This Perspective challenges this sub-regional approach to the Mekong issues on two accounts: (i) The impact of the environmental crisis in the Mekong River ecosystem goes beyond the sub-regional confines and affects ASEAN’s food security and climate change action as a whole; and (ii) The transboundary haze pollution provides an instructive precedent in mobilising ASEAN frameworks for an essentiall. [...] In 2019, severe droughts caused water levels in the river to drop to their lowest in more than 100 years.9 Low inflows from the Mekong and its tributaries in the summer of 2020 sent the water volume of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake down to a “very critical situation”, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC).10 The changing hydrological conditions of the Mekong River with unpredictable droughts. [...] Such efforts are attributed to these states’ realisation that a multilateral ASEAN approach was needed due to limited levers at the domestic level to counter the transboundary pollution and the need for burden-sharing in mitigation actions.21 Having ASEAN in the game levelled up the peer-group pressure and the effect of suasion vis- à-vis Indonesia, the source country of the haze but also a big ne. [...] The report concludes that “the severe lack of water in the Lower Mekong during the wet seasons of 2019 is largely influenced by the restriction of water flowing from the Upper Mekong during that time.”26 China has since disputed the findings of the report. [...] The MRC also released a critique of the report and appealed to the Mekong countries to share data and information on water use and infrastructure operation.27 The Vientiane Declaration of the third LMC Leaders’ Meeting in August last year hardly addressed the damming issue other than with a fleeting mention of “dam safety”.
- Pages
- 9
- Published in
- Singapore
