The Last Free Flowing Mekong Tributary in the Northeast, Songkram, Subject to Regulation: ONWR
Conservationists, however, have expressed concerns over possible adverse impacts on the complex freshwater river system as well as the status of the country’s latest international Ramsar Site
The Songkram River, one of the two prime Mekong tributaries in the Northeast, which is still free from any structures, is now subject to regulation with a set of over thousand non-structural and structural projects planned by the Office of the National Water Resources (ONWR), as part of its strategic environmental assessment to help tackle the chronic problem of severe flooding and drought regularly hitting the river basin.
Running eastward for over 400 kilometres in the upper north of the region, the river feeds six sub-basins of five provinces from Sakhon Nakhon, Udon Thani, Nong Khai, Buengkan, to Nakhon Phanom, with the total area accounting for over 13,000 square kilometres (8.125 million rai).
B.Tribune
