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Transboundary Water Management Among the Riparian States of the Mekong: Using the Water Governance Reform Framework to Prevent Conflict

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/kh04dx676

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  • Few river systems in the world are under equal or more stress than Southeast (SE) Asia’s Mekong River. Several factors threaten the Mekong as the riparian states of China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam jockey for position within its geopolitical sphere. Climate change, globalization, industrialization, urbanization, economic growth, and hydro-hegemony play critical roles in the resource scarcity affecting the Mekong’s ability to continue providing food, water, and energy for all stakeholders as it has for millennia. China’s position as the uppermost riparian coupled with its aggressive development policies will have a significant impact on the Mekong Basin that will reverberate down the headwaters to the delta, ultimately touching the lives of the sixty-six million people who live in the basin and millions more who rely on its flora, fauna, and flow. This paper posits that, left unchecked, China’s direct involvement in hydro development along the Mekong by way of numerous hydroelectric dams and increased hydrological engineering will lead to an existential crisis among the Lower Mekong states. A crisis with such a potential for catastrophe makes protecting the Mekong’s resources a national strategic priority that could see weak riparian cooperation fail and tensions in the region flair to the point of escalating conflict. Using the Water Governance Reform Framework (WGRF) created by Grafton et al. (2019), this paper analyzes current stress points and the actions that may prevent conflict and strengthen cooperation among Mekong River stakeholders.
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