty reduction at national and regional
level”. This is really considered one of the most important topic.
The last one is “conservation of natural resources and the ecologicalsystem for sustainable use.”
Slide 11
The third topic deals with “development tools for riparian countries,
information exchange and sharing, monitoring and assessment of theregional environmental situation”.

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Slide 12We have many (6.37) rules for Water utilization under the MRC[regulation]. The first one is the “procedure for data and informationexchange and sharing, PDIES”, and we did this part long time ago.
The second one is “PNPCA”, “procedure for notification, prior consultation
and agreement”.
The third one is “procedure for water use monitoring, PWUM”.
The fourth is “procedures for maintaining flow on the main stream”.
The fifth and last is “procedure for water quality, PWQ” which wasjust approved by the MRC council meeting on 26 Jan 2011. The last country
to agree on this issue was Vietnam – in the last minute of the signing day on
26th.
Slide 13
Concerning the bodies of the MRC, there are three levels. The first one is
the Council level, [at the] ministerial and cabinet level.
The second one is the Joint Committee. In this, the level of therepresentatives from riparian countries (9.33) should be no lesser than thehead of department. For Thailand, this is the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Then we have the MRC Secretariat working in two offices inVientiane and Phnom Penh.
Slide 14
Under the organization of the MRC, we have four member countries and wehave two dialog [partner] countries, China and Myanmar. Now Myanmar
has shown the intention by supposing (10.19) to become a new member andthis is in process. The Department of Water Resources of Thailand has also
tried to have some more cooperation with China’s Ministry of Water
Resources. The last two weeks, I spent there and we started talking about
opportunities to share something like information and also the capacity
building in technical issues. So we should start from there as we cannot go
directly to the point we want.
Slide 16Since 1995, we have an agreement in the MRC setting up two visions, one
is a vision for the Mekong river basin and another one is a vision for the
Mekong River Commission (11.45). Under the visions, in the early years,
we tried a project approach but then we changed from the project base to a
program base as this is more flexible and offers a broader area to beconsidered [for cooperation opportunities].

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Slide 17
We have three programs. The first one is the Core Program, the second is
the Sectoral Program and the third is the Supportive Program during theimplementation period of MRC strategic plan 2001-2005.
For example, the Core Program is the Basin Development Plan,[containing the] Water Utilization Program which was finished in 2008; andwe will continue with another form of the M-IWRM project.(12.47)
We have an Environment Program or EP, and a Flood Management and
Mitigation Program (12.54). This one, FMMP, also was approved for the
new phase from 2011 to 2015 during the last MRC council meeting in Ho
Chi Minh [City].
Concerning the Sectoral Program, we have a navigation program, fisheryprogram, agriculture, irrigation and forestry and hydro-power program. The
Hydro-power program is one of the most serious programs for the MRC
members. If anything happens in any country, (13.37) especially in theupper part of the basin, this may affect the water quantity and water quality
downstream in the lower part [of the basin] (13.45).
Further, concerning the Support Program, we have the ICBP –Integrated Capacity Building Program and Decision Support andInformation Management Program, this last one still was not set up during
the MRC strategic plan 2001-2005.
Slide 18 skipped
Slide 19
This is the last MRC strategic (14.04) plan [for] 2006-2010, we have somegoals like this: to promote, support, and coordinate sustainable and pro-poordevelopment, something like that.
Slide 20
Under the MRC Strategic Plan 2006 – 2010, Promoting Sustainable
Development, we have three main subjects. The first one is “environmental
monitoring and protection”, another one is “providing a regional
cooperation framework”, and the third one is “knowledge management andcapacity development”.
Slide 21
Under the MRC Development Program, we have the five main cross cutting
programs; namely, first: Environment, second: Information and Knowledge
Management, third: Integrated Capacity Building, forth: Climate Change
and Adaptation (13.11) and fifth: Mekong-Integrated Water Resource
Management. We can use these program functions to support many
activities or programs like agriculture and irrigation (13.25), fisheries,
navigation etc.

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Slides 22/23 skipped
Slide 24
To give an example of some plan, like Basin Development, we have theIntegrated Water Resources Management and Development Plan, using theprinciple of integrated water resources management (IWRM); the aim is toachieve a balance between socio-economic development and environmental
concerns. When we talk about water only, it is not good for us (16.11)
because we have to think of many more aspects such as social, economic,
livelihood of people, development too. So we need to think in all directions.
Slide 25
Referring to the Environmental Program, we have many activities formonitoring, the decision support system, environmental knowledge, flow
management and CCAI. The last one was also approved by the last MRC
Council meeting.
Slide 26
Water Utilization Program: Finally (16.54), the WUP has been changed to
M-IWRM
Slide 27
For the Flood Mitigation and Management Program, we established a
Regional Flood Centre; we have structural measures and flood proofing, andenhance cooperation to address trans-boundary flood issues, flood
emergency management and land management, too.
Slide 28
Navigation is also one of the important programs. The challenge is how todeal with China because China has many navigation activities to send goods
to Lower Mekong countries (18.05). If we use this issue carefully, I think
we can get benefits for the MRC or the riparian countries downstream interms of cooperation with China.
Slide 29
For the Agriculture, Irrigation and Forestry [programs], we need watershedmanagement; we have built irrigation and agriculture [projects] for the“demonstration of the multi-functionality of the paddy fields”, and the“Improvement of irrigation efficiency on paddy fields”, because this area
produces some of the best rice varieties for global consumption.
Slide 30
Concerning fisheries which are important for Thailand as well as in general,
we can say water is life. The Mekong river flows through several riparian
countries, so fishery (19.28) is one of the important issue to be considered.
We need to take good care of the ecology, procuring valuation andmitigation. Sometimes when there is big flood or drought with related[issues], fisheries are affected.

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Slide 31
Coming to hydro-power: this issue, as I said before, is the most critical topic
in this region, because whenever any country needs to construct dams, these
may cause effects to countries downstream. So we really need to clear thedetails about procedures and the [required] dialog. The dialog about theagenda should be held at all levels. And under the MRC, [here] we have one
really important [procedure] called PNPCA: the Procedures for Notification,
Prior Consultation and Agreement.
When Laos wants to construct a sustainable hydropower project, all of
the four countries have to organize public hearings or at least public
consultations. In Thailand, we organized the first public hearing in Chiang
Khong District. It looked very serious for Thai people [living] along the
Mekong river, so it is really a good forum for local people to voice theircomments or questions. These comments or questions, we will keep on
record and report to the Lao government through the MRC.
Another public hearing is in process and we will organize another in
Nakhon Phanom.
Vietnam has done [her hearings] in the lower part of the delta, theyalso got a really strong response from their people but we still need morefrom Cambodia and Laos. You can see this process (22.35). I think when
any country wants to construct some structure around the mainstream oreven at a tributary they should consider this issue very carefully.
So in this [respect], we have to assess both sustainability and financing
because all riparian countries are not rich, so a very big project demanding a
lot of budget or financing needs a good source of funding from othercountries, from rich countries or even some big companies.
(I will skip some slides because I have only two minutes left...)Slide 33-35
We have the Information and Knowledge Management Program, and theDrought Management Program, now we combine flood and drought[programs] for a more effective management [including] also the Tourism
Program. This is one of the most important programs for our riparian
countries.
(I skip this one.)
Slide 37/38
Now [looking at the] Thai perspective: We have learned a lot from the past.
We think that in the past we payed too much attention on the evaluation andimplementation of rules and procedures for the utilization of the water in theLower Mekong Basin. We should not emphasize only on water. We have tothink about the ecology and other aspects of sustainable development andsometimes we need to build a Win-Win policy in the discussion.

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Slide 39
Other rules and regulations under the MRC Program, especially rules forwater utilization, [may even] hinder cooperation as each national member
country tries to protect their own interest so this is a big point. We shouldhave more [focus] on cooperation than on regulation to drive theimplementation of the MRC.
We also wish to [highlight the] suggestion that one of many ways toenhance cooperation in the region is to promote joint projects because underjoint projects or joint activities, we can learn [to know] each other [better]
and we can exchange information.
Slide 40
We join through local wisdom and culture which should also be harmonizedwith scientific knowledge in an appropriate way.
Slide 41
We did some simulation modeling for various scenarios, both wet and dry
seasons.
The institutional arrangement which is one benchmark of IWRM
should be adapted [accordingly].
Slide 42
IWRM in the MRB will not be successful unless IWRM in each member
country is [implemented] successfully. The last bullet of this slide, number
nine: technical assistance is required in certain areas such as multiple
criteria analysis, institutional arrangement integrating functional and area
approach.
Slide 43
MRC should strengthen the public relations program and disseminate
fruitful results to the public.
Member countries should promote the sense of ownership. I mean theownership of the MRC map of each country.
Slide 44
China and Myanmar should be involved in the MRC through another forum
like GMS, and enhanced by other regional activities such as ACMECS,
ASEAN etc. In recent years, we are not working alone any more because
there are other agencies at international or global level which can look afterus.
Slide 45
So for the wellbeing of the Mekong River Basin, especially for the MRC
countries, we should share our information and instill more transparency at
all levels. In this case, also [involving] China and Myanmar (28.50).

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on on
MRC’s
rolerole
Water resources
resourcesmanagement
managementininMRC
MRC&&Thailand’s
Thailand’s
perspectives
MRC’s

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Now, we have a better situation concerning the [relations] of[member] countries to the Chinese government. As in the past, China did
not release any information related to the flows to the MRC. Last year, we
received information on the flow in the dry season for the first time. So weshould celebrate and we hope that we can progress further with this.
Concerning flooding, in the past, people in Thailand expected that the
MRC could contribute to mitigating drought and flood in the region,[especially by more] information regarding the effects of abnormallychanging water levels in the Mekong mainstream as a [possible] result of
the upper main stream development.
In this respect, the MRC has [set up] a monitoring system and we also
release information to the public through our website. You can search thewebsite of the MRC for this. We have information on water levels in dailycharge which [at the moment] shows that now we have a lower water levelin Luang Prabang in Laos but in Chiang Saen of Thailand the water level isstill in good condition. Therefore, if any country proposes building a dam in
its territory, we need to consider it on the basis of sustainable development.
Thank you very much for your attention64
64

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

Integrating provincial/community water planningwith provincial development planby area based information system
Prof. Sucharit Koontanakulvong

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53

INTEGRATING PROVINCIAL/COMMUNITY
WATER PLANNING WITH PROVINCIAL
DEVELOPMENT PLAN BY AREA BASEDINFORMATION SYSTEM
Sucharit Koontanakulvong
Faculty of Engineering
Chulalongkorn University
Sucharit.K@chula.ac.th

Integrating Provincial/
Community Water Planning with
Provincial Development Planby area based information system
Sucharit Koontanakulvong
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University“Forefront and Challenging of
Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia”
Bangkok, Thailand, Jan 29, 11

Abstract
RNUS Seminar 2011 on“Forefront and Challenging of Water Resources Managementin Southeast Asia”
Bangkok, Thailand, January 29, 2011
On the topic ofIntegrating Provincial/Community Water Planning with Provincial Development Plan by area
based information system
bySucharit Koontanakulvong
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand.
Abstract
Up to now, water resources planning mainly use the concept of IWRM process tointegrate various components related to water planning and management, e.g., river basin
management project etc. However, the area socio- economical development planning is usuallybased on administrative unit, e.g., country, region, province, district and the planning willcomprise of physical, economic, social and environmental aspects. The integration of bothwater basin and administrative unit then becomes an issue for planners to combine both area
aspect and element aspect into smooth planning process.
Thailand had classified her country area into 25 basin area and in the last ten years, thestudy of basin master plan had been conducted to investigate the physical conditions, water
demand and supply, potential water development projects in the basin in the last ten years. In
2008, the Provincial Development Plan Act had been enacted and forced each Province toconduct the development plan

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January 2011,Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract
within her province or group of provinces as a rolling basis of next 4 years to control
budget spending in the province. This master plan has to pass through community hearing
process before it can be approved. The intention of this provincial development is to link thenational plan down to provincial group or provincial plan and also to community plan. The
planning element will include economical, social, resources, security and administrative works.
Water planning is then included in the resources aspects (water supply, environment (water
quality), disaster (flood and drought)).
In our research project, the development of provincial water planning system aimed todevelop area based information system and tools to help province/community integrating waterplanning with provincial/community socio-economical development plan . The project comprisedof three elements, i.e., research, information system development and dissemination. The
research work is to survey water use, to conduct water supply survey and to estimate water
demand due to the socio-economical development plan and find appropriate measures and plan
to cope with provincial development objective and goals of both provincial and community level.
The system comprised of necessary planning information in the mapping system to be used forplanning, discussion and public hearings. The dissemination included local university staff
training, provincial staff training with series of workshops to build up the core team for provincial
planning execution. The project also included the survey of community plan and local staff
training in order to be able to use the system developed to incorporate with provincial waterplan.
The presentation will describe how the project and information system were developedand showed samples of dissemination process and content used for capacity building of bothprovincial and level. Lessons learned from the project execution of both provincial andcommunity level are summarized as knowledge sharing which will hopefully be beneficial toother southeast asia countries.

Presentation items• Background information• Laws concerned• Research project concept• Implementations• Lessons learned

Salawin Basin Group

Mae Nam Klong

Surfacewater
Groundwater

Bang Pakong

Mae Klong

East Coast - Gulf
PrachuapkhiriKhan Coast
Chao Phraya-Tha Chin

Peninsula- West CoastPeninsula - East Coast

Unit : mcm /year

Water use by sources in each region(2003)

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ICUS Report 53
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Water use in 1995-2003

Thai Water Balanceหน่ วย : ล้ านลบ.ม./ปี

Water Use in Thailand(33.67%)(25.25%)(19.13%)(57.44%)(64.31%)(5.48%)(3.41%)(6.24%)(4.21%)(67.57%)(8.13%)(5.17%)

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
information system water planning with provincial development plan byarea based information system

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January 2011,Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Water Stock*

Remarks : data only from large scaled reservoir

Abstraction/Potential Water (%)

Remarks:

data from large scaled reservoir only

68
68

Storage

DK

40.1
0.1

71.4

22.67

163.75

11.76

MCM

Max.Storage
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

NPL
RESERVOIR NAME

KY

Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Laws & Water Resources Planning• National Water Resources Committee• National Water Vision (2000)• Major Basin Plan Study(list of proposed WR development projects)• Shift from supply mgt to demand mgt(GW fee, water supply fee review, 3 R concept etc.)• Provincial Development Plan Act (2008)

Laws concerned• A.66 community has a right toconserve and rehabitate culture,
local knowledge and natural
resources and environment.

• A.78 support province to haveplan and development budget for
benefits of people in the area.

