The Mekong River

In recent years water levels on certain stretches of the Mekong River have reached record lows during February and March. This is not simply due to lower rainfall and global warming, but because of eight new Chinese ‘super-dams’ stemming the water flow to ensure a plentiful water supply to regions of China outside the Mekong River’s natural basin. The result of this damming is that the river's fish stocks are declining dramatically in the lower Mekong countries, with other wildlife expected to become quickly over-hunted as a result.

At this time a typically disappointing amount of international pressure is being applied to China to exercise more stringent control on their damming procedure to ensure the countries of the lower Mekong receive acceptable levels of water.