As Kittikhoun states in this Annual Report, these challenges are transboundary by nature, so require continued cooperation to tackle them, among the riparian countries. This includes the need for data sharing, negotiation, compromise and openness to both regional and international partners.
“There is ‘one Mekong’,” Kittikhoun writes in the Foreword. “Ideally, then, we should embrace a Basin-wide approach to solution-seeking and decision-making, for everything from hydropower design and river monitoring to navigation rules and irrigation infrastructure.”
The MRC is the only intergovernmental agency entrusted by treaty – the 1995 Mekong Agreement – to safeguard the river; ensure equitable use of its water resources; and maximize economic development, while minimizing any harm done to the environment or riverine communities, namely the millions of fishing and farming families who…
