Opinion: Did China close Mekong tap? Data matters for cooperation
Recent reports claim definitive proof that the 2019-20 Mekong drought was caused by China – researchers at the Australia Mekong Partnership for Environmental Resources and Energy Systems (AMPERES) disagree. Will the controversial analysis further polarise stakeholders, or could the crisis shift regional cooperation into more productive spaces?
The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers. At the centre of this system is the flood pulse – a seasonal cycling of water when flow in the Mekong swells in response to the monsoon transporting water, nutrients and sediments from the headwaters to the floodplains and delta. Most years the flood pulse sustains the basin’s high levels of productivity and biodiversity, but during extreme years drought and flood can devastate basin communities.
The failure of the monsoon in 2019 and the drought conditions persisting to the present day have resulted in historic low river levels. The situation is so severe that Vietnam has declared a state of emergency in the Mekong delta and Thailand has called on the army to support drought relief efforts.
Tarek Ketelsen; Timo Räsänen; John Sawdon