Constitution• A2 7 / 1 propose
development directions
toGovernorandProvincial Council to
Provincial Development
Plan consideration• A 27/2 recommend toGovernor, local council
and concerned agencies
about public services
and development of
economic, social, qualityof life and environment

CommunityProvinceCouncil Act

CentralAdministration• Central Adm. Act (1991, modified
Act2007) A52 Province can ask forbudgetaccordingtotheprocedure set by the Act.

• A 53/1 Province must set plan accordance with
National Development Plan and local demand. To
set the plan, Governor must set the meeting withconcerned agencies, local councils, civil society
and private sectors.

Other ACts
• Local Promotion Act• Local Administration Act

Background of the provincial development plan
• Provincial Integrated Management Concept

Provincial Integrated Management

Integration•Strategies,
Programme,
Projects•Capacities andresources within
the provincial

CommonDirectionand goals•
Collaborative
working withall sectors

Area based
preventive/
problem solving
and development•Efficient,•Responsive to people
needs with maximum
benefit,•Clear responsibility to
the activity outputs.

14

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
information system water planning with provincial development plan byarea based information system

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January 2011,Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Concept Framework for Provincial Development Plan
• Resources Integration within the Province towards the same goals.

Budget.

Govn policy
Provincial Strategies

Provincial budget

Other govn. budget
Business sector

Provincial
Development Plan

Business

Budget from Functions
Agenda budget

Community sector / civil society

Local Administration

Provincial Program and Budget System responsive to government policies, provincial strategies and local needs
for sustainable provincial development

15

Nature of problem• Water Management Issue(multidiscipline/multilevel/space/time)• Multidiscipline( Natural resources, Economics, environment, social )• Decentralized Issue(authority boundary, decision process,stakeholder involvement, resources available)• New Technology(ICT, database, mapping, integration)

Issues to be considered• National Planning and Water resources availability• Water resources management in macro and microscale• Technology development and its role especially
IT/GIS/MIS technology• Capacity building• Decision system and conflict management7070

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ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Research concept• Objectives- Research : planning process, information needed- Infor : integration, ICT application- Dissem : university network, provincial,community capacity building• Scope- Three years- In six provinces (Rayong, Nakornpathom,Samutsonkran, Nakornsrithammarat, Patalung,Nan)

In the past, Provincial Develop
Plan made by Provincial
Strategy Unit may be notincluded water plan.
In the improvement ofplanning process, Provincial
Develop Plan includes waterplans (as shown in the Figure).
Community
Water
Plan
becomes an important part in
the Provincial Water Planbecause local area can drive
Provincial Strategy.
Community Water Plan is set
from
the
basic
local
information area based anduseful for the national budget
formulation and the plan will
be continuously developed.

Community Plan is linked with Provincial Development Plan

Water Resources System Research Unit, Department of Water Resources Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Provincial Development Objectives in each aspects• Develop the province in various aspects in comprehensive and consistent ways
Imported raw materials / co business co / outside workers

Agriculture
Industry
TouristInternal trade

Other
provinces

Transportation(Logistics)

Export / rural people to use
Consumers / consumer
products/ services fromexternal provinces

EconomyGross product of the province (GPP)

Security
and
SafetyConsumers

Industry

Supply - Demand

Tourism

Workers

Trade within

Land

Water

Crime
Drugs
security

workers to external
provinces

Society
Gross happiness of the people (GPH)
SafetyKnowledge

Income /Occupation

Healthy.&
Publicservicegoodemotions satisfaction

Publicsectormanagement

Resources and Environment

Fire
Naturaldisasters

Agriculture

Transportation(Logistics)

EnergyForestPublic utilities

Waste
Management

Social and community services
Education

Medical andpublic healthArts, culture,religionSports andrecreation
20

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
information system water planning with provincial development plan byarea based information system

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Research�Link�
Research Link

2�Concept
2 Concept
Water�Information�System
Water Information System(�for�Warning/�Emergency/�Planning�operation)( for Warning/ Emergency/ Planning operation)
National

I
P

W
E

Province

I
P

W
E

Community

I
P

W
E

Provincial�Operation�Center
Provincial Operation Center(POC)
Area�based�Area-based
Water�Management�System
Water Management System
Policy�decision
Policydecision�- Governor�of�
Governor ofa�province
a province�- Board�of�water�
Board of watercommittee
REGIONAL�USERSREGIONAL USERSWATER�MANAGEMENTWATER MANAGEMENT
�Irrigation�Dept.
-Irrigation Dept.
�Water�Resources�Dept.
-Water Resources Dept.
WATER�SERVICEWATER SERVICE
�- Public�Water�Authority
Public Water Authority

�- EastwaterCommunity�USERS
Community USERS
�- Local�Authorities
Local Authorities
�- FARMERS
�- INDUDTRIAL�ESTATEINDUDTRIAL ESTATE

Database
Server

1.��INPUT/
UPDATE DATA
1. INPUT/ UPDATE�DATA
2.��DATA�CHECKING
2. DATA CHECKING

Allocated�Water
Allocated
Water

MONITORING�/�REPORTING
MONITORING/ REPORTING

POLICY�USER
POLICY USER

Government�and�Local�
Government and Local
Agencies•��������”®
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∙∆“ªƒƒ‡∏‘ Ã‘ ‘ ƒ¥¡ �”√��©
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•¢ƒ¬‚ƒ®
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‘ ∫œÃ‘ Õ¢ƒƒ¬•���•����⁄∂�������•∫÷¬œÃ‘ Õ¢ƒƒ¬Web�
Web
ServerTechnical�Support
Technical Support- Chulalongkorn�University
Chulalongkorn University

Information
General�Users
General Users

SYSTEM�IMPLEMENTINGSYSTEM IMPLEMENTING
Implementing�feedback
Implementing feedback

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Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Tools used
• GIS/MIS information (web based if possible)• Mapping training from field survey• Workshops• Governor’s working group setup• Water Policy forum• Network meetings

Implementations
•
•
•
•
•

Web based system setup
Network meetings
Governor working group meeting
Community working group meeting
Water Forum meeting

Website Sample

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
information system water planning with provincial development plan byarea based information system

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January 2011,Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Warning Sampleตัวอย่ าง การแสดงผลแผนที
Map Sample

Domestic water situation

Agricultural water situation

Industrial water situation

Water Resources System Research Unit, Department of Water Resources Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

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Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Rainfall data provisionhourly & 7 Day Rainfall

30

Meeting and workshop
� Meeting with Governor

�

Meeting with network university-2

� Meeting with network university-1

� Meeting with network university -3)

Data Meetingwith Local Administrative Authority

Collected data were presented andverified with local communities in small
group meetings.

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
information system water planning with provincial development plan byarea based information system

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January 2011,Bangkok, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Capacity building-1• Local lecturer

PWA

Irrigation Unit

Local Admin

Capacity Building-2
Local communities
Meeting results :- Cooperation in updating data
and testing system- Cooperation in training local
authority

Workshop with community
Community Plan: show the development of water supply
project, channel excavation

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Forefront and Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53

Water forum 23-03-10 (RID)

Water forum 24-03-10 (DWR)

Lessons learned• Mapping technology help planning process
for better planning and prevent duplication• Planningworkshops
bring
more
understanding and collaboration amongusers and functions• Integration of information for multilevel
development planning is necessary, thoughmore effort is needed.
• Capacity building is a key success factor.

Integrating provincial/community water planning with provincial development plan byIntegratingarea based provincial/community
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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Acknowledgement
Thanks to• participating administrative units (in Rayong, Nakorn
Pathom, Samutsongkam, Nokornsrithamarat, Pattalung
Province)• Royal Irrigation Department officers• Provincial Water Authority officers• Rayong Provincial Authority• etc.
Research funded by The Thailand Research Fundunder the research unit funded by Chulalongkorn University

References-1• สํา นั ก งานกองทุ น สนั บ สนุ น การวิ จ ัย , 2549, โครงการพัฒ นาระบบ
สารสนเทศเพื อจัด การทรัพ ยากรนํ าเชิ ง พื นที พร้ อ มระบบสนั บ สนุ น การตั ดสิ นใจและกระบวนการทางสั งคมในบริ เวณพื นทีจั งหวั ดระยอง จั ดทําโดย
รศ.ดร. สุจริ ต คูณธนกุ ลวงศ์, และคณะ, จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิ ทยาลั ย• สุจริ ต คูณธนกุลวงศ์ 2553 สภาพภูมิ อากาศเปลี ยนแปลงของไทยและ
ผลกระทบด้านนํา
• (ISBN 978-616-551-249-7) หนังสือวิ ชาการ ตุลาคม
• สภาพั ฒนาเศรษฐกิ จและสังคมแห่ งชาติ (2553) รายงานการจัดทําบั ญชีประชาชาติ ที คิ ดรวมต้ น ทุ น ด้ า นทรัพ ยากรธรรมชาติ แ ละสิ งแวดล้ อ มรายงานฉบั บสมบูรณ์

References-2•

Danai Jampanil, Kwanchai Paekhoksoong, Sucharit Koontanakulvong,
Improvement of Community Water Planning by using area-based
Information System, ssms 2010, Kochi, Mar 2010.
• Sucharit KOONTANAKULVONG , Chaiyuth SUKHSRI and Wongwatana
SOMBUNYING, Environmental and Resources Management (RegionalCommunity), SSMS 2008, Kochi, March 2008.
• Sucharit Koontanakulvong, Chaiyuth Sukhsri, Sak Sakulthai, ENHANCINGCOMMUNITY CAPACITY IN WATER MANAGEMENT VIA WEB-BASEDDECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM , SSM 2009, Kochi, MAR 2009
• Sucharit Koontanakulvong, Chokchai Suthidhummajit, The proposed
Web based Provincial Water Management System In Thailand, SSMS
2009, Kochi, Mar 2009.
• Sucharit Koontanakulvong, Chokchai Suthidhummajit, Integrating
Provincial Water Planning into Provincial Development Plan, SSMS 2010,
Kochi, Mar 1010.

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CURRICULUM VITAE
Name:
Date of Birth:
Nationality:
Position Appointment :Education :
1978

-

1980

-

1983

-

SUCHARIT KOONTANAKULVONG
December 6, 1955
Thai
Associate Professor at Faculty of Engineering
Chulalongkorn University
Executive Director of Technology Promotion (Thai-Japan)
Association
TISI’s Technical Committee No. 898 member (ISO9000)
Water Resources System Research Unit Head
Bachelor Degree in Chemical Engineering, Facultyof Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Master Degree in Agricultural Engineering (in Civil
Engineering), Faculty of Agriculture,Kyoto
University, Kyoto, Japan.
Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Engineering (in Civil
Engineering), Lab. of Water Use Engineering, Faculty ofAgriculture, Kyoto University, Japan.

CURRICULUM VITAE
Employment :1979-1980-

Special Lecturer of Shiga Agricultural College,
Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
Research Fellow at Water Use Eng. Lab., Departmentof Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture,
Kyoto University.
Lecturer at Department Of Civil Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
Assistant Professor at Department of Civil Engineering, CU
Deputy Director of Chula Unisearch(Administration/ Business Development)
Associate Professor at Department of Water Resources
Engineering, Chulalongkorn University
EIT’s ISO9000 Committee Chairman
Associate Dean

Apr.-Dec 1983 1984- 1986-

1986- 1996
1989-1995-

1996- Present 1996-1998
2000-2006-

CURRICULUM VITAE
Major experiences in Research
1990-1993
1994

-

1995

-

1996-1997

-

1999

-

2000-2002-

2003- 2004-

2004-2005-

2007-2008-

Province
2007

-

2007

-

Joint Research on Siltation Mechanism of Chao Phraya River
Mouth with Osaka University funded by Japanese Nikkeiren
and Chulalongkorn University
Research on Numerical Modelling of Current-wave
Field at River Mouth funded by Asahi Glass Foundation
Research on Wave Hindcasting Methods for Lower
Siam Gulf funded by Faculty Research Fund
Kamphaengphet Groundwater Rehabitation Study funded by
Department of Public Works
Research on The possibility of Kra Channel
Dredging – Physical Aspect - funded by Royal Thai government
Groundwater Potential and Demand Study for GW
Management in the Northern Part of Lower Central
Plain funded by the Thailand Research Fund
Groundwater Monitoring in the north of Lower Central Plainand the development of Groundwater Data Linkage System
The Assessment of Pasak Jolasid Dam Project (Effectiveness ofSurface Water Management and Impacts on Groundwater)
Project Manager and Researcher, Area-based Water
Resources Management System Development Along With
Decision Support System and Social Process in Rayong
Area, funded by Thai Research Fund.
Consultant, National Trans-boundary Flood Issues Expert for
Thailand, Mekong River Commission.
An Evaluation of Flood Management and Alleviation Project in
the Central Region of Thailand during 2006, funded by Royal Irrigation
Department.

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CURRICULUMCURRICULUM VITAE
VITAE
Major experiences in Research
2007
-

80
80

2007-2008-

2007-2009-2008-2009-2008-2009-2008-2009-2009-2010

-

2010

-

2010-2011-

The Risk Assessment of the Contamination in Groundwater
Resource in Klangdong District Pakchong, Nakornrachasima
Province, funded by Department of Groundwater Resource.
Assessment of Impacts on Enforcement of Laws on
Establishment of Groundwater Conservation Fees in the Critical
Zone of Bangkok Metropolis
Impact of Global Climate Change on Monthly Precipitation andStream Flow in Thailand, Water Management in the Eastern
RegionAnalysis of Land Subsidence in Bangkok Metropolitan and its
Vicinity Area
The Master Plan for Groundwater Resources and Environment
Development and Conservation (2009 – 2012)
Water Resources Management Scheme by Implementing an
Area-based Water Resources Information System together withSocial Participatory Process in Rayong Province
Research Center on Web based Provincial Water Planning
System for Water Research Security
Impact of Climate Change on Irrigation System and Adaptation
Measures
Comparative Studies on Development Strategies to adapt for
the Nature Disasters due to Climatic Change in Thailand

