Water resources development and impact assessment in the Mekong Basin: Which way to go?

Ambio

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 193-198

  Keskinen, Marko ^a  

^a NONE   (Finland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT; ESTIMATION METHOD; WATER PLANNING; WATER RESOURCE;

ASIA; CONSUMER; ENVIRONMENT; REVIEW; RIVER; WATER SUPPLY;

ASIA; CONSUMER PARTICIPATION; ENVIRONMENT; RIVERS; WATER SUPPLY;

ASIA; EURASIA; MEKONG BASIN;

EID: 48249117551     PISSN: 00447447     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1579/0044-7447(2008)37[193:WRDAIA]2.0.CO;2     Document Type: Review

References (57)

1. Shaochuang, L., Pingli, L., Donghui, L. and Peidong, J. 2007. Pinpointing source of Mekong and measuring its length through analysis of satellite imagery and field investigations. Geo-Spat. Inf. Sci. 10, 51-56.
2. MRC. 2005. Overview of the Hydrology of the Mekong Basin. Mekong River Commission (MRC), Vientiane, 73 pp.
3. IUCN, TEI, IWMI and M-POWER. 2007. Exploring Water Futures Together: Mekong Region Waters Dialogue. Report from regional dialogue. IUCN, TEI, IWMI, & M-POWER, Vientiane.
4. MRCS/WUP-FIN. 2007. Part 2: Research Findings and Recommendations. WUP-FIN Phase 2: Hydrological, Environmental and Socio-Economic Modelling Tools for the Lower Mekong Basin Impact Assessment. Final Report. Mekong River Commission and Finnish Environment Institute Consultancy Consortium, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 126 pp.
5. MRC. 2006. Integrated Basin Flow Management. Social Team 2006 Final Report. Water Utilization Program-Environment Program, Mekong River Commission (MRC), Vientiane, 36 pp.
6. Kummu, M. and Sarkkula, J. 2008. The impact of Mekong River flow alteration on the Tonle Sap flood pulse. Ambio 37, 185-192.
7. Mirumachi, N. and Nakyama, M. 2007. Improving methodologies for transboundary impact assessment in transboundary watercourses: Navigation channel improvement project of the Lancang-Mekong River from China-Myanmar boundary marker 243 to Ban Houei Sai of Laos. Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 23, 411-425.
8. Wyatt, A.B. and Baird, I.G. 2007. Transboundary impact assessment in the Sesan River Basin: The case of the Yali Falls Dam. Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 23, 427-442.
9. World Bank. 2004. Modelled Observations on Development Scenarios in the Lower Mekong Basin. Mekong Regional Water Resources Assistance Strategy (MWRAS). The World Bank, 122 pp.
10. Poulsen, A.F., Hortle, K.G., Valbo-Jorgensen, J., Chan, S., Chhuon, C.K., Viravong, S., Bouakhamvongsa, K., Suntornratana, U., et al. 2004. Distribution and Ecology of Some Important Riverine Fish Species of the Mekong River Basin. MRC Technical Paper No. 10. Mekong River Commission (MRC), Vientiane, Lao PDR, 116 pp.
11. MRC. 2003. State of the Basin Report 2003, Mekong River Commission (MRC), Phnom Penh, Cambodia 316 pp.
12. The World Commission on Dams. 2000. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making. Report of the World Commission on Dams, Earthscan Publications Ltd, London and Sterling, VA, 404 pp.
13. Phillips, D., Daoudy, M., McCaffrey, S., Öjendal, J. and Turton, A. 2006. Trans-Boundary Water Cooperation as a Tool for Conflict Prevention and for Broader Benefit-Sharing. Phillips Robinson and Associates, Windhoek, Namibia, 249 pp.
14. Hirsch, P., Jensen, K.M., with Boer, B., Carrard, N., FitzGerald, S. and Lyster, R. 2006. National Interests and Transboundary Water Governance in the Mekong. Australian Mekong Resource Centre at The University of Sydney in collaboration with Danish International Development Assistance, Sydney, 171 pp.
15. Keskinen, M, Käkönen, M., Tola, P. and Varis, O. 2007. The Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia; water-related conflicts with abundance of water. Econ. Peace Sec. J. 2, 49-59.
16. Sokhem, P. and Sunada, K. 2006. The governance of the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia: Integration of local, national and international Levels. Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 22, 399-416.
17. Other regional cooperation mechanisms that are involved in water-related activities include, for example, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Program and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Also, several more focused bilateral and multilateral cooperation arrangements exist.
18. Sneddon, C. and Fox, C. 2006. Rethinking transboundary waters: A critical hydropolitics of the Mekong Basin. Polit. Geogr. 25, 181-202.
19. Backer, E.B. 2006. Paper Tiger Meets White Elephant? An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Mekong River Regime. The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Lysaker, Norway, 83 pp.
20. Different assessment and analysis methods proposed, for example, within the MRC's Basin Development Plan include Environmental Assessment system, so-called Project Screening Toolkit, as well as the Social Impact Assessment process, which makes use of the Social Development approach (21, 22). Assessment methods proposed within the MRC's Environment Programme, on the other hand, include Social Impact Monitoring as well as Vulnerability Assessment systems, while the Integrated Basin Flow Management process can be seen to be one of the broader assessment approaches within the MRC (21, 23).
21. MRCS/WUP-FIN. 2007. Impact Assessment Report. WUP-FIN Phase 2: Hydrological, Environmental and Socio-Economic Modelling Tools for the Lower Mekong Basin Impact Assessment. Mekong River Commission and Finnish Environment Institute Consultancy Consortium, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 298 pp.
22. MRC/BDP. 2005. Social and Environmental Issues and Assessments (SIA, SEA). Basin Development Plan Volume 9. Mekong River Commission, Vientiane, 38 pp.
23. MRC. 2006. Integrated Basin Flow Management. Report No. 8: Flow-Regime Assessment. Water Utilization Program-Environment Program, Mekong River Commission (MRC), Vientiane, 93 pp.
24. IUCN, TEI, IWMI and M-POWER. 2007. Feedback on WB/ADB joint working paper on future directions for water resources management in the Mekong River Basin. Mekong Water Resources Assistance Strategy (MWRAS), IUCN, TEI, IWMI, & M-POWER, Bangkok, 10 pp.
