China to develop cooperation with MRC member countries
Vientiane Times July 29, 2009
By Somsack Pongkhao
China is committed to cooperating further with countries in the lower Mekong Basin to minimise downstream impacts from hydropower projects in the country.
The lower Mekong countries of Laos , Vietnam , Cambodia and Thailand met with dialogue partners - China and Myanmar at the fourteenth dialogue meeting of the Mekong River Commission in Vientiane yesterday to discuss cooperation efforts.
Chief Executive Officer of the MRC Secretariat, Mr Jeremy Bird said We've seen quite a significant strengthening of the cooperation between lower Mekong countries and China and Myanmar .
Particular the willingness of China to share more information about the planning and operation of hydropower projects in the Lanchang River upstream.
They told us today about some of the measures they had taken to reduce and avoid impacts of significant flow changes on the downstream countries, and it's a very high priority to take into account the concerns of the downstream countries, Mr Bird said.
China is committed to participating in the strategic environmental assessment that the MRC is conducting on proposed hydropower projects in the lower Mekong Basin , according to Mr Bird.
Also important is how projects in China will be operated, he said.
I think that we have seen significant steps forward in our cooperation with China .
During yesterday's meeting, Thailand and Vietnam asked China for more information about the day-to-day operations of their projects to see whether there is a need to provide some sort of warning system for downstream countries.
Mr Bird said the contribution to levels in water fluctuations coming from China has been very small much less than fluctuations from natural rainfall conditions in catchments areas in northern Thailand and Laos and southern China .
He said China has taken a lot of issues into consideration and is now committed to stronger cooperation with MRC countries.
Concerning climate change, Mr Bird said it is a long-term question as to what extent dry season flows will be reduced and drought conditions will prevail more, as well as to what extent more extreme flooding events will occur.
We have had a number of meetings to discuss and project what the changes could be and what the implications would be, he said.
We are also talking to China about having a partnership where we can discuss the issue of climate change and what the impact of melting glaciers would be in the downstream areas.
We will have follow-up meetings to determine concrete steps to take forward the cooperation with China on these sensitive issues.
I think there will be a series of concrete steps in term of Chinese involvement in MRC's studies and MRC involvement in Chinese activities. |