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Transcript
Thank you very much. It is a pleasure for me to present our research projectin this seminar.
Slide 4
I think that my presentation will have two parts, i.e., the first part is aboutwater resource planning in Thailand, and the second part is related to theprovincial and also community based water planning. So we developed theprocess for better planning by some research project at the moment. So we
try to inform you what we did.
Slide 5So this is the data of water use in the year 2003. We had done a survey togather water use information. We used the wording of “water use” for our
definition when we tried to find out the ultimate use of water at user base.
Normally in Thailand, we are talking only about water supply. So water use,
we consider mainly from the demand side. So we had to gather data fromthe operation side and made a survey of the demand side about how muchwater is used, even from the provincial water works, the unit we kept that inand the exact numbers for each area and each user type in the year 2003. We
also gathered the distribution [data] and tried to divide throughout thecountry [based] on how much water was used at that time and also fromwhat sources. So I think you may see the main water use in Thailand is in
the Chaophraya Basin and also in the Mun and Chi Basins which are themain water users of Thailand. So this is the general data that we analyzed in
the year 2003.
Slide 6After that [we estimated] also the trend of the water use and we can see thatduring 1995 to 2003, there was a growth. So in the previous time, normally,in Thailand water use grew on average about by two to three percent. But
when the economy grows faster it can be up to five percent. So the main
player now is irrigation in the non irrigation area and the industrial use also
grows quite fast with about 19 percent and 11 percent respectively which isabove the average of the country. So these are the newcomers. Normally,
the main water use has been for irrigation in [traditional] irrigation areas but
now these two users are coming up with a very high speed. So these aresome remarks we mentioned in 2003.
I already mentioned that this study may not be directly linked to the
MRC but some experiences here can be applied to the water planning in the
MRC in the future.
Slide 7
Last year, for the first time we made a so called water account for Thailand
which linked water supply and water use in the years 2005, in 2006 and2007. We gathered information from various organizations, analyzed andestimated the amounts of water used. From the data, you can see that the
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main water user is the irrigation sector, i.e., 20,000 million cubic meters per
year are used for irrigation in [established] irrigation areas, and 5,000 cubic
meters are used in the non irrigation area. The increase of water use inirrigation areas is attributed to the rise of paddies. Farmers now are growing
more in the non irrigation areas. So the use of water in non irrigation areas
grew quite fast.
The next part is about the domestic use which comprises the use
within municipal areas, outside the municipal areas, after that, we cansummarize the total.
So we have these use data, now we link them with the supply. The
supply includes large scale, medium scale and small scale and also
groundwater. So we are trying to link this and make a water balance. And
we can see that the water inflow into the big dams is 39 billion [cubic
meters] annually so when we look at the release, it is about 29,000 million
annually so there is some difference, this is called the efficiency of
conveyance.
So this is tier one or called supply one in the structure. So we go down
into the irrigation area, this is tier 2. And after the irrigation project, we go
down to the service providers like municipal water works.
So this is the way that we divided the supply into three tiers of use andbalanced this again and again within the 25 sub-basins. Now we tried to[balance the] distribution of supply and use in each province. So we made awater balance for each province too.
Slide 8So with this data, we concluded that in the year 2005, 2006 and 2007 whichwere a drought year, a flood year and a normal year respectively– from thisdata you can notice that in Thailand the water yield [greatly] depends on therainy season in each year.
And [here] you can see the domestic use. The domestic use grows say
100 million to 200 million [cubic meters] each year.
While this is [the figure] for industry: industry [demand] also grows by
about one - to 200 million cubic meters per year.
This shows the irrigation, agricultural use: this will fluctuate with the wateryear.
And this stands for the environmental [use] which means thedownstream release through Bang Phrakong and the Chaophraya rivermouths. This depends on the rainy season of each year.
So from these data, we also concluded on the areas we try to set thewater stock – water stock means the water volume in big reservoirs in the
beginning of the rainy season and at the end of the rainy season, in the
beginning of the dry season and at the end of the dry season – so in this, we
tried to set some guidelines with these numbers, this here is in May, so at
the beginning of the rainy season. Here we have 77 percent of the water82
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compared to the available capacity. So in a dry year we have 77 %, in aflood year we have 98 %, so we can use this as a basic kind of indicator for
warnings to stop the water. And if we link to the demand side, we can see
the amount of water available at that time at the end of the rainy season
while this is the beginning of the dry season. So we have about 106 percent
in the dam. This refers to the available capacity. So this is for a flood year.
This is for a normal year - 130 percent. So this figure [shows the amount] atthe end of the dry season, so there is some carry-over water from this to thenext year.
So these are the status of water that we compared [derived] from thecapacities of the dams.
This is another picture, in which we compare the release of the water to the
inflow. Like in the year 2005, we released about 65 percent of the watercompared to the inflow of the previous year which was a drought year. The
figure of 70 percent is that of a flood year and 86 percent is for a normal
year.
Slide 9This picture shows the compensation water to the farmers affected fromflood damage. So it is evident from the release data that even in a normal
year, more water is released to compensate for the damage of a previous
flood.
Slide 10
These are some pictures that we produced [to show] the percentages
comparing release and inflow, use and inflow, and groundwater use
compared with the potential. So we can notice that now we are using about
13, 14 percent of the groundwater of the potential we have. This potential isbased on the DGR mapping estimating figures for each basin.
This summarized data we can use as a base for a guideline formanaging the water as a whole.
Slide 11
Now this picture shows some kind of national figures. When we come to theactual condition like in 2005 – we had a problem on the Eastern Seaboard –we can see that we have a certain dam. But in this year, the rainfall was very
low. So the reservoir ran very dry. And there was a lot of social conflict atthat time between the communities and also the functions of thecommunities because of the water allocation issue. So even though in the
Eastern Seaboard in general, the annual rainfall is quite high, about 1800
millimeter – when a drought year comes social problem arise in that area.
So this is one of the issues that come along with the [water use].
Slide 12The general [inflation] index sometimes cannot cover prices in certain
issues [especially] when problems of a country occur in a special way, in a
two-directional way or in an extreme way. So here comes also [intoquestion:] how to manage water?
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The second issue is some change in Thailand so we have a certain law
concerning water resource management like Water Resource Committee,
National Water Vision, we have some studies on the basin land, then we
have a list of 25 water basins, how much water we have [based on] many
workshops that we conducted. There are now some shifts on the supply side
to the demand side, especially for the groundwater we have a fee for now.
So we have tried to control not only the supply side, we tried to expeditesome economic tools to manage this demand side too.
Slide 13
And then since the year two thousand-something, we have a new
constitution. And the new constitution also authorizes certain authority to
the community. The community has some right to preserve their own
natural resources. So this means a big change to Thai water management. So
now, there is a law called the Provincial Development Plan Act, in 2008,[whereas] up to now, all the budget was controlled by the function or [therespective] department of the central government. But since 2008, eachprovince is what we call a budget unit. So each province has become adepartment. So each province can have their own budget. Starting from acertain [minimum] percentage, by constitution, they will have up to twenty
percent of the national budget within a certain period of time. At present thisis about 15 %. So this is a kind of decentralization scheme of the central
government.
So now, in each province, the constitution provides that each
community has the right to conserve its own culture, local knowledge, andalso natural resources.
And this is what the rural people use to sue the central government interms of the Eastern Seaboard issue because we have now the law that when
the authority of the local committee or even the local men how much they
have... so we don't have that, so the court decided that the community[authorized] in that article can sue even the central government if the central
government behaves not in a good manner or without any rules.
The second one is article 28: each province having a plan and having
their own budget … so this a kind of regional or even provincial structure to[secure] their own authority and also moneys. So this is a big change andthis also affects the water management at the community level.
The other [provision] is [for] a kind of committee that [says] if the authority
doesn't act, the central administration has to support that also.
So now this is the kind of change since 2008. And the [advantage on
the one hand] is also critical [on the other] that now each central
government has to adapt itself to fit into the new circumstances.
Slide 15
So this is the rule that each province will have some indicators [to match].
So indicators mean they have their own strategy, their budget, someprovinces also [have to prepare for] this kind of structure of seeking their
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own budget. Concerning the budget, there is the provincial budget,[contributions] from other government [departments] or even from functions
and also business sectors and even agenda budgets. And there is a ruleconcerning the local administration units in the Thai national rules
providing a ten percent tax pay back to each local administration. So thiskind of budget system is variable so now the government also enacted
putting the control over this budget into the wider provincial plan. So again,
each community or even local administration is forced to [prepare] a four
years community plan. So in community workshops they gather [theirdemands] and submit them back to the province. So this is a kind of new
scheme that means a change to Thailand.
Slide 16
So coming back to the water management issues, even now they are very
complex ones because water is linked to many other disciplines: linked toeconomics, linked to environment, linked to social issues.
Another level is the community level. [Be it on] provincial level, subbasin level and basin level, nation level, so space and time [matters]. So thisis a kind of a complex.
So now the decentralization issue: How [can] the local authority
manage the water? Because up to now, many issues have been controlled bycentral government functions. So how can they adapt? But the law forcesthem to decentralize, so it's an issue how the local authorities will adjust tothese circumstances. …
Besides, they have to consider resources, economics, environment andsocial [aspects]...
Authority boundary: now we have the problem that we have so manyjobs that nobody knows whose job is this, there's some gray zone, so this issome process issue.
So in another research study we try to raise awareness and try to make useof some new technology that can help the local authority to plan their own
resources.
Slide 17
So depending on planning issue, we have [related] water resources [issues].
Up to a certain extent, we have to manage both macro and micro, very small,on village [scale]. There is some technology development, we have IT/
GIS/MIS. We need to focus on capacity building, we mentioned about
decision support system and conflict...
So we set a three years plan and this was funded by the Thailand
Research Fund to explore how to design the planning process and link withthe central government and also the local community.
We suggested to use an information technology system to help
speeding up the process. So we set up an information system with ICT
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application. Moreover, we don't do [everything] by ourselves, we have auniversity network of about five universities linked there. So each university
will check one province … in each area.
Thus we have provincial communities [represented], and so we haveselected about three to five local authorities to join the panel so that we cantest the system design and see whether and how they can make use of thisthree years' project. We are [present] in Rayong, Nakhon Pathom and SamutPrakarn, Nakhon Ratsima, Patalung and Nan.
Slide 19
So this is the system, by law. We need to have this provincial development
plan. So this depends on many sectors. The government right now has tocontrol about 40 disciplines within the provinces. A lot of things that happen,
the government has to control. So when we talk about water, how can it be
integrated into this kind of big issue? So they [installed] a lower
administration water plan [including] their own budget. Now some local
authorities have about two million Baht per year. But some maybe a billion
Baht per year. So there are big gaps between local
administrations/authorities because both have ten percent of the tax to [begiven] back to them. So if they have a big factory or so they have a lot oftax...
So now, we try to produce a sample community plan and integrate it
into the provincial [level]. And this integrates at the national level in the
NESDB’s National economic-social plan also.
Slide 20So this is a scheme that under the province depends on tax. There is a
resources base, a social base, so each governor has to plan. There are now
three main areas, one is the economy, so this concerns the GDP; after GDP
there is the GPP: each province has its own revenue or output [?]Second, there are security and safety issues … in Thailand, like fire,
natural disaster, crime, drugs, security... and now [talking] about social[issues]: we're probably [going to] use a Gross Happiness Index in Thailand,
the GHI.
So in this relationship, we are now producing some links as Dr. Babelsaid: producing one ton of rice, how much water we use? If we going to use
the unit of one province one million Baht, how much water we use? Or evenin tourism, OK.
So now, this is what we plan for the next two years: we try to link therelationship [of a given] GDP and the estimated water demand.
Again, [under] the resource [aspect] this [represents] drought andflood. So we try to set some index for each province to keep control of, andmatch with, upstream [conditions], possibly up to a 90 percentile figure.
OK, concerning social [aspects] and water supply: water supply has two
categories: municipal areas and rural areas. [Concerning] Water supply ratio
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or toilet sanitation, we are now to set some criteria: the number of villages
in each province having good, safe water [compared to those with] non safe
water.
We have certain data from NESDB, the national survey. So we are
now gathering these and then try to make a security index record for eachprovince [to identify] how a certain index can define the security level ofeach province as A or B or C or D.
Breaking down to the local authority [level], a similar index can also set
certain criteria.
Slide 21
So [according to] the research plan we have to link with the local authorities,
so each year, we have some policy forum in March on the [World] Water
Day.
Slide 24?
So this is the way we use GIS to link with the national, province andcommunity [levels]. We set [up] some system [...] at the central [level] but
each province can [receive] technical support because the system is webbased and we use public software.
We use the GMS base and we provide mapping training to theprovincial officers and also the local authorities. We have the governor set aworking team group comprising over 30 members from all departments.
Slide 25
With this system, we teach our network [members] how to use it. We talkto the governors [about the] policies of each province and link all data both
central and local. We work with the committee as a working group. And
then each year we have a water forum to summarize the things done.
Slide 26/27
This is an example for a website (in Thai) that we initiated.
Slide 29
And then each province builds up its own water data. So they can linksupply and demand.
Then they have the data of each source and supply. They have some certain
status of the size of water deficit, or domestic use, or industrial use or
agricultural use...
Slide 30
Again, we try to link up some data to make a warning system. You know, toinput and to make use of satellite data for water warnings, now we are underresearch. So by linking to “JAXA” where you make use of satellite data, wehave some provincial [level] water warning system.

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Slides 31ff
So these are some samples with the governor, with the university network,with the local authorities, …
And we also try to [include] people like irrigation people, also as
directorate lecturers from the provincial water authorities, and we train thelocal lecturers, so now we have at least five to ten [persons] in eachprovince who can [work as] lecturers, only using the [set-up] system, to[instruct] the other local authorities.
So this is a meeting. This training we try to use as one set, in acommunity plan. Now they [are] training mapping so they know what is theexisting plan, what is the future plan, for the next four years, where water
constructions [are planned], how [big the] water deficit is, the water
demand-supply ratio in their own area.
So this is the way we try to express [how to do something the] otherway so they will decide to develop water supply units or make excavations[for] some channels. So this is the way we train communities to plan [for]themselves.
So each year we have some meeting. Last year, we had a meeting with
RID, and we also asked for more technical support from the RID staff tohelp in the communities. We have the Water Policy Forum, we have the“Water Day”, so that all committees [taking part get to] know each other.
Slide 36
So this is the thing we have learned to build [during the] last three years now we have another two years for the research. So we hope that newtechnology can [be introduced] and made use of and help communities toplan in a better way with certain data. We have the training workshops, we
display the information on multi-levels so that the authority and police canuse it.
We found that capacity building of the personnel is a key issue tomake this process sustainable.
Slide 37
So we thank the many units in each area that we approached and also for thefunding by the Thailand Research Fund.
So we hope that this kind of experience can be utilized in otherregions, and by the MRC also.
Thank you88
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Who’s river is it anyhow?
Some issues regarding transboundary developmenton the Mekong River basin
Prof. Peter Rogers

WHO’S RIVER IS IT ANYHOW?
SOME ISSUES REGARDING
TRANSBOUNDARY DEVELOPMENT
ON THE MEKONG RIVER BASIN
Peter Rogers
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
Harvard University
rogers@seas.harvard.edu

Who‘s river is it anyhow? Some reflections ontrans-boundary development on the MekongRiver BasinPeter Rogers
Harvard University“Forefront and Challenging of Water Resources
Management in Southeast Asia”
Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit(Ruam Rudee Ballroom, 9th Floor)
Saturday 29 January 2011

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Which are the affected populations• Within the river basin– Within national boundaries• Riparian communities• Non-riparians• Outside of the river basin– Within national boundaries– Outside of national boundaries• Regional• Global

Who are the Relevant
Stakeholders for the Mekong?
• National governments (Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand,
Vietnam)• River riparians (in each country)• River basin agencies (MRC)• Local NGOs
• Supra national agencies (UN)• Regional Treaty Organizations (ASEAN)• Informal regional associations (GMS)• IFIs (ADB, WB, bilaterals)• Private investors• Global NGOs (WWF, IUCN, IRN, etc)

Who Should Make Decisions About
Water Rights?
• The government?

