Forum Report: April 1st, 2010

Public Forum on Sharing the Mekong

[Bangkok, Thailand] On 1st April 2010, 190 representatives from civil society, academia,
media, and government agencies met for the ‘Public Forum on Sharing the Mekong
Basin’ at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. The meeting debated recent development
trends in the Mekong basin and the role played by the Mekong River Commission
(MRC), the impacts and causes of the current drought, plans for dams on the Mekong
River’s lower mainstream, and visions for the future of the river.

A representative of the MRC started the public forum presenting about the MRC’s Basin
Development Plan (BDP). Outlining the BDP process, the MRC identified the need for
participation, transparency and consensus-building, and discussed some of the
challenges in bringing together different viewpoints, including time and resource
limitations. Civil society representatives questioned the governments’ and the MRC’s
continued support for hydropower dams. They observed that the MRC has failed to take
account of well-established flaws in Thailand’s power planning process and emerging
shortcomings in Vietnam’s process used to justify dam projects that consistently
overestimate power demand and don’t prioritize modern renewable electricity generation
technologies and energy efficiency measures.

Millions of people in Yunnan Province of China, Eastern Shan State of Burma, North and
Northeastern Thailand and Northern Lao are suffering from the present severe drought.
Representatives from the Chinese embassy told the forum that the low water levels in
the Mekong River were caused by low rainfall, not the operation of China’s dams on the
Lancang (Upper Mekong) River. The MRC said that their analysis suggested the same.
Whilst welcoming China’s increased sharing of information, civil society representatives
challenged China to release to the public all relevant data sets including the water levels
in the Xiaowan dam’s reservoir and historical data since dam construction started.
Furthermore, they added that the downstream impacts in Northern Thailand and Laos
caused by China’s dam construction to date should be recognized and compensated for,
and negotiations take place on how to minimize future downstream impacts.

Civil society groups raised concerns about plans to build eleven dams on the Mekong
River’s lower mainstream, highlighting the threats that the dams represented to
livelihoods and food security. MRC representatives described their Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) study now underway intended to assess the impacts
and benefits of the dams, and outlined the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation
and Agreement process. Civil society representatives questioned the ability of the MRC
to shape decisions on mainstream hydropower dams, given that a Memorandum of
Understanding for tariff negotiations was recently approved by Thailand’s National
Energy Policy Committee for the proposed Xayabouri Dam in Laos, despite the fact that
neither an environmental impact assessment nor the MRC’s SEA study has been
completed.

The public forum also heard from community and civil society representatives about the
existing value of the Mekong River and its natural resources, and their vision for the
future. They urged for future dam construction to be halted and the Mekong River to be
protected. In considering the future of the Mekong River, they urged for the region’s
leaders to listen to the voice of local people.

Closing the public forum, Professor Vitit from the Faculty of Law of Chulalongkorn
University summarized the meetings discussion and offered a number of
recommendations:

• Invite China and Burma to be full members of the MRC and parties to the 1995
Mekong agreement, and to implement fully the agreement on the basis of benefit
sharing and equity
• Invite an enlarging of space for stakeholders’ participation, especially
riparianization, transparency, and management by the people at large.
• Underline that prevention is better than cure. We need to appreciate the total
ecosystem affect due to dams. Invite countries to sign up to the UN Convention
on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses, and hold
a respect for ecology and equity.
• Emphasize better quality baseline monitoring and impact assessment, with public
participation. Access to and sharing of data relevant to the Mekong’s waters.
• Invite all to explore alternatives to big dams, in particular clean energy through
other forms of electricity generation including smaller-scale projects. There
should be participation and sustainable development.

About the Public Forum

The ‘Public Forum on Sharing the Mekong River’ brought together 190 participants
consisting of civil society organizations, academia, government and donor officials, and
MRC representatives from all Mekong countries, and international organizations. The
public forum was hosted by the Mekong Studies Center, Institute of Asian Studies,
Chulalongkorn University, the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn
University, and the Master of Arts in International Development Studies (MAIDS)
Programme, Faculty of Political Sciences, Chulalongkorn University.

The public forum was co-organized by Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional
Alliance (TERRA) (Thailand), the Vietnam Rivers Network (Vietnam), Mekong Energy
and Ecology Network (MEE Net) (Thailand), the Thai Peoples’ Network for the Mekong
(Thailand), the Chiang Kong Conservation Group (Thailand), the Eco-Culture Study
Group / Isan Human Rights and Peace Information Center (Thailand), the Living River
Siam (SEARIN) (Thailand), Hug Nam Khong (Thailand), the Save the Mekong Coalition,
Mekong Watch (Japan), and International Rivers (US).

This forum summary was prepared by the public forum’s co-organizers. For a
detailed forum report visit: www.savethemekong.org/news_detail.php?nid=97

Srisuwan Kuankachorn, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA)

Tel. +66 81-4314525; email: srisuwan@terraper.org; www.terraper.org
Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers, Tel: +66 (0) 81-422-0111; email:
pai@internationalrivers.org; www.internationalrivers.org
More information on the Save the Mekong initiative and government-backed plans to
dam the Mekong is available in English, Burmese, Chinese, Khmer, Lao, Thai and
Vietnamese on the coalition’s web site www.SavetheMekong.org.