BANGKOK (Reuters) - China’s Mekong River dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year despite China having higher-than-average water levels upstream, a U.S. research company said in a study.
China’s government disputed the findings, saying there was low rainfall during last year’s monsoon season on its portion of the 4,350-km (2,700-mile) river.
The findings by Eyes on Earth Inc., a research and consulting company specialising in water, published in a U.S.-government funded study, could complicate tricky discussions between China and other Mekong countries on how to manage the river that supports 60 million people as it flows past Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and through Cambodia and Vietnam.
Last year's drought, which saw the Lower Mekong at its lowest levels in more than 50 years, devastated farmers and fishermen and saw the massive river recede to expose sandbanks along some stretches and at others turned from its usual murky brown to bright blue here because waters were so shallow and lacking in sediment.
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WNU Editor: Laos and Cambodia are also building dams. I am sure the Vietnamese are steamed about this, and they cannot do anything to change this.
3 comments:
Water wars are coming soon
Wrong Ed.! US aircraft carries based at Camh Ran Bay! F=35's and B=52"s in Saigon!
Missing something here.
With Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan it was about the impoundment rate.
Why isn't it the same problem here?
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