– National governments– Provinces or states– County or local• The basin entities?

– River basin agencies• National• Transboundary• Others?

– Transboundary polity– Global or regional

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Water and Benefits Trading
across boundaries• Within the river basin (water quantity and quality)– Among countries– Among provinces– Among water users• Outside of the basin (economic, social, political)– Among regions– Among nations– Among provinces– Among water users• Linkages (trade and transit; GMS)

SOBR,
2010

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on the Mekong River basin

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Factoids for the Mekong Basin• is the second most bio-diverse river in the world after the
Amazon, and supports the world’s largest fresh water
capture fishery of about 2.3 million tons per year.
• The LMB population in 2007 was estimated at 60 million,
with about 90% of the populations of Cambodia (13million), 97% of the population of Lao PDR (5.2 million),
39% of the population of Thailand (23 million), and 20%of the population of Viet Nam (17 million in the Delta and3 million in the Central Highlands) living within the basin.
• average annual withdrawals for agricultural, industrial andother consumptive uses in the LMB are about 60 billion
m3, or 12% of the Mekong’s average annual discharge

Why has Mekong River Basin not seen
more development? Historical Context• 19th century to 1954: French Colonialism• 1954-1975: Independence—and war• 1979-1991: Vietnam occupies Cambodia,• China, Laos, Vietnam undertake economic
liberalization, 1980s• 1997-98: Asian financial crisis

Geopolitical Context of Mekong
Basin• National vs regional interests• Resources need to be shared
Laos: 35% of total flow of Mekong
26% of basin area. Both = largest.
Myanmar: 2% of flow
2% of basin. Both = smallest.
• China is upstream riparian, but
China: only 17% of total flow

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Political Context of Mekong
Basin• Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and China– ally against Western states’ demands concerning human rights anddemocratization;– share political objective of regime stability;– benefit from China’s aid and investment.

• Laos and VN pursue Chinese development model of “economic
liberalization under Communist Party control.”• 1997-98 eco/financial crisis results in Western donors (ADB,
World Bank) and investors retreat from Mekong. Replaced by“private-sector hydropower developers, primarily fromThailand, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, and Russia.
• Thailand’s dominance in Mekong Basin (currency, culture,
products) resented. Suspicious of motives.

1995 Mekong Agreement“the full potential of sustainable benefits to all riparian countries
and the prevention of wasteful use of Mekong River Basinwaters”• Protection of the environment and ecological balance;• Sovereign equality and territorial integrity;• Reasonable and equitable utilization;• Maintenance of flows on the mainstream;• Prevention and cessation of harmful effects;• State responsibility for damages;• Freedom of navigation; and• Response to emergency situations

Competing Visions for the MekongRiver Basin• Development vs. maintaining biodiversity– Should Laos and Cambodia maintain biodiversity,and poverty, for sake of the rest of the world that
has ignored biodiversity in order to develop?

• Development vs. maintaining livelihoods as
they are now– Massive numbers of people have, however, alreadyleft the basin, get non-farm work. So, already,basin has changed in terms of “livelihood values.”

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

Basin Development• Upper Mekong. China is completing its
hydropower cascade; the Manwan, Dachaoshan,
Jinghong and Xiaowan dams are currently operational
and the Nuozhadu Dam to be completed in 2014. The
Xiaowan and the Nuozhadu dams, have 9,800 and
12,400 million m3 of active storage• Lower Mekong Basin – Development. 26hydropower projects (>10 megawatt) are underconstruction on tributaries, creating, together with thedams in China, 36 billion m3 of additional active
storage.

Planned Dam Development• Over the next 20 years, 12 mainstream projects
and 30 tributary dams, mostly in Lao PDR areplanned. All mainstream dams are classified as'run-of-river', with limited storage capacity andregulation potential. Many tributary dams include
significant reservoirs, adding 21 billion m3 ofstorage. Including 10 dams across the river
channel (8 in Lao PDR, two of which are on the
Lao-Thailand mainstream and 2 in Cambodia), 1
partial damming (Don Sahong) and 1 diversion
project (Thakho) in Lao PDR.

Planned Irrigation and Fisheries• There are plans to increase dry season
irrigation by 50% (from 1.2 to 1.8 million
hectares) in the next 20 years, with Lao
PDR planning to expand irrigation fromabout 100,000 to over 300,000 hectares• LMB countries also plan to further develop
aquaculture and improve fisheries management,
navigation, flood management and tourism.
Aquaculture growth is forecasted to double to 4
million tonnes in the next 20 years.

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Some Impressions

Common (Mis) Perceptions• The MRC is a strong institution withplanning and regulatory authority• The dams will provide most of theelectricity demanded in the basin over the
next two decades-never more than 10%• The dams will provide major downstream
flood control benefits-not enough storage• The dams will greatly enhance watertransport-low flow will still control(Mis) Perceptions, cont.
• The dams will enable huge irrigation
developments-improvement of low flows,
but not enough storage• The dams will mitigate the consequences ofclimate change-unclear ppt patterns• The dams will improve municipal andindustrial water supplies-yes• The dams will seriously damage the capture
fisheries-yes

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Questions to be Asked of
Proponents• ” How much damage does the capture of
sediment behind a dam cause in loss ofnutrients for fish and agriculture anderosion and flood damages?”• Relative risk assessment is very important.
Should we focus on future risks like climatechange at the expense of current and maybe
smaller risks? Remember that risk isdefined as the probability of an event
multiplied by its economic consequences.

Simple Analysis of Benefit Sharing• Rough estimates of the annual revenues
from electricity sales for Laos for building
the Xayaburi Dam could amount to US$800
million. This is based upon a capital cost of$3.9 billion spread over a 25 year
concession. The type of questions to ask
with regard to this number is, “does thisexceed the losses due to reduction of fish
capture downstream due to the dam?”

An Analysis of Benefit Sharing in the 3S
Basin (Sesan, Sre Pok, and Sekong)(The only tributary with cross national
border flows)
Jiangrong He, “A Game Theory Approach to Transboundary Impacts of Hydropower
development in the Mekong: Case of the 3S Basin,” Honors thesis, Dept. of AppliedMath, Harvard University, April 1, 2010.

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How to apply Reasonable andEquitable Sharing• Model the benefits accruing to each riparian
if they act to develop their water resources
independent of others, IX(i)• Model benefits accruing to each country
and each possible coalition of countries
under assumed levels of cooperation, CX(i)• If each country can do as least as well as it
could do acting alone, then CX(i) – IX(i) is
measure of the incentive to collaborate

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Transcript
I can see am not being able to compete with the coffee break. So welcome
back to the coffee break. I think you all get it... I want to thank theorganizers of this conference for inviting me to speak here. That's with sometrepidation as I am speaking to a room full of experts on the Mekong Riverbasin. And I am an expert dating from December 23rd 2010 when I set out
for a 2000 km trip around the Mekong. I feel as if I have seen every squareinch of it though I haven't. I feel the bumps still on my backside from riding
on Jeeps on dirt roads in various places. But anyhow, I want to thanks theorganizers for putting me on the firing line here for this presentation.

I must say I am tremendously impressed by what we've seen on thistrip. The quality of the human resources involved in planning andmanagement of the Mekong, in all the countries we visited, has been reallytruly impressive. And certainly, the Mekong River Basin Commission –from the very flashy headquarters in Vientiane and Phnom Penh, down tolittle things in interior areas in northeastern Thailand/ northeast Cambodia
which is very worth to mention, the staff there were very high quality. I
really enjoyed this couple of weeks. And it's really impressive, having suchpeople involved in developing the Mekong basin.
I just wanted to mention that the support for our and my activity, andfor Prof. Suzanne Odgen and Professor Kawasaki was supported by a small
Spanish quasi governmental organization called Casa Asia, They paid forour travel, both the luxury travel and the non luxury travel.
Slide 2
I wanted to talk about “Whose river is it anyhow?” I spent a lot of time
during my life thinking about river basin development and trans-boundary
issues. And you know, it's a general issue about rivers: whom do they
belong to? Well, it's not at all clear that we know who a river belongs to,and this is a schematic slide laid out in this sketch. We can see that there is alittle river basin shown in the sketch and it's divided up into sub-basins anddivided into countries and divided up into non-basin areas and basin areas.
The question is: Does the river belong to the upstream basin population who
are riparians, upstream basin population who are non-riparians, people wholive in the river basin but not on the river, downstream basin population who
are riparians, downstream basin population who are non-riparians? Does it
belong to the upstream country in the non-basin areas or the downstream
country in the non-basin area? Or does it belong to the rest of the world?
And I think this is an interesting issue because when we deal with large
international river basins like the Mekong there is certainly something to besaid about the role of the rest of the world in its development.
Slide 3Which are the affected populations? - within the river basin, within nationalboundaries, outside the river basin within the national boundaries andoutside the national boundaries? This depends on which river basin we are98
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dealing with. For instance, in the Nile, there are ten countries involved, at
the Mekong river just six countries involved and at Ganges, there are four
countries involved. So this depends on where you are located in thegeography of the system itself.
Slide 4
Who are the relevant stakeholders? So when you have decided who owns
the river then you can decide who are the stakeholders in the active actions?
The national governments of Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam,
river riparians, river basin agencies, local NGOs, supra national agencies,
regional treaty organizations, informal regional associations like GMS, that
we shall talk about, international financial organizations (AsianDevelopment Bank, World Bank, bilaterals), private investors, global NGOs
etc.
But even within the country, you have a conflict between stakeholders
and government agencies, you have the energy ministry, the land and water
ministries, the interior ministry, the irrigation ministry, the forestry andfishery agencies, all of which have different perceptions and different viewsof how the river basin should be developed. And [when] we make thedecisions, again the same issue: should the government – like the national
government – should the provincial governments, basin entities or river
basin agencies, or others who have a trans-boundary institution make thedecisions?...
Slide 9What about trading the river benefits across the boundaries, for instance?
Within the river basin, water quantity and water quality – it's generally
assumed it's very easy to trade water within the river basin and that's where
many of the discussions of the past were focused on.
Now we going to shift the focus on outside the river basin economic
and social and political benefits and trading across boundaries.
So it's not at all clear how much is said about doing these things, but there
are lots of unresolved questions involved in the decision of who thestakeholders are and who should the stakeholders be etc.
Slide 10So this is the space schematic of the Mekong basin and the various countries.
We've seen this several times today.
Slide 11This is a graphic which I really like because it gives you some sense of theimportance of hydro-power in the Mekong basin. We are talking about ariver basin that goes from close to 8,000 meters above sea level down to sea
level and then creates, a tremendous opportunity for generating hydroelectric power - which is being developed.

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Slide 13
Why has the Mekong river basin not seen more development? Well, thehistorical context is important: From the 19th century to 1954, it was acolony of France, there was a war for independence from 1954 till 1975,
there was another war between Vietnam and Cambodia till 1991, thenaround about that time, China, Laos and Vietnam undertook economic
liberalization, and then, the Asian financial crisis, all of these things are seen
as reasons for non development in the basin.

Slide 14
The geopolitical context of the Mekong basin – national, regional interests,
resources need to be shared; Laos has 35 percent of the total flow of the
Mekong, 26 percent of the basin (again, as we saw this before), China is
upstream everyone of the basin and it has 17 percent of the total flow – very
important.
Slide 15
The political context is very important. One of the things that I have learnedin many years of dealing with water resources is that it's always a politicalsubject, not a technical subject. As technicians for a long time assumed thatthey knew what to do about water exactly. Every time they try it's actually apolitical decision. Quite right the issue is extremely political. So the politicalcontext is very important.
Slide 22
In 1995, the Mekong Agreement is very important for the basin. I like theidea that “the full potential of sustainable development benefits to all
riparian countries and the prevention of wasteful use of the Greater MekongRiver Basin waters” is the guiding principle of the Mekong in 1995. And I
think it's the sustainable benefits which are important to think about. And
we'll come back to this later.
Slide 17Competing visions for the Mekong river basin – development versus
maintaining biodiversity: should Laos and Cambodia maintain thebiodiversity and poverty for the sake of the rest of the world that has
ignored biodiversity in order to develop? - And that's an interesting question.
I come from a country which was recently supporting a framework forhydro and environmental impact of the hydro-power development inMekong. And it's a very nice USAID report in turn for the MRC, and it's
very elaborate and beautifully done. let me tell you, if we had enforced thatin the United States 50 years ago we wouldn't have most of the hydroprojects that we actually have developed quite successfully. In terms, what
we see is there is some pressure on the rest of the world to say no loss of
biodiversity due to development. This pressures countries to maintainbiodiversity, at the expense of development. I think this is an important
issue is one of the main choices; development versus maintaining
livelihoods as they now are – so should be more people within the basin

