Frustration on the Mekong

http://online.wsj.com/

via CAAI News Media

MARCH 18, 2010

Falling water levels reveal the hidden shoals of mistrust.

There's still about a month of the dry season left to go in Indochina, and already parts of the Mekong River are close to completely drying up. The worst drought in half a century is not only depriving some of the 65 million people who rely on the river for water, it is also ruining farmers' crops and shutting down trade along the usually busy waterway. In the past such a disaster would be cause to blame heaven. This time a lot of the anger, rightly or wrongly, is directed at China.

The suspicion is that four large hydroelectric dams built along the Mekong in southwest Yunnan province since 1996 are holding back water to benefit Chinese users at the cost of people downstream. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have all expressed some level of concern to China, but their citizens, especially in Thailand, have been more forthright in pointing the finger. Irate farmers in the north prompted Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to ask Beijing "to help manage the water flow along the river better." A recent editorial in the Bangkok Post, drawing on the claims of environmental groups, was headlined, "China's dams killing the Mekong."

China may actually be getting a bum rap here. Yunnan is also suffering severely, with $1.5 billion in crop losses, power generation down and more than 20 large boats reportedly left high and dry. Officials have offered to open the largest operational dam at Jinghong to inspection to prove they are not hoarding water. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue visited Bangkok and told Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, "China would not do anything to damage mutual interest with neighboring countries in the Mekong." And anyway, one diplomat explained, only 13.5% of the river's total water volume comes from China, with the bulk of the flow added by downstream tributaries.

Nevertheless, Beijing has only itself to blame, since its lack of transparency and cooperation has sown mistrust. China has steadfastly refused to reveal its dam-building plans until they are already underway, and ignored the expressions of concern of its neighbors. It has refused to join the Mekong River Commission, the multilateral body that those neighbors use to coordinate development and river management, although it is now an observer. And Chinese dams don't share information about the amount of water they are releasing except during the flood season.

China is in a fever of dam building, which makes the Mekong drought a possible harbinger of more such conflicts. Many of Asia's great rivers have their sources on the Tibetan plateau, and India especially is nervous that China might divert the water of the Brahmaputra, as has been mooted in the past.

With better diplomacy and information-sharing, Beijing could have avoided the suspicions of water hoarding and shown its neighbors the benefits of its dams to flood and drought management. Its future dams on the Mekong and other rivers offer a chance to show that it understands the responsibility of being a great power.