Water rights and legal frameworks

Laos has started releasing around 1,136 cubic meters of water per second from its dams to the Mekong River to help Vietnam’s southern region cope with severe drought and saltwater intrusion, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The country planned to keep doing so ...

Leaders from the six countries along the Lancang-Mekong River agreed on 23 March in China’s Hainan province to join forces to build a peaceful and prosperous community, the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, and has reached the agreement at the first Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting ...

More than half of Thailand is gripped by water shortages from the drought, according to the Department of Water Resources, but the irrigation chief remains positive that supplies can last until the rainy season if everyone steps up conservation efforts.  Keep reading     ...

China has promised to discharge water from a dam along the Lancang River (better known as the Mekong) to help alleviate drought conditions in Southeast Asia. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang announced on 15 March in a regular press conference that China will release water from ...

The Thai government’s planned diversion of billions of cubic metres of water from the Mekong River, described last week by a Thai Ministry of Water Resources representative as being as far as two years away, has already begun. The pumping, which is pulling water from the ...

As disputes multiply over the use of the Mekong, including over planned upriver dams in Laos contested by Cambodia and Vietnam, and a newly unveiled Thai plan to divert water to its drought-ravaged farms, the body tasked with mediating among the four nations is losing ...

The governor of Banteay Meanchey on 21 December warned of potentially dire water shortages in the province and said that authorities will begin constructing a small dam on the Serei Sophon River to keep the water from escaping. Pumping from other rivers, lakes and reservoirs will also ...

The Thai government’s statement in late July that it is considering bringing water from the Mekong, Moei and Salween rivers to farmland to nine of its provinces has raised major concerns.  The water diversion has been described as a move to ‘extract blood from the Mekong’s ...

People in Vietnam hope Thailand will reconsider its plan to divert water from the Mekong, because it would seriously affect their ability to produce food. The Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s most important agricultural area. Each year, the area produces the most rice and fruit in the country. This region ...

A network of Thais living along the Mekong River have voiced their concern about a plan to divert water from the river to special economic zones. “Careful studies must be conducted before such a plan is implemented,” said network representative Jintana Kaysornsombat, who described the plan as a ...