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maintained as subsistence farmers and fishers? or should they be allowed todevelop the resources as they deem fit? Who should make the choice?
Slide 20In the previous presentations that discussed the development of the basin.
There are plans to increase dry season irrigation by 50 percent, and theLower Mekong Basin countries plan to further develop their agriculture,
fisheries, flood management and tourism... Agriculture growth is forecast to
develop to four million tonnes in the next twenty years. These are just someof the grandiose plans that we see proposed for the Basin.
(I think we skip over some...)These are some impressions from my recent trip (and I think I've lost
some of the slides...) That's no big loss because we can use the time better tohave a discussion. Let me review some impressions of my trip, based on
thousands of kilometers traveling around the basin. There are some common
perceptions or common mis-perceptions about the Mekong River Basin:
The first one is the Mekong River Commission is a strong institution
with planning and regulatory authority. Viewed from the outside, that isviewed from the rest of the world who see the Mekong River Commission
as a wonderful institution started a long time ago; a powerful committee,
developing funds, helping countries to do lots and lots of tremendouslyinteresting and good studies on the basin. But when you get down to thefinal point of making plans and regulatory authority it actually turns out tobe more like a talking show. People can get together and meet and discuss
things but the MRC has very limited powers. In fact, with the serious mainstem project coming up for decision now, basically, it's up to thecommissioners, the four members countries, to assess the project and to
decide whether it goes ahead for construction or whether they intend to stop
it now. Unfortunately the institution is particularly weak in this type ofissue.
Another common mis-perception is: dams will be providing most of
the electricity in the basin over the next two decades. It's less than ten
percent now, and the electric demand, the increasing demand for electricity
is probably more than eight percent per annum. I can't give you the exact
figures out from my head but I know, seven percent per annum doubles inten years. That's the rule of Seven Figure that out in ten years time, when
the current 30,000 Megawatts of power demand in the Mekong doubles to60,000 Megawatts, and in another twenty years double to 120,000
Megawatts. However the total hydro development capacity in the basin. isless than ten percent of this figure. Even when every hydro site is developedin the basin, there won't be enough electricity and we have to go to otherresources. And that's one of the interesting issues and that's what we see:that there is plenty of substitution possibility for electrical energy; there isthermal, there is biomass, there is solar, there is wind, all of these things
which are more expensive than hydro now, fossil fuels already as they're
expensive, the hydro, but some day, in ten or 15 years, they will be actually
Who’s river is it anyhow? Some issues regarding transboundary development
Who’s
is it Riveranyhow?
Some issues regarding transboundary developmenton the river
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quite competitive and, they will have totally different environmental
consequences due to the development.
“The dams will provide major drought and flood control benefits” –well, again, when we look at the size of the Mekong river and when we lookat the size and the magnitude of the flood flows, the wet season flows, thenthere's no way the dams would work as proposed. There would be somesmall regulation but there isn't enough capacity of storage in these dams to
make a lot of difference to flood control management.
“Dams will greatly enhance water transport”, I think the locals will
still control what's going on in the Mekong and I think that the dream thatthey had in the nineteenth century, river traffic going from the ocean all theway up to China will not happen – will never happen. But there will be partsof the river which will work fairly well. And some of the benefits of theChinese developments might actually help on this because of the increase of
the low flow as they're generating electricity from the cascades. So thedams' flow will have marginal, but positive, impacts on navigation.
“Dams will enable huge irrigation developments”, including low
flows increase from the Chinese dams, will help, but again, if you want tohave your transportation, you want to keep the water in the river and you
don't want to take it out of the river. So the actual amount of the proposed
irrigation probably cannot be done on low-flows on the Mekong and there is
not enough storage in the dams to give you that second and third crop.
It's true that one of the things which is not widely discussed in any of thereports that I have seen is the possibility of large groundwater developmentsin the region, and certainly, the potential for groundwater recharge inmonsoon is then another part of the story which looks attractive. Maybe you
can get a large irrigation development but not through the diversions from
the Mekong..
“The dams will mitigate the consequences of climate change” – again,
this is an interesting question. It is not at all clear that that will happen. The
MRC has sponsored some very interesting studies on climate change, but
the results are very ambivalent: precipitation going up in some regions, theprecipitation going down in other regions, may well be that the precipitationin rainy areas will be higher than further down the basins, so it's very
unclear if the dams will make very much difference to the impacts ofclimate change.
“Dams will improve municipal and industrial water supplies” – yes,that's true, in fact, that's a positive aspect of an investment strategy. There
will be an improvement.
“The dams will seriously damage the capture of fisheries” – yes, thatis true.

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The other mis-perception of the reviews was that the Chinese dams
are already causing problems. For example, that the drought was caused by
China, last year; that the Chinese have cut off the supply of water etc. In
reality, it is highly unlikely that Chinese dams have very much to do withthe water shortages last year. Chinese dams are on balance probably very
positive in maintaining the low flows downstream.
These are some of the mis-perceptions that we see.
When we're dealing with specific types of projects you might start tohave questions like: how much damage is the capture of sediment behindthe dam because of loss of nutrients for fish and agriculture? Erosion andflood damages? And I put those together because we don't know theanswers to those questions. Those are all very, very difficult. We haven't
done adequate studies on sediment impacts and other adequate data toaddress erosion and flood damages related to the sediment. These are
extremely complex issues one should bear in mind.
For example, Albert Einstein's son, Heinz-Peter, spent his whole life
studying sediment transport in rivers and thought he was going to find an
equivalent “e”equals “mc-squared”, like his father did. He never got any
general theory from his studies - very carefully done with all of them
involving some fudge factors to make them work... So there is no general
theory on sediment movement .in actual natural rivers . It is very difficult
and unfortunately that's one of the major issues in the Mekong basin:
Then the issue of relative risk assessment - very important: Should we
focus on future risks like climate change at the expense of current maybe
smaller risks? Remember the risk is defined by probability and thenmultiplied by the consequences and discounted over time so if the climate
effects are going to be seen in hundred years' time they will be major effects
if the worst projections come about. We still have to discount them inpresent value terms and you have to compare that with dealing with loss of
livelihoods in the river basin by not acting in the present.
So for example: This is an example given to me the other day bysomebody in USAID. We talked about electricity sales following thebuilding of the Xayaburi dam. The revenue is about 800 million Dollars a
year – which is a lot of money for a small country like Laos. And this isbased on a capital cost of 3.9 billion Dollars for a 25 year concession.
The type of question to ask with regard to these numbers: does this exceed
the losses due to the reduction of fish capture downstream due to the dam?
found answer. Certainly 800 million Dollars sounds like a lot of money
when going to the electric power sector, but what about the effects on
livelihoods of individuals downstream? For people living on capture
fisheries the economic damages could well be significantly higher than 800
million. So this is the type of questions one should be asking in theseecosystem type of issues.
We did some... Prof. Kawasaki did some studies on benefit sharing on
the Three-S basin which is the only trans-boundary tributary in the whole
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is it Riveranyhow?
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Mekong basin, which is interesting: there are six countries in the overallbasin and there is only that small three river basin, three river basin of those
three rivers, actually trans-boundary between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Slide 29
The question asked by Kawasaki was: what are the benefits of sharing
and cooperating? And this basin is the major contributor to flow in the
Mekong. So this is an example of a simple game theory application which
we set. Can people be better off by cooperating than acting by themselves?
And this is the coalition analysis between Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
And the blue area says that that's an area which there is possibility thateverybody can be better off when they agree to cooperate. And so this is an
example and we're hoping to do this in the six nation river basin but after
this recent trip, I'm less enthusiastic about game theory than I was when I set
out for this trip. You know it's easy for professors to think you can get a nicesimple theory, apply it and get an answer which will look very nice.
This answer looks very nice by the way and we were lucky that it worked
out in this particular case. But I don't see how we can actually do that on
overall six nations plus the factor that we had a very good database on thethree aspects in the three extensively studied basins...
My own major overall impression is that the issue of sustainable
development has not been pursued adequately by the MRC. I think thepressure to go for hydro-power at the expense of everything else, looks tome like a short-sighted approach. And I hate it to join the chorus of people
who say we shouldn't build any dams because I remember I started up likesaying if the US had followed the USAID's approach – we wouldn't havebuilt any of our own dams. Actually we see, we are quite happy with thedams we have – on the Colorado in the Grand Canyon the Hoover Dam is
one of the most amazing mid-century constructions and it is still functioning.
So certainly I don't want to be joining the chorus that say we shouldn't build
dams but I think because the MRC and the countries to ask some serious
questions about the sustainability in the hydro developments, I think dams
with diversion for other purposes of integrated planning would be better
than what we're seeing right now.. By building the dams with the focus onhydro may preclude the possibilities of other types of investments in the
future.
Thank you.

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Challenges to Benefit sharing
in the Mekong River basin
Prof. Suzanne P. Ogden

CHALLENGES TO BENEFIT SHARING
IN THE MEKONG RIVER BASIN
Suzanne P. Ogden
Department of Political Science,
Northeastern University
s.ogden@neu.edu

Challenges to Benefit Sharing in
the Mekong River Basin
Suzanne Ogden, Professor
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Research Associate
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
Harvard University, Cambridge, Ma. USA

Conference on “Forefront andChallenges of Water Resource
Management in Southeast Asia.”
29 January 2011
Bangkok, Thailand
Organized by the Asian Institute of Technology, Tokyo
University, the Regional Network Office for Urban
Safety, School of Engineering and Technology, Chula
Unisearch of Chulalongkorn University, andInternational Center for Urban Safety Engineering,

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand#1 Challenge
Conflicting viewpoints and objectives
among the MRB states, among theministries within a state, within the
Mekong River Commission (MRC),
within the donor community, andamong all these and the investors in
the MRB.

#2 Challenge:
The consequences of building a
dam are complicated andcannot be known in advance ofbuilding it.

# 3 Challenge
Finding the real reasons forproblems with flow of water andsediment in the Mekong Riverrather than blaming Chinese
dams.

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ICUS Report 53#4 Challenge
National government ministries
are unwilling to release data to theother members of the MekongRiver Basin (or to the MRC) thatwould make rational, scientificanalysis possible.

#5 Challenge
Lack baseline data, so is hard to
calculate what the costs andbenefits of building dams andexpanding irrigation have been,
and what they might be in the
future.

#6 Challenge
A focus on hydropower to the
exclusion of a focus on water for
irrigation. Neglect of ground water
as a resource for greater water
availability.

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January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand#7 Challenge
A focus on Energy Security to
exclusion of focus on Food Security.

#8 Challenge
Energy Investors other Investors,
and NGOs/INGOs Driving theAgenda in the MRB#9 Challenge
Protect the livelihoods of farmers
and fishers without locking theminto subsistence livelihoods.

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ICUS Report 53#10 Challenge
A Focus on Climate Change rather
than immediate consequences ofbuilding dams.

#11 Challenge
Expanding the pie and building
greater benefits so have more toshare. A non-zero sum approach to
the MRB is more likely to result inagreements, security (national,
food, water) because all countries
will feel that they will gain.

#12 Challenge
Building Stronger Governance of the
MRB by Strengthening theInstitutional Infrastructure

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Transcript
Thank you very much, Aki, and everyone who at this point of theconference acknowledges the tremendous effort Prof. Kawasaki has put inorganizing this conference. It's a wonderful chance to share information andknowledge about the Mekong and the perspectives on it.
Today, my topic is the challenges to benefit sharing. As the Chinese
might say, every problem, presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The
benefit sharing of the resources of the Mekong river basin should beapproached on a very rational, scientific calculation of those interests
because, after all, we are dealing with science here. We're dealing withhydrology, we're dealing with ecology, we're dealing with scientificallyknowable data in many respects. And yet, the field trip which we took over
the Mekong river basin through the last five weeks suggested there aremany challenges to the scientific calculation for sharing benefits.
Some of these challenges are political; some are related to data andknowledge about the complexity of the river basin and its environment andhydrology.
Some relate to the institutional framework, such as the MRC and theother institutions that are involved in developing the Mekong.
Some are about the priorities that have been set by the MRC's states,
the institutions, their investors, and their donors.
So the problems are the challenges that have been put forth by thevarious officials, the donors and the academics, and the villagers, the fishers
that we met on this field study. What I am presenting here are are less ourown assessments based on our own research than simply summarizing ouroverall impression of the key challenges based on these interviews.
Slide 3
The first challenge is that there are conflicting viewpoints and objectives
among the Mekong river basin states, among the ministries within the states,
within the Mekong River Commission, within the donor community andamong all these and the investors. There are a very large number of different
opinions, conflicting opinions on what is the best thing to do in the Mekong
river basin.
One of the problems is that there are really enough facts to go roundfor anybody to pick the facts that are most beneficial to their own
perspective.
But perhaps the overriding problem is that the large stakeholders suchas construction companies, commercial fisheries and real estate developers
and governments and politicians have a huge stake in the development of
the Mekong river basin. Even within organizations and within countries,
there are a variety of viewpoints, for example, there is no agreement amonga state's own ministries, there are concerns with matters related to the
Mekong river basin's environment, the natural resources of water and theeconomic development. National decision makers don't make decisions

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based on environmental impact assessments because ministries of theenvironment tend to be weak compared to the ministers that are involved inenergy, water and construction. The more these ministries build the better
because the ministry gets more power because it has more dollars involved,
larger budgets, and so building dams is very much in the interest of theseministries and ministries get really nothing from protecting fish,
communities or livelihoods or the environment. That is, speaking for thepoor gives no power to ministries.
This is simply a matter of real politics. There is little agreement
among the various stakeholders, moreover, within a state, such as
construction companies and the public, the NGOs and the international
government organizations and the affected communities. Those stakeholders
that benefit the most, for example from the dams, such as urban
communities that want more electricity and control of flooding are not the
stakeholders who have to pay the cost of development. For example the[residents of] areas that are flooded by reservoirs lose their homes andlivelihoods or suffer from the environmental damage are not those who arebenefiting from the construction of dams.
Cambodia is, for example, thinking of building dams. But there is
too much opposition from international non governmental organizations.
Their concerns are about the need to resettle the people if these dams arebuilt and the costs to the environment. Some have suggested that Cambodia
should build nuclear plants instead of hydro. But Cambodia does not havethe human capacity to deal with nuclear plants.
Another example is building nuclear power plants instead of damsin Thailand. This is simply unacceptable to the Thai public.
And a third area where there are substantial disagreements is on
many issues of water allocation and development among the national actors
in the Mekong river basin itself, among the four members of the Lower
Mekong River Basin.
Slide 4The second challenge is: The consequences of building a dam arecomplicated and cannot be perfectly known in advance of building them.
There is no way you can build a dam for an experiment to see what its
consequences will be. For every dam that's built, there is a differenthydrology, a different ecology involved, with different consequences. And
nobody really knows what the impact will be. They can only basically makean assessment based on what other dams have done in other similar kinds ofregions.
Water projects, dams, development, climate change, ecologicalchanges, deforestation, all of these things are going on at the same time andthey're interacting so that whether it is the dam itself or some other factor
that is causing the problem is not entirely clear. For example, one of the
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people of the MRC told us, 50 percent of the deforestation has occurredsince 1960 but seems to have no effect on the hydrology of the Mekong.
This is perhaps because water retention of the forests has been replaced bywater retention of the rice paddies. But it is not entirely clear why this major
deforestation has had no impact on the hydrology of the Mekong.
Another example is that the Mekong river is eroding very rapidly –even without dams – because of the sharp incline of the Mekong river, so
we cannot necessarily blame dams for the increased transport of sedimentthat is causing the erosion.
Slide 5The third challenge: “Finding the real reasons for problems with the flow ofwater and sediment in the Mekong rather than blaming Chinese dams”
Blaming China without real data means that apart from everythingelse, countries are not addressing the real issues of their own role in thedamages and cost to their own country. They try blaming somebody elsesuch as the Chinese. They are not confronting the reality and what needs tobe done.
Apart from everything else, upstream dams ensure dry season flow forlower dams so Chinese dams are going to be critical if other countries lower
down the Mekong want to build their own dams, such as Vietnam. Vietnam
has been basically the last country to accept the possibility that the Chinese
dams are actually beneficial to themselves.
So the Chinese storage dam (Xiaowan Dam) which is still not yet full,
hopefully will provide a higher flow in the dry season. This will also be
helpful for navigation, which requires minimal flows to continue throughout
the year.
So, hydro-power dams, by default, create benefits to downstream
countries. Why? Because they spread the supply of water more evenly
throughout the year, meaning less flooding, less of drought and morenavigation.
A specific example of a country that blames China but is really itself
in part to blame, perhaps fully, is Cambodia. Cambodia itself has built dams
on its tributaries that have decreased the water for wild capture fishing. Now
Cambodia wants to build a dam on the Mekong main stream because it
needs electricity. Last year when it was particularly hot in Cambodia, andpeople all rushed out to buy air conditioners, the demand for electricity
caused major blackouts in Phnom Penh. So the government decided to build
three new dams to generate electricity. And where did they choose to build
them? Two of them were being built on the outskirts of what are called
protected forest areas. So some of these countries are doing much of thedamage to themselves but choose to blame someone else.

