“Cooperation in water resource management in the Greater Mekong Region”

The workshop was attended by experts from countries with a common interest in river water management such as Prof. Detlef Briesen (University of Giessen, Germany), Prof. Kim Philip Schumacher (University of Vechta, Germany), Prof. Kumaresan Raja (Pondicherry University, India), Dr. Win Maung (Myanmar Environment Institute), Dr. Vannarith Chheang (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore)... Leading Vietnamese experts such as Prof. Nguyen Ngoc Tran (former Head of the State-level Program on Comprehensive Baseline Survey of the Mekong Delta), Prof. Do Tien Sam (Institute of Chinese Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) and researchers from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

The workshop was divided into four sub-committees with the following main topics: Challenges in transboundary water resources management in the Mekong sub-region; Transboundary cooperation mechanisms in the Mekong sub-region: The role of major countries; Transboundary cooperation in water resources management: Lessons from other regions of the world; Transboundary cooperation in water resources management: Practical prospects.

The discussions highlighted the challenges associated with the absence of a comprehensive and adequate cooperation mechanism among countries directly connected to the Mekong River. One of the world’s longest and most majestic rivers, originating in Qinghai Province on the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong (originally named in the Tai-Lao language, meaning Mother River) flows through Yunnan Province (China), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the East Sea. Effective management of water resources on this regional river requires the participation of all countries from upstream to downstream, because any impact, no matter how small, on the river will cause impacts throughout the entire basin. To address these challenges, in addition to the role of countries directly related to water resources on the Mekong River, there needs to be the participation of influential countries such as the US, France, Japan, Korea, etc. to reach a friendly cooperation mechanism for the common benefit in managing water resources in the Mekong sub-region.