Mekong River Commission Meeting the Needs - Keeping the Balance MRC Water Utilization Programme: GEF International Waters Project (GEF/World Bank)

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Mekong River Commission Meeting the Needs -
Keeping the Balance MRC Water Utilization
ProgrammeGEF International Waters
Project(GEF/World Bank)
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Potentials and Challenge

• At 4,800km long, Mekong is one of the worlds
  longest rivers.
• Basin supports one of the most productive and
  diverse freshwater ecosystems.
• Least spoiled least developed, and potential
  for development is far from utilized.
• Only four countries are members.
• Total population living in the Lower Mekong Basin
  is at present 60 million people gt 100 million by
  2025.
• Average flow 15,000 m3/s, but not evenly
  distributed.
• Majority of them living below poverty line.

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Issues to be addressed by WUP

• 1995 Mekong Agreement to address two most
  important issues
• water sharing/maintenance of agreed flow level
  and
• Environment protection and the ecological
  balance.
• Other related issues
• Change of flow regime/quality
• sea water intrusion,
• impact on navigation
• Growing demand for water/energy and inter-basin
  diversion,
• Degradation of aquatic ecosystem (fish)
• Inadequate knowledge of river basin behavior and
  water quality conditions.

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How Issues/challenges are addressed

• WUP broad objective set up a mechanism to
  implement 1995 agreement by
• Facilitating agreements among countries on
  required set of rules/agreements
• Developing a modeling package and knowledge base
  for supporting learnt decision-making
• Capacity building and technical collaboration
  with upstream countries
• Ensuring ownership and participation.

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Progress to date

• Rules
• Data sharing and exchange agreement signed in
  November 2001
• Procedures for Implementing equitable and
  reasonable use to be signed later this year,
• By 2005 three more rules on water use
  monitoring, maintenance of water quantity, and
  quality.

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Progress to date (Cont.)

• Development of Decision Support Framework, and
  Training of trainers and end users in progress
  July 03.
• Progress toward Flow Management.

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MRC and Flow Management

• The EP and WUP have developed a 3 phase approach
  to flow guidelines
• Phase 1 An interim flow plan to prevent
  deterioration in the short term
• Phase 2 A field based comprehensive flow plan
• Phase 3 Evaluation of proposed interventions

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MRC and Flow Management

• Interim Flow Plan
• Based on existing knowledge
• Using an expert panel approach
• Deliberately conservative
• It will protect bottom lines

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MRC and Flow Management

• Interim Flow Plan
• Main difficulties
• Collating the existing knowledge
• Identifying the bottom lines

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MRC and Flow Management

• Comprehensive Flow Plan
• Based on field assessments and flow modeling
• Intended to allow prediction of ecological and
  subsistence consequences of flow changes

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Vegetation zones linked to flood-return periods
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MRC and Flow Management

• Comprehensive Flow Plan
• Main difficulties
• Results will provide information to decision
  makers but not make the decision
• Can we effectively model flow over the Cambodian
  floodplains?

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Flow (discharge) is measured as velocity x cross
sectional area but cross section area is
difficult to measure where the river is 50 km
wide!
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MRC and Flow Management

• Assessment of Interventions
• This will involve cooperation between BDP, WUP
  and EP

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BDP National/ Regional Macroeconomic
Assessment (Hydropower, Irrigation, Forestry,
Fisheries, Other
EP Ecological Subsistence Consequences
BDP Other stakeholders
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MRC and Flow Managementmeeting the
needsmaintaining the balance