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Slide 6
The fourth challenge is that “national government ministries are unwilling
to release data to the other members of the Mekong River Commission (orto the MRC) that would make rational, scientific analysis possible.”- It's not easy to build trust and exchange data. National governments
are reluctant to give the data. In the case of China and other countries
throughout the world including Singapore and India, but if sticking to the
Mekong river basin, Vietnam and China, basically all are claiming secrecy
for national security purposes. What they're really worried about is if theygive information to the MRC and the MRC allows other countries to see thisinformation, that it may be used against them or to their disadvantage, that it
would be used in a way they won't be able to do what they want to do interms of building dams.
Slide 7
Another challenge is the“lack of baseline data, so it is hard to calculate what
the costs and benefits of building dams and expanding irrigation have been,
and what they might be in the future.”
So we lack baseline data on flow, and we also lack standards for thebaseline data, which is different for each country in terms of what
information is collected. There's still no standardization of the data, andthere is a lack of agreement on how much water is used by each country. So
for example, the way to manage the Mekong is by managing the tributary
flow. But the problem is there's not yet a known baseline flow. So the MRC
is now trying to establish that, but it's difficult because they can't agree on
the standard of the baseline. One of the problems in the MRC is that the
MRC only applies to the Lower Mekong at this point, just four members at
the Lower Mekong, not China or Myanmar. And China only gives
information about its wet season. Last year, it did release information until
October but then stopped. And they're hoping that next year, China will bewilling to release more.
Slide 8The sixth challenge is the focus on hydro-power to the exclusion of a focus
on dams providing water for irrigation and food security.
There's a neglect of groundwater as a resource for greater water
availability. This neglected groundwater and the focus on food security is a
topic which Prof. Rogers briefly mentioned. As you know, electricity can begenerated from resources other than hydro but water has no alternative
sources than precipitation. But in Thailand, we were told, people don't evenallow a study to estimate nuclear power as a substitute for hydro-power.
Thailand has plans to build two small nuclear plants that are ready to go but
they cannot be built because of public relations issues and because of thefear of the Thai public of a nuclear accident. So the Thai public seems lessafraid of pollution from coal plants, and only wants to have dams built in
Laos, not in Thailand, for its own electricity.

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Slide 9Another challenge, very much similar, the focus on energy security in the
Mekong river basin to the exclusion of the focus on food security – fisheries
and navigation:
One of the problems here is that evaluating the benefits is very
difficult. It's easy to evaluate the value of electricity but fisheries are moredifficult: Do you evaluate fisheries on the value of nutrition or from theperspective of the market price of fish? 2.1 million tons of fish are captured
in the Mekong each year which is about the same amount which isconsumed in the United States each year. So the Mekong produces thelargest number of fish in the world and if it builds dams the consequenceson this substantial source of the world's fish will be significant. 500,000
tons from wild capture fisheries, it is estimated, will be lost from thebuilding of the Sabori Dam alone. So when six dams are built on the mainstem of the Mekong in the Lao People's Republic, the losses of fish will beeven larger.
Aquaculture is a substitute for wild capture fishing that is used in
Vietnam; but unlike in Vietnam, aquaculture in Laos will cost 3 or 4 times
as much as wild capture fishery. In part because aquaculture requires
feeding fish with fish feed. So the real cost of the dam should be thereplacement cost of fish protein for all the poor people of Laos andCambodia who depend on wild fish as their only source of protein. But
when they decided to build the Sabori Dam, they had not considered thisreplacement cost of protein. Instead, they determined the cost of building
the dam in terms of its impact by determining the price of the fish at the
point of sale. And then, (even) the loss of fish is mostly a Cambodian, Ton
Le Sap concern, Vietnam has already moved to almost exclusively
aquaculture. There's almost no wild capture fishery left in the Mekong delta.
And one of the final problems with this is that when a dam is built
and the electricity that is generated is sold to Thailand – we were told thataround twenty percent of the profits from that sale will go to Laos – and thiswill come in the form of royalties and taxes the government will get fromthe sale of electricity, but that twenty percent that they get in Laos will not
be turned over to the people who have lost their protein source from wild
capture fisheries. So the people who sustain the costs are quite different
from those who get the benefits from building the hydro-power dam.
Slide 11
Number 9 – This challenge is the pressure on the national governments todevelop now and not to defer building dams. Governments are, for politicalreasons, for reasons of social stability as well, unwilling to wait until
important studies have been completed to obtain adequate data for making
decisions. Because, after all, if we look at it from the perspective of anational government, these studies have been going on for decades, one
after the other. And what we knew fifty years ago is much less than weknow now; and maybe ten years from now, we will know something else, sothey can't wait forever for the definitive study to be laid.
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Nevertheless, there is a concern that dams are being built when otherthings could be done instead. And one of the possibilities for generating
electricity in Laos without so many costs is the possibility of developinghydro-kinetic turbines.
Hydro-kinetic turbines can be put in a river by a poor country like
Laos without having to be beholden to banks, say Thai or Chinese banks, tobuild the dam for them. So if they were to use hydro-kinetic turbines, they
could sell electricity to their own people. They would not have to sell it toanother country and suffer all the externalities of doing so. I mentioned
before that Laos will get about twenty percent of the proceeds of royalties
and taxes from selling hydropower to Thailand, but they simultaneously losean equal amount in the value of their wild capture fisheries that are lost
because of the large dams. Let's say: what they put in hydro-kinetic turbines- they do not produce nearly as much electricity but they will certainly
produce enough for Laos' need so Laos could have electrification, they
could have their fish and fish protein, and they would not have any impact
on the environment. But that requires waiting to develop until some otherstudy comes along.
Slide 11 (#9)
Another very important challenge is – the challenge of protecting
livelihoods of farmers and fishers without locking them into subsistence
livelihoods:
This is one of the most important things we learned about or thought
about when we were around on this trip: It's interesting that NGOs and
INGOs are very concerned about protecting communities and livelihoods
that are actually subsistence livelihoods, for the benefit of diversity, for the
benefit of communities, particularly minority groups in various countries
within the Mekong river basin. But when we talked to these groups (andother studies also indicate), most of them said they did not feel that theywanted development to stop. What they wanted was for development toprovide alternatives to their present livelihood. They don't want to have theirchildren locked into subsistence fishing and farming. And they are very prodevelopment. Now this may vary from community to community but fact isthat not every person living a life along the Mekong dependent on wild
capture fishery is particularly interested in keeping that kind of livelihoodfor their children.
Slide 12 (#10)
A focus on climate change rather than on the immediate consequences ofbuilding dams is another issue in the Mekong River Basin.
The basic problem is that the consequences of building dams are rightnow, within the next ten years, whereas the focus on climate change isfurther down the line. Countries downstream should be very concerned
about the consequences of the dams being built rather than worrying about

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climate change, especially since we're really not entirely sure of what the
impact will be.
What can be done about all this?
Slide 13 (#11)
I think that one of the biggest challenges is to expand the pie and build
greater benefits so there is more to share. This is certainly the impression
ESCAP ( United Nations) had. The most important thing to do [is] to look at
having a non-zero-game approach,looking at all winning together (or all
losing because of lack of cooperation). To the MRB, it is important that you
can build cooperation at the lowest level and expand the pie to have everlarger benefits. And the creation of the Greater Mekong Subregion, which
has thus far focused on building infrastructure (roads, railroads, shipping,tourism, etc within the GMS) has done just this. The ADB has foresight increating the concept of the GMS: building an infrastructure for the Mekong
river basin has contributed greatly to expanding the benefits for everybody
in the Mekong river basin.
Slide 14 (#12)
And a final challenge: building stronger governance by the MRB bystrengthening its institutional infrastructure.
Right now, the MRB is not the strongest of institutions. And withrepatriation, there's a challenge to the MRB to take control of its own
institutions through the Mekong River Commission [by] having their own
people from the region take over this institution and strengthen it.
Thank you very much.

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Dr. Kawasaki: Prof. Rogers, please briefly explain the characteristics ofMekong river basin compared to other international rivers.
Prof. Rogers: I think one of the important things to remember is the
Mekong is not unique in the sense that it's the only river basin in the world
which has trouble from development because of the international
dimensions. I think [there are] a lot of other river basins – 261 river basinsworldwide across boundaries between at least two countries. I think aboutmaybe 50 percent of the world's population live in river basins which areshared among countries. So we see this is not a unique problem of the
Mekong, it's very much the state of the world situation. Unfortunately, there
is no international borders formalized in these United Nations treaties andthey're non ratified on these international trans-boundary rivers. It isinteresting that it took fourteen years of negotiations for this text to beapproved by the General Assembly for signatures, and I think they got
something like 50, 60 countries who pushed it for signatures and never got
the 35 signatures to actually ratify it. And the countries who ratified it, are
all downstream countries. Countries who refused to ratify were all upstream
countries. So we have... My own country, the Unites States, did not ratify
the treaty, even though the United States is very instrumental in getting thedrafting done on the treaty. So they have... national sovereignty comes toplay when you start to give up... so Bangladesh has pushed hardest in the
United Nations trying to get a treaty approved, it is not successful I think it's,
you know the... more or less contentious but it doesn't have I think there aresome very, very good examples of trans-boundary border issues that work
very well and the border can be used actually to help cooperation about anintercourse conflict. And I think that Canada and the United States, twolarge countries with thousands of miles of common border where hundredsof streams and rivers go across boundaries, and over hundred years ago, aninternational joint commission was set up between Canada and the Unites
States, and basically, we've had hundred and something years of agreementof the rivers, so there is only one case where there is a serious problem andthat happened during World War One when the United States insisted thatthey kept the flow of the Iv??? river and used it for armaments production.
You know the Canadians were hoping to use the electricity, this was only
once in a 120 years.
On the other hand, it is an institution which is extremely powerful andI think we are not likely to see any of this institution anywhere in the world
and it's set up with around four commissioners: two commissioners from the
US and two from Canada, and they make the decisions by consensus. They
make the decision and then that becomes law in both Canada and the UnitedStates. What you see: we have four individuals that can commit to verylarge nations to actually be in a unique situation. I don't think it's possibleaaJanuary 2011, Bangkok, Thailand
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now, it would be impossible for the United States to have the United Statesenter into a treaty with another country at that type of binding resolutions.
We can see the difference between rivers on the southern border between
Mexico and the United States where there have been not quite so happy
relationships and lots of trouble on that border. And a lot of it stems fromthe fact of water as it is in the United States, as it is in India and many othercountries, is that a provincial or a state subject is not controlled by thefederal government. So the water in... the seven states in Colorado river
basin actually own the water and they have a contract which is approved by
the federal government but they basically split up the water of the river
basin. But unfortunately, the river actually then runs into another country,
Mexico, and the federal government wanted to have a treaty to give Mexico
some water and total of the basin states said, go ahead, that's fine, where areyou going to get the water from? - Because the water belongs to us. There isno federal water in the United States. And so, actually, what happened was
the federal government tried to make water by desalinating unusable water[opaque] which is a very sorry tale and has never been fully resolved. And
I've been working for quite some years, my first paper was on the hinges
about the Brahmaputra river basin in 1966 and [opaque] going back andforth and it was about game theory looking at the resolution of a conflict. Of
the eastern board countries of the [unclear] Pakistan, East Pakistan and India.
And that was an interesting example back in 1966. Those days, we weremuch more hopeful about being able to get negotiating settlements. But
since then, [opaque] resources the conflict by Nepal, Bangladesh and India.
India is, like China in this particular setting, India is a big player, India justnot wanted to sign a treaty to give sovereignty to anybody else. Endlessarguments back and forth. And India – if I would be an adviser to the Indian
government, I would give them exactly the advice that they were using
which is: don't join an international conference. The basin made bilateraltreaties, so India has actually bilateral treaties with Nepal, Bhutan and
Bangladesh, but there's no treaty which has all of these countries together
because game theory tells us that if you have two players you can't have a
coalition whereas with three players, you have a coalition. With four players,
you get an even bigger coalition, and then you can get yourself into serious
trouble if you sign such a treaty. So the theory and the behavior of a big
country like India is [opaque] and congruent. We see the same with China inthis basin. There is very little incentive for Chinese to bring anything otherthan to be nice to your neighbors. That's exactly what they're doing, they
will make the decisions.
The Tigris/Euphrates is another river I have worked on. That is a riverwhich runs out of Turkey into Iraq and into Syria and a little bit into the Iran.
The Turks have wonderful costumes - they built storages at least twice
the capacity, twice the flow of the rivers, how much .. they have built - nodefinition of an international river – an international river is a river that runs
along boundaries between two countries in this area. If the river is theboundary between the two countries, then you have to share the water
equally. But the Tigris and Euphrates are Turkish rivers because they flow
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as long as it's yours. And then it goes to your neighbors they can do whatever they want. These are the types of issues you get into with internationalriver basins.
The Ganges/Brahmaputra is something I have worked on for a longtime. Ten thirty tonight I had a conference call from Rupert (?), the WorldBank yet again is doing another study on the Ganges. He is from Brooklyn
University, where they are trying to devise ways structuring cooperation
between participants and riparians. Let me tell you that the Mekong basin
might also have big advantages in terms of institutions. We actually have an
institution, a high-tuned institution which is eventually [unclear] There is nointernational institution dealing with [opaque] They may be 25 to 30 years
behind Mekong. These are the sorts of issues we are thinking about when
we talk about development of the Mekong.
Dr. Kawasaki: Thank you, Professor Rogers. And now we will open ourquestionnaire from the floor. Please join, your comments are also welcome.
And discuss with the speakers. Yes, Dr. Sucharit, please.
Dr. Sucharit: I think, a river, mentioning... there are two points. One is likein the Chaopraya river, which has also a conflict between the upstream,
middle stream and downstream so even in one country there are certain
conflicts, so how to manage? This also why the development of the qualityof life, that why more use of the water, both quantity and quality-wise.
There are also another approach in some engaged area which have goodcommunity relationship so they have a sharing culture between the upstreamside and the downstream side. So I think even in one country, there need tobe approach from … This non-zero side approach that the function ofcentral government need to have a better planning to have a better benefit
together in each area.
The second one is a kind of social relationship within so that we havethe own sharing so benefit of the national should come down to so that they
can have certain measure. So these are I think the lesson that we need in the
country that something now I think what the central government have nonzero some approach and community based, they have cultural sharing, thesharing between the community and central government. These are two or
three [unclear] we need to study more so that for the better government in
the sharing, this can [unclear] in that have some better for the conflict in thesocial in the future. So these kind of things need more research.
Dr. Kawasaki: Thank you, Prof. Sucharit. - Upstream and downstream – avery big issue, so even in Thailand is that an issue, so I think Dr. Babel, youstudied for long years about Mekong, so how are there any changes about
the upstream and downstream issue in the Mekong [area]? Any change fromtwenty years ago or ten years ago? Development or any...?
Dr. Babel: OK, I would like to raise some other point of discussion sinceProf. Rogers is here … let's get something from him – he has got fifty yearsof experience. I raise a point maybe of interest. I would like to know, based
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on your experiences: is there any study which clearly defines the benefits of
those dams which were constructed about thirty – forty - fifty years ago? If
those dams would have not been there, what would have been the situation?
That means that plenty of benefits which we have seen from these dams, I
would like to know - I am not aware of such comprehensive strategy whichsays that if Bhumipol dam for example would have not been there, what
would have been the situation in terms of development?
Prof. Rogers: One of my best supporters, she asked a good question andpointed out something now... I think that one of the issues Professor Aki
pointed at, it's very hard to know what the consequences of building a dam
are going to be. We pretend we know, we look around and see what's
happening in other places but we don't have very many experiments inbuilding a dam and taking it down, however, in the United States recently,
over the past ten years, we have taken down about eighty dams, somesmaller and some larger ones, and actually, we have a sense of what will
happen to the environment when a dam is being taken down. The
experiences so far have not been very encouraging. In fact, they will be intaking the dam down will never get back to where you were beforehand
because the river has changed so much due to the morphologies forth andback due to the dam itself so it's hard to imagine [opaque]. Now in terms ofthe consequences of dams, one of the important studies I know of, wasstudied in 1966 on the river flowing from the US into Canada, the Columbia
river, and that study was done by the Resources for the Future, and it's avery interesting study because this was in 1966 and we were all very
enthusiastic, in 1966, the year I wrote my paper on Ganges we were very
enthusiastic in analysis and developed a lot of methodology and things likethat... Professor Howe I think wrote the report. He looked at the Colombia
River Treaty which the United States signed with Canada on the river, andthe argument: the [unclear] engineers and the Environment Canada designed
the system together, it was in the best methodology of the time, very, very
carefully done, and in the last minute, in British Columbia the Socialist
Party was elected and they objected to the treaty. So it had to be treated???
by provinces and the states. And so they objected the treaty. They objectedto the treaty because the treaty involved the US constructing dams inside
British Columbia and actually running the dams. So the British Columbia
government said no. We will build the dams and we will sell the electricity
to the United States. So with lots of back and forth in nineteen years, theCorps. engineers advised the President of the United States not to sign thetreaty because they said it was not up to the optimum Even the Cops.
engineers talked about that this was not an optimum. This was not an
optimal solution so they didn't sign it because the Canadians would get more
benefits than the United States.
So anyhow, at that time, this is the benefit, the linkage issue, how tolink water to things [which] are sided to water sector likely in the Greater
Mekong Sub-basin.
And then that time NATO was considering a new fighter plane. And
there were two competing offers: one of them was the US Phantom jet, andddForefront
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the other was the Canadian Star Fighter. Now the Canadian Star Fighter wasmuch better flying allrounder than the Phantom. The point is that who everwon the competition about the sale, NATO, every NATO country would
have to buy the airplanes that won this competition. And the United States
being the biggest player in NATO, insisted that the Phantom jet be the one
to be chosen. The Canadians were very unhappy. So the president said to his
advisers, [he said] “the Canadians are very unhappy with my decision, isn't
there something we can give them?” One simply quite gaffed in the backand said “yes, we have this treaty” Even if it is a lousy treaty but you should
give it to the Canadians, that they'll feel better. So since 1963, Kennedy
signed the treaty, the treaty was approved by the senate... and of course, it's
interesting to see what happened to the treaty. The treaty has still... in fact,
the hydro-power was under-priced, the Canadians forced themselves tosupply electricity at three cents a kilowatt-hour for thirty years, and that
ended up the debate over dams in Canada. And of course, what happened atthat time in the mid-sixties, huge inflation in construction costs, so it's likethe Canadians were stuck having to build dams, very expensive, and to sellelectricity at ridiculous prices. And the treaty is up for renegotiation rightnow. And of course, what has happened since then, and this is one of thecautionary tales about this whole thing, that nobody was worried about
salmon in 1963, now, the salmon fishery is one of the critical issues on therenegotiation on the treaty. What is happening to the salmon now is it has
almost disappeared from this river. Is it because of the dams? Is it becauseof climate change? Is it because of ocean fishing? Are other people
involved? So now we're in the middle of a big wrestling match on theconsequences of the salmon fisheries, consequences these dams having, fiveor six dams. And this is an example I think, how things change. So if you
agree to a treaty right now and it gives something right now, thirty years
time, remember these are long terms for investment, thirty years time.
Prof. Ogden: I had the impression that your question was really: Whatwould have happened had we not built the dams? The Hoover Dam, theTennessee Valley Authority, would we have had development in the UnitedStates? I think that's the thrust of your question, wasn't it? - Professor
Rogers, that was the question.
Prof. Rogers: I think I had a good answer for another question...
When I was a student, I visited the [?] dam in northern?? Tennessee,
probably the first dam built in the Tennessee valley, that was in 1963 I think,the dam had been built in 1936/7 and the turbines have run continuously
from that point on, until they were stopped once in the [unclear] period.
Basically, once you have built a well-built hydro-dam and it's functioning
and well-maintained, it will run for ever. Assuming sediment problems etc.
etc, and the TVA, then this is the experience of this one dam which was likehaving your own printing press to produce money – once you built it it justran for ever. I'm not saying this would happen in the Mekong. Certainly, thisis one of the reasons why hydro projects are so attractive. You make aclever investment and then you have one guy who, well, can put some workin observation, and the operation maintenance is very low.

