China held water back from drought-stricken Mekong countries, report says
Last year, while parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and southern Vietnam experienced a devastating drought, China held abundant water on the Upper Mekong River back from downstream communities, wiping out crops and fishing stock and bringing one of the world’s great waterways to its knees.
At one point, the river was roughly 5 meters (16 feet) lower than it should have been under natural conditions, while from April to November, China’s upstream areas received above-average levels of rainfall.
In July, the river reached its lowest point in a century in northern Thailand, while in November, Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, which provides up to 500,000 tons of fish to the country in a normal year, faced a crisis as its unique annual flooding cycle was disrupted.
Michael Tatarski
