The Power of Data in the Mekong

Introduction

Nearly 65 million people live in the Lower Mekong River Basin, and an estimated 80% of those residents depend on the river and its vast natural resources (such as fish) for their livelihoods. The region is experiencing dramatic change — but the need here for abundant, clean fresh water remains.

Established in 1995, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an intergovernmental organization that serves as a regional platform for water diplomacy and a knowledge hub of water resources management for the sustainable development of the Lower Mekong River Basin. The MRC’s work stretches across Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam. Made up of scientists and policymakers from all four countries, the MRC uses science to guide water management across the river’s basin.

Future H20-B was invited to work with the MRC to build both a “hydro-fisheries” model (connecting the Mekong’s hydrology to its fisheries) and an optimization framework to inform hydropower dam planning and eventually dam operations on the Lower Mekong. Among the goals for the framework: Inform policy development for operating dams so the dams deliver the best set of services to MRC member countries while maintaining the integrity of the river’s highly productive ecosystems.

The Challenge: Many Needs, Many Countries

Decision-making across four countries, each with different drivers of their national economies, and each with different connections and relationships with the river, is an incredibly complex undertaking. Some factors include:

• Dams: how many, where, and how to manage. There are many existing and proposed dams on the mainstem Mekong River and its tributaries. The Lower Mekong River Basin countries need to manage these dams — their siting, planning and operations — to optimize delivery of flood control, hydropower, fish for food, biodiversity and sediment…just to name a few benefits of the river.

• Geographic influence. The Mekong River begins in China, then flows through Myanmar — but those countries are not members of the MRC. China has built 11 dams on the upper reaches of the mainstem — including six just since 1993 — and when those dams are filling there's less water downstream for the MRC to work with.

• Monsoonal Inputs. About 50% of the annual streamflow of the Mekong comes during the monsoon season, which primarily touches down in Laos and Vietnam, and to a certain extent in Cambodia and Thailand. But currently, these countries don’t have the ability to coordinate their dam operations across national boundaries and between their governments and the dam operations of state-owned private-sector companies in China.