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Dr. Kawasaki: Thank you. So any other question?
A member of the audience: My name is Chaipapasophon from
Chiangmai University. I want to ask maybe Professor Babel that last year
they have a low for during the dry season of the Mekong River, and a lot of
media blame because of the Chinese building the dam. I just want to ask ifthat is true or not.
Dr. Babel: So last year, a lot of news in the newspaper and there was acounter-report also [which] came from China, and China says that is not[opaque] You see we need to consider the climate variability, and it isimportant that we cannot just say that because of climate change or becauseof the dams which have been constructed upstream. We need to look at thecommon stream, and based on one year's flows in the river, I don't think weshould be able to conclude anything at all. We have been having climate
variability for centuries. And that could have been because of the low flows,
low dry years which have been observed in all states.
As far as... There are many other issues here. It's not just because of thedevelopment which has been taking place, diversion which has been seen inother parts of the MRC. So in my view, I would say that rather having aperception based on only one year of information will not lead to any
conclusions.
Prof. Rogers: I have a rider to it and a comment: We did visit China and we
spoke to a professor in Kunming who was head of the trans-border instituteof China. And we discussed this particular issue and we said, well, they
have daily data from fifty to hundred years of – I've forgotten the number of the stream flows in that area, and the hydrology and rainfall, and he said
“we sent a senior government official who told the Mekong River
Commission not to worry because all data showed we are not responsible.”
And I said, well that's nice to send a senior government official but wouldn't
it be nice if the scientific community could see the data you have that we
could arrive at the same conclusion? And we would feel a lot better about it,
if we can see there is a computer disc some of the data is standing on. And
the Chinese were only willing to share when they wouldn't be criticized.
This is a perfect example of what Professor Odgen was talking about interms of information sharing. Without information sharing, there is no trust.
Dr. Kawasaki: Thank you. So Mr. Chaiporn, so I would like to know what
your department thinks about this?
Mr. Chaiporn: Thank you. So I will add up for what about your answer.
From the fact, there are many monitoring stations in the Mekong river, bothin the mainstream and tributaries. That I said before during my presentationthat this time, the percentage of the discharge of the whole Mekong river
basin coming from China is only 17 percent and the rest depends on the
Laos with 40 percent, and just today, you can look at the MRC website, at
the Chiangsai??? station, you can see the average water level is quite normal,
higher than average, but in Luangprabang, it's very low because there was
not much rainfall in that area.
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I just come back from China. I've been there twice in December. Last
year, the southwest of China was confronted with the most serious drought
in decades, so the solution is that Prime Minister Wuchita (?) calledhydrogeologists from our countries, more than ten thousand hydrogeologists,
together with the equipment to survey groundwater during the ..., so they
could solve the problem in five months. So in this case, somebody alreadymentioned the drinking water [issue] in this region, so concerning the
Mekong, or MRC committee, we propose that... - in the past, we didn't talkabout the groundwater but in the near future, we will form this activity. And
the next, in the FU, one sub of the UATS will come to discuss with us about
this.
And for Thailand, for example in the rural area, many small
waterworks or village waterworks depend on the groundwater, more than 70
percent. So considering Thailand and our neighboring countries, I think wea bit more advanced in this technology. So we already have some contracts
with our neighboring countries like Cambodia, Laos. We help them withsurveys and planning for the groundwater development. So we hope we cando more. And we already [work] in the Department of Groundwater
Resources also... OK, there is international credit course on groundwater
development already two years. So, we will continue the technique to do
this. So this refers to groundwater, I think we should pay more attention
from now because during the dry period when you have no water, nosurface water, you should pay more attention to groundwater development.
This is my idea.
And can I get up another thing? - For MRC, this is the international
institutionalization, but you can see that all of MRC member countries arevery poor countries – low education, low economic strength, so if you wantto fully adopt international standards, you will fail, the country cannot
perform in the international discipline but we should keep [trying], toemphasize e.g. capacity building and to seek help from the developed
country. Only five percent of the budget of the MRC, only five percent orsomething, but not more than ten percent are from the riparian countries.
The other 90 to 95 percent are from the north, northern countries like
Denmark, Australia, US, Japan, Germany. So in this case, when the donors
give us money, so they want to have [some rights] to follow up closely someissues that we have to follow, including the environmental aspect, andmany, many sustainability issues, as we always say. But then another thingis what we should do and we can we will do now is for instance to keep
monitoring the data like flow data, water quantity, water quality, also otherrelated things as a baseline. For Thailand, we have about 48 water
limitations (?) along the Mekong. So we should help [our neighbors] toinstall some monitoring stations for every [area]... in this case, for a long,
long time, so through longterm [observation] we can get really good data asa base form. So later, if we have a conflict with China or some other country,
we can use this data for our dequotation (?) or some discussion.

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Dr. Kawasaki: Thank you, Mr. Chaiporn. So China is a very big brother.
We have to think, its very important to think about China, so please, Ms.
Nitivadee.
Ms. Nitivadee: Yes, I would like to add from the China aspect to the[discussion]: if there is any effect on drought or flood in the Mekong region,
we cannot find any definite answer for this. But we put first that we haveseen China more cooperative since last year when we had the summit, theASEAN Summit in Thailand, and this is the first time that, maybe becauseof some - you know - political push, so China sent the level of the deputy
prime minister to the summit and what they promised is that in MRC, China
is not a member country, just an observer, and the status observer means nocommitment to any MRC regulation, right? - Yes, OK, and we have seen
the progress is that the deputy prime minister of China came to that meetingand they promised to exchange data information on the level of water with
the MRC that is what we think is a big progress with China. I don't knowwhether that is, you know, maybe because of some push or not but that iswhere we see some progress.
Member of the audience: I am [opaque]. I am a student at AIT, I havea question for Professor Suzanne: Do you think MRC will consider all thechallenges you put up? Do you think money or development weight will bea trouble on environmental effect? Do you trust in the MRC IIT? Do you
think they will consider also the environmental effect?
Prof. Ogden: Thank you for the question. Actually, I didn't necessarily
think that all of these challenges or problems were ones that werenecessarily coming from the MRC itself, I mean the fact that there aredifferent groups within a country that don't agree with each other, or
ministries fight with each other about the Mekong, there's not much the
MRC can necessarily do about that. And one of the problems the MRC has
is that it is really, as someone said, sort of a talk shop. One of the mostimportant things that they've done in terms of bringing real water security to
the area is to make sure that conflict is avoided. So they have been very
important so far in preventing conflicts over the water within the Mekong
river basin. But they're really... just two things to say, one is that in a sense,
they don't have the power to do many things because it is the national
governments that will make the final decision. But the MRC would like verymuch to strengthen, to have each of the four Lower Mekong River Basin
Committees strengthened so that they can represent their governments. In
other words, when they make a decision, when they are looking at things
within the MRC that these, let's say Vietnam's national committee within the
MRC, that it can speak for the government, - as it is right now, it cannot
speak for the government, it just can make suggestions that then the national
government makes a decision for – political reasons or what ever. But theother thing the MRC is doing is, as you probably know, by next year, all thepeople in the MRC who are not riparians will be replaced. So all the people
from the developed world who are now controlling the MRC will be
replaced and many people there … two perspectives are... but the one I'dlike to mention is that many people feel it will be very positive for the MRChh

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because they know for example that as it is right now the riparians, that isthe Vietnamese, the Thai, the Laotians and the Cambodians, they don't even
eat lunch with the non-riparian staff. It is the people from outside of thisregion who have controlled the MRC and that is not very empowering to themembers from these countries to be in an organization that is really being
controlled by people from Europe, from Japan and from other countries. So
that can be a very positive development that as of next year, everybody in
the MRC, including the Chief Executive Officer, will be from this area.
Now one of the problems that has been mentioned is that there is a different
capacity in terms of providing personnel to replace these people fromoutside, the people who were there, the technical people especially, werehighly trained people from the outside who were brought in. But Thailand,of course, has very talented people who could then go to the MRC. The
problem is that the Thais don't want to go to the MRC because they canmake a lot more money in the private sector here and because if they leave
Thailand and go to the MRC, if they leave a ministry, which is, by the way,where all the talent really is here for the Mekong river basin, - it's in theministries – if they leave that, sort of they feel they might be interrupting
their careers and those positions only last for six years and then they mustleave the MRC. So Thailand doesn't necessarily - in a sense, they dominate
the riparian staff right now – but they could be stronger if they worked for
all these skips except that they have, you know, other choices or places togo with their talent and everything. Vietnam and Laos, you know they'resocialist countries and they assign people to it. Vietnam is becoming muchstronger, but those people, their technical staff can only stay for three years
and then they bring them back to Vietnam. And the salaries for the non-Thaipeople in the Mekong River Committee appear quite competitive for a
Laotian or Cambodian or Vietnamese but for a Thai person, they are not too
appealing. But what that means is that the Thai, the Laotians, theCambodians, the Vietnamese are more likely to quickly build their staff,
their capabilities. And I think having them take over, having the people
from the Mekong river basin, from the Mekong River Commission will
possibly be a very positive development.
Dr. Kawasaki: So thank you all for your cooperation. I think this
symposium has been completed successfully with interesting, informativeand exciting six presentations, with a lively panel discussion. So we would
like to express our sincere gratitude for those who kindly bought it andcontributed to the success of this symposium by giving a big hand.

