The other side of the Mekong development debate
China’s Mekong development plan has stirred debate as potentially becoming an environmental and social peril for downstream Mekong countries. The country’s navigation channel improvement plan has recently attracted attention from environmentalists, activists, and the media alike.
The pace has picked up since the middle of this year, when it was reported that waterway clearance by China was progressing into Thailand.
The Bangkok Post reported China’s rock-blasting plan would damage the Mekong, and most recently claimed “the environment will never be the same”.
Phan Tuan Phan (CEO, MRC)
