Mekong River Commission (MRC) member countries have committed themselves to boosting cooperation in an effort to overcome urgent challenges emerging in the river basin.
The commitment was made by government leaders of Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia at the first MRC Summit held in Thailand's seaside resort town Hua Hin on April 5.
At the summit, the leaders pledged to work together to reduce property damage, as well as injury and the loss of human life caused by floods. They also agreed to take sustainable development issues into account when planning and implementing hydro-electric power plants and to ensure sufficient water resources for agriculture.
In addition, the leaders vowed to make preparations for dealing with climate change, the impact of which, in terms of hunger and poverty, will most strongly affect vulnerable communities and to take measures to prevent the degradation of water quality and to manage aquatic resources more effectively.
It is the Mekong River basin’s dynamic and fast development that is posing increasing challenge on the region in the time to come, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, while naming the depletion of natural resources, including water, and environmental perils among the challenges the region will face.
Regarding to the water resource issue, Dung proposed to his counterparts that the implementation of a strategy to develop the basin under a principle of sharing water resources be sped up.
In his speech made at the summit, the PM urged the leaders to build scenarios on climate change for the whole region and then formulate a joint action plan to cope with the issue.
The PM spoke highly of China’s recent provision of more hydrological statistics to help regional countries assess the river’s flow. He also expressed the hope that China and Myanmar, the MRC’s dialogue partners, would become full members of the association.
With an emphasis on the role of the Mekong River to its socio-economic development, the PM said Vietnam would like developed countries to continue providing more financial and technical support, helping the country carry out projects in the fields stipulated in the development strategy set by MRC for the period of 2011-2015.
Earlier, on April 2-3, an international conference on trans-boundary water resource management took place. The conference drew the participation of over 300 delegates from the Mekong river basin, the other nine river basins, international organisations and water resource experts.
Participants at the event agreed that the protection as well as rational and equitable allocation of the Mekong River’s water resources is one of the factors affecting the socio-economic development of the whole basin./.
The commitment was made by government leaders of Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia at the first MRC Summit held in Thailand's seaside resort town Hua Hin on April 5.
At the summit, the leaders pledged to work together to reduce property damage, as well as injury and the loss of human life caused by floods. They also agreed to take sustainable development issues into account when planning and implementing hydro-electric power plants and to ensure sufficient water resources for agriculture.
In addition, the leaders vowed to make preparations for dealing with climate change, the impact of which, in terms of hunger and poverty, will most strongly affect vulnerable communities and to take measures to prevent the degradation of water quality and to manage aquatic resources more effectively.
It is the Mekong River basin’s dynamic and fast development that is posing increasing challenge on the region in the time to come, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, while naming the depletion of natural resources, including water, and environmental perils among the challenges the region will face.
Regarding to the water resource issue, Dung proposed to his counterparts that the implementation of a strategy to develop the basin under a principle of sharing water resources be sped up.
In his speech made at the summit, the PM urged the leaders to build scenarios on climate change for the whole region and then formulate a joint action plan to cope with the issue.
The PM spoke highly of China’s recent provision of more hydrological statistics to help regional countries assess the river’s flow. He also expressed the hope that China and Myanmar, the MRC’s dialogue partners, would become full members of the association.
With an emphasis on the role of the Mekong River to its socio-economic development, the PM said Vietnam would like developed countries to continue providing more financial and technical support, helping the country carry out projects in the fields stipulated in the development strategy set by MRC for the period of 2011-2015.
Earlier, on April 2-3, an international conference on trans-boundary water resource management took place. The conference drew the participation of over 300 delegates from the Mekong river basin, the other nine river basins, international organisations and water resource experts.
Participants at the event agreed that the protection as well as rational and equitable allocation of the Mekong River’s water resources is one of the factors affecting the socio-economic development of the whole basin./.