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QUESTION AND ANSWER
Q&A Dr. Babel
Q: My name is Duangchan Singkran from the Pollution Control Department.
I just finished a new building the main report on the Lower Mekong Basinfor my department and I think we submitted that to the Water Resources
Department just yesterday.
So my question: Like... I would like to ask your opinion about the... how
you think about the - I will focus on the Lower Mekong Basin that's
involved with four countries like Lao, Thai, Cambodia and Vietnam, we
draw like the scenario in the next 50 years, and how to manage the water
conflict like for use among four countries and you say that it seems like is
no problem about the water scarcity in the whole river basin. But I think for
the Lower Mekong Basin, we still have that problem. So I would like you tolike express your opinion about this. Thank you very much.
A: I think we are pushing this very [much], as I said in my presentation thatwhen we consider the scarcity with respect to sub-basin level on an annual
time scale, then we do not have the criteria which was used - of 1,700 cubic
meter per person per year, we have that lot of water. Now when it comes to– on a spacial scale, on a smaller scale, local scale, and time – if we look
into dry season, there are problems. So that is very clear. So our intention
here is to see how the sub-basins perform at the annual basis. Then, weapplied the same approach in some of these small basins, sub-sub-basins in
Nepal. A lot of what was done after the last two years on this approach. And
we have even published journal papers on it. So the idea is that when you go
on a smaller scale, spatial scale, the problems are still there. Now this gives
a direction of what renovations are required, in which area we need to lookat, so this is a comprehensive assessment which can identify at basin level
what is happening. And the whole idea was that in [task? - unclear] only
what [basias?? - unclear], what is important, what is, like we said here, themain important problem: it's management capacities and cooperation
developments.
I hope I answered your question.
Q: Yes, but I think like the part of the problem is not just focused on thespecific area but we should look at the perspective of the … I mean thewhole picture of the Mekong Basin. I like the like that.. for like theparticularly in Thailand last year, like the in the dry season, we have thevery dry, like the is a big drought in the northeastern part province ofThailand, we have severely discussed that because that a lot of dams wereconstructed in the Upper Mekong region that may have a lot of impacts to
the Lower Mekong Basin...
A: Very clear. I fully agree with what you have said. But we also look into
one of the strategies we are now involved in. There are eight post-docs
aaJanuary 2011, Thailand
January 2011, Bangkok, Thailand

working in different aspects of this in Mekong. And to our initial
vulnerability research says that probably storage of water upstream might
not affect downstream to that great extent which we assumed. But I will
have more clearer answers in the next one year or so.
Q&A Dr.. Sucharit
Q: I am Vevien Chang and I am doing my research about the agenda?? onthe water I stayed in Kanchanaburi province in the village for three months
and I would like to ask you specifically about the community. Your study
now is trying to do the community plan is linking with the provincial
development plan. I want to know your community is specifically whichlevel – village, Tambon or “Or.Bor.Tor”? - Thank you.
A: So, the way the budget unit is at Or.Bor.Tor or local administrative unit;
by law, within Or.Bor.Tor or local administration, we need to have acommunity workshop, we have to go ask each village [to clear] what theywant. So now the Aor.Baor.Taor has two functions: one function is areabased, within the village; the other function is occupation area [related] likerice paddy or prik/ chilly (?). So this [is what the] local community has togather in information [by] coming together. Up to now, because we have amapping system, they have a lot of papers of requests. So now we map up
the information into the mapping and add some calculations, so they canconstellate better which [requests to promote], also if the supply side issufficient or not, and we are copying [this] now at many lower
administration units.
Q&A Prof. Roger
Q: I am from the Pollution Control Department, my name is Brantan
Singkhram. I just ask one question for the first part of this. First, I would
like to say that I totally agree with Professor Rogers, with most of yourimpressions, point of view. I agree that. I think that in Southeast Asia
Country, we do have a lot of dams already built and going to be built. Likefor example in Laos, now, when I was young, I see like the Nam Nueng?? 1,
like the first Nam Nueng?? dam – Nam Nueng?? is the name of the dam –now, I am not sure is the Nam Nueng 11 or 12, and that's, you know, notonly fishery, not only fish resources that we think that is maybe lost but likeforestry resources, too. Like once that you have to build the dam like ... forexample in Laos, ten years I went to... at that time I was a reporter so I went
to interview the president of Laos, and we saw a lot of the - you know – thelogs, like the big logs, after cutting down the tree, under the water and mostof them like they cannot be get out under the water because low technology.
And Thailand is one of the country that – you know – buy the electricity
from the Laos. So that happened. So and I don't think that the dam is the
final solution for many things in this Southeast Asian country. And it maybe
the big problem in the future for the Mekong River Basin, so I am very gladthat you raised these topics for MRC to reconsider as is especially the [pointbb

Forefront
Challenges
WaterResources
ResourcesManagement
Managementin
in Southeast
Southeast Asia
Forefront
andandChallenges
of of
Water

ICUS Report 53
ICUS Report 53of] the draft for the main report that I just submitted to the Department of
Water Resources. - Thank you very much.
A: Thank you for the comments. You are some sort of the audience I have
all the time. I love that being approved...
Q: Thank you, Mr. Peter Rogers, I come from Royal Irrigation Department,
Guysip?? I am engineer. Today is very much organized but is policy with
development in MRC. 50 years ago is very long term for approve than in
four??? I told you one question: Ask about opportunity to be create new
dam along way inside MRC?...
A: I think you did probably flood a lot of people out. Please remember
there's a lot of dams and very flat river basin areas so we don't have any
good dam sites to store a large quantity of water. And then myunderstanding of the topology, topography of the basin is that there are nogood sites for storing large quantities of water. We don't have something
like a swamp, we don't have something like the Colorado River in [opaque]or even the Three-Gorges in China. So the building double-size of the damson the main stream is going to flood out a lot of people and take up a lot ofvery valuable agricultural land in (murmuring). I don't see the possibility of
doubling the storage capacity.

Question
Forefrontand
andAnswer
Challenges of Water Resources Management in Southeast Asia

cc

APPENDIX I: BROCHURE

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APPENDIX II: SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMPROGRAM OVERVIEW“Forefront and Challenging of Water Resources Management inSoutheast Asia”
Venue:
Date:

Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit (Ruam Rudee Ballroom, 9th Floor)
29 January 2011 (Saturday)

MC: Akiyuki Kawasaki, Visiting Faculty of AIT and Project Assoc. Prof. of ICUS, IIT, Univ. of Tokyo.
Time
12.30-13.00
13.00-13.05
13.05-13.35
13.35-14.05
14.05-14.35
14.35-15.05

15.30-16.00
16.00-16.30

Topic
Registration
Opening remarks
Mekong sub-regional framework: opportunities
and challenges
Vulnerability
assessmentoffreshwater
resources to environmental change in a case of
the Mekong River basin
Water resources management in MRC &Thailand's perspectives on MRC’s role
Integrating
provincial/communitywaterplanning with provincial development plan byarea based information system
Coffee breakWho‘s river is it anyhow? Some issues
regarding transboundary development on the
Mekong River basin
Challenges to Benefit Sharing in the MekongRiver Basin

16.35-17.20

Panel discussion

17.20-17.30

Closing remarks

SpeakerMs. Nitivadee Manitkul(MOFA)

Assoc. Prof.
Babel (AIT)Mr.

MukandChaiporn

Singh

Siripornpibul(MONRE)

Prof. Sucharit Koontanakulvong(Chulalongkorn University)

Prof. Peter Rogers(Harvard Univ.)

Prof. Suzanne P. Ogden(Northeastern University)

6 presenters chaired by
Dr. Akiyuki Kawasaki (AIT/UT)APPENDIX III: BIOGRAPHY

Nitivadee Manitkul
Affiliation:
Director of Economic Relations and Cooperation,
Department of International Economic Affairs,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
Education and professional training:•

M.A. (International Relations) International University of Japan & Carleton University, Canada•

Certificate of International Trade Training Forum of International Trade Training-FITT, Canada•

Certificate of the Art of Negotiating Course The Negotiation Institute, Inc, USA•

Certificate of the Executive Course for Diplomat Devawongse Varopakarn

Institute of Foreign Affairs,

Thailand•Certificate of the Executive Course for the Government Officials, Office of the Civil Service Commission,
ThailandProfessional appointment:•

Third Secretary, Division of Economic Relations and Cooperation, Department of Economic Affairs•

Second Secretary (Economics) , Royal Thai Embassy, Ottawa•

First Secretary, Division of Europe I, Department of European Affairs•

First Secretary, Division of Cultural Relations, Department of Information•Counselor, Division of Pacific Affairs (Thailand-Australia FTA), Department of America and South PacificAffairs•

Counselor, Thailand-US FTA Negotiation Unit, Department of America and South Pacific Affairs•

Acting Director, Latin America Division, Department of America and South Pacific AffairsMukand Singh Babel
Affiliation:
Associate Professor and Field Coordinator, Water Engineering andManagement (WEM) Field of Study, School of Engineering and Technology,
Asian Institution of Technology
Educational Background:•

D. Eng. (Water Resources Engineering), Asian Institute of Technology, 1993•

M. Eng. (Soil and Water Engineering), Asian Institute of Technology, 1983•

B. Eng. (with honors) (Agricultural Engineering), Rajasthan Agricultural University, Udaipur, India, 1981

Research interests:
Dr. Babel specializes in hydrologic and water resources modeling as applied to integrated water resourcesmanagement. His interest areas are very much diverse and include watershed modeling and management; water
resources allocation and management; water resources and socio-economic development; water supply system andmanagement; and climate change on hydrology and water resources. Research related to groundwater resourcesmanagement and drought analysis, forecasting and management are also of interest

Mr. CHAIPORN SIRIPORNPIBUL
Affiliation:
Deputy Director General,
Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Brief Career:
2010- Recent Deputy Director general,
Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
2007 – 2010 Director of the Bureau of Groundwater Conservation and restoration,
Department of Groundwater Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment.
2002 – 2007 Director of the Bureau of Groundwater Assessment & Balance,
Department of Groundwater Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment
1979 - 1980 Deep Well Drilling and Development Division, Public Works Department,
as a Senior Hydrogeologist, chief of Hydrogeological Survey Section.
Education:
2003-2005 MPA (Master Degree of Public Administration), Sripathum University, Thailand
1974-1978 B.Sc. (Geology), Chiang Mai University, Thailand
1991
Post Graduate Diploma in Seismology, International Institute of Seismology and
Earthquake Engineering(IISEE), Tsukuba, Japan
Awards:2005
Good Performance Award, the Achievement of Anti-draught Award fromthe Project of the Groundwater Investigation and Development in Chonburi andRayong Province.
2004“Royal Initial of The Queen Sirikit of Thailand ” for the project of Groundwater
Investigation and Development for Bhuping Palace, Chiang Mai Province
1994“Merit Award(Good Man of Ministry of Interior)” by Ministry of Interior, Thailand.
Membership:
Geological Society of Thailand (GST),The Thai Astronomical Society,Thai Hydrogeology Association(HAT)
Selected Publications:- Dancing Salt Theory : The Method of the Study of the Occurrence of Salt water and saline soil in
Northeastern Region of Thailand, Technical Meeting held by Ministry of Environment and Natural
Resources, BITEC, Bangkok, 14-16 September 2009
- Limestone Caves: Occurrence, Development & Conservation, Special lecture for Geological
Science Students, Mahidol University, Saiyoke Campus, 11 February 2009

Sucharit Koontanakulvong
Affiliation:
Head of Research Unit,
Water Resources System Research Unit,
Department of Water Resources Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University

Education:
Ph.D. (Water Use Eng.) Kyoto Univ. Japan 1983
M.A. (Water Use Eng.) Kyoto Univ. Japan 1980
B. Eng. (Chemical Eng.) Kyoto Univ. Japan 1978

Peter P. Rogers
Affiliation:
Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering,
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
Harvard University, USA.
Research interests:
B.Engineering, 1958, University of Liverpool
M.S., 1961, Engineering, Northwestern University
Ph.D., 1966, Engineering, Harvard University
Research interests:• Conflict resolution in international river basins.
• Improved methods for managing natural resources and the environment, with emphasis on the use of analytic

optimizing methods to incorporate both the natural phenomena and the engineering controls.
• Impacts of global change on water resources, and the development of indices of environmental quality andsustainable development.
• Interaction of land use planning and central management.

Prof. Rogers has carried out extensive field and model studies on population, water and energy resources, andenvironmental problems in Costa Rica, Pakistan, India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and, to a lesser extent,
in 25 other countries. His most recent work has focused on sustainable development with an emphasis on large
cities in Asia.
He is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering and the Third World Academy of Science,and is the recipient of the Maass-White Visiting Scholarship, and Guggenheim and Twentieth Century Fellowships.

Suzanne P. Ogden
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Political Science,
Northeastern University, USA
Areas of Study:
Comparative Politics, Chinese Politics, Democratization and Development in China;
International Relations, US-China Relations, US Policy Towards Asia
Selected Professional Activities:•

Research Associate, Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, 1974-present•

Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge University, England,1995-1997; 2010•

Visiting Scholar, East Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 2011•

Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge University, 1995-96, 1997•

Fulbright Lecturer, Foreign Affairs College, Chinese Foreign Ministry, Beijing, 1996-97•

Editorial Board, Journal of Contemporary China•

Evaluator, National Science Foundation•

Evaluator, American Council of Learned Societies•

Evaluator for CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food, CGIAR (Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research)•

Founding Board of Directors, Greater China Business Council of New England•

Roundtable discussant, "Roundtable: Democracy, Sooner or Later?" China in the Red, Frontline, PBS•

International Monitor for national elections in El Salvador, 1994•

Member of:•oNational Committee on U.S.-China Relationso

New England China Seminar (Harvard)

Grants:o

CASA ASIA, 2010-2011. For study of shared benefits in the Mekong River BasinAkiyuki Kawasaki, Dr. (Eng.)
Affiliation:- Project Associate Professor, International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS),
Institute of Industrial Sciences (IIS), The University of Tokyo (UT)
- Visiting Faculty, Water Engineering Management, and Coordinator, Regional
Network Office for Urban Safety, School of Engineering and Technology,
Asian Institute of Technology
Brief Career:
After getting his doctoral degree and working at Yokohama National University, Dr. Kawasaki conducted researchat UT, United Nations University, and at Harvard University.
Dr. Kawasaki has over 13 years of experience utilizing GIS for multidisciplinary environmental research whiledeveloping systematic approaches for integrating a wide range of data models, data formats, and researchmethodologies into a common GIS computing environment. Using GIS as the main tool, he has been conducting
research on both disaster management, such as landslide and earthquake response, and environmental management,such as an integrated approach to evaluate the potential impact of precipitation and land-use change on stream flow.
His current main study area is the Mekong River basin.