25. For example, the fisheries data for the Tonle Sap system - that is one of the most important fish production areas in the basin and both socially and economically critical for all of Cambodia - were for years grossly underestimated and remain even today problematic, being far from comprehensive (37).
26. This experience has been gained through academic research and consultancy work in four Lower Mekong Basin countries between 2002 and 2007. Most influential work in this regard has been that related to the WUP-FIN Project under the MRC. For more information on the project, see http://www.eia.fi/wup- fin.
27. MRC. 2003. Social Atlas of the Lower Mekong Basin. Mekong River Commission (MRC), Phnom Penh, 154 pp.
28. Keskinen, M. 2006. The lake with floating villages: Socioeconomic analysis of the Tonle Sap Lake. Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 22, 463-480.
29. MRCS/WUP-FIN. 2007. Mekong Delta Socio-Economic Analysis: Interconnections between Water and Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. WUP-FIN Phase 2: Hydrological, Environmental and Socio-Economic Modelling Tools for the Lower Mekong Basin Impact Assessment. Mekong River Commission and Finnish Environment Institute Consultancy Consortium, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 177 pp.
30. Also, other scales can naturally be relevant for impact assessment. According to Cash et al. (32), for example, different scales related to human-environment interaction include spatial, temporal, jurisdictional, institutional, management, networks, and knowledge scales.
31. For example, the newly emerged drive for hydropower development in the Mekong region can be partly linked to the increasing emphasis globally on renewable energy production as one important way to mitigate climate change.
32. Cash, D.W., Adger, N., Berkes, F., Garden, P., Lebel, L., Olsson, P., Pritchard, L. and Young, O. 2006. Scale and cross-scale dynamics: Governance and information in a multilevel world. Ecol. Society 11, article 8, 12 pp.
33. Cash, D.W. and Moser, S.C. 2000. Linking global and local scales: Designing dynamic assessment and management processes. Glob. Envir. Change 10, 109-120.
34. Cash, D.W. 2000. Distributed assessment systems: An emerging paradigm of research, assessment and decision-making for environmental change: Viewpoint. Glob. Envir. Change 10, 241-244.
35. An example of the impacts being felt immediately could be the submersion of agricultural or other land areas due to hydropower dam construction, while the impacts to fisheries due to gradual habitat changes present an example of longer-term impacts.
36. The first cumulative impact assessment presented in Kummu and Sarkkula (6), for example, includes hydropower dams and increased agricultural water use in its scenario. This combined scenario is estimated to result in a 15 cm increase in dry-season water level of Tonle Sap Lake. It is, however, likely that the implementation of these two forms of water development will happen at different timescales, with hydropower development occurring first. This would lead to a situation where the dry-season water level would actually be considerably higher during the years before irrigation projects included in the scenario were actually accomplished.
37. Lamberts, D. 2006. The Tonle Sap Lake as a productive ecosystem. Int. J. Water Resour. Dev. 22, 481-495.
38. Flood pulse is a term for an ecological paradigm that integrates the processes of productivity in river-floodplain ecosystems, with a particular focus on the lateral exchange of water, nutrients, and organisms between a water body and the connected floodplain. For more information, see, e.g., (39).
39. Junk, W.J., Bayley, P.B. and Sparks, R.E. 1989. The flood pulse concept in river-floodplain systems. Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium (LARS). Can. Spec. Publ. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 106, 110-127.
40. Lamberts, D. 2008. Little impact, much damage; the consequences of Mekong River flow alterations for the Tonle Sap ecosystem. In: Modern Myths of the Mekong. Jummu, M., Keskinen, M. and Varis, O. (eds). Water & Development Publications, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, pp. 3-18.
41. Worryingly, Lamberts (40) also pointed out that it is currently possible to meet the environmental safeguarding requirements of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank - both of whom are among the main players in water development in the Mekong Region - without really assessing the actual impacts to integrative processes such as flood pulse.
42. Rayner, S. 2003. Democracy in the age of assessment: Reflections on the roles of expertise and democracy in public-sector decision making. Sci. Public Pol. 30, 163-170.
43. Karl, H.A., Susskind, L.E. and Wallace, K.H. 2007. A dialogue not a diatribe: Effective integration of science and policy through joint fact finding. Environment 49, 20-34.
44. van Kerkhoff, L. and Lebel, L. 2006. Linking knowledge and action for sustainable development. Ann. Rev. Envir. Resour. 31, 445-477.
45. Hisschemöller, M., Toi, R.S.J. and Vellinga, P. 2001. The relevance of participatory approaches in integrated environmental assessment. Integr. Assess. 2, 57-72.
46. Although the terms "stakeholder" and "stakeholder involvement" are widely used also in the Mekong region, the entire issue of stakeholders, their selection process, and actual representativeness of the diverse number of people that "have a stake" in an issue as complex and broad as basinwide water development would require a much more detailed - and critical - view.
47. These challenges are particularly valid in many water-related sectors, including hydropower, road construction, and large-scale irrigation. All these sectors require considerable amounts of financial capital and are thus the focus of major investments by donors, development banks, and, increasingly, the private sector. The growing involvement of the private sector in water-development plans in the basin has also increased concerns about the transparency of and the possibilities for public participation in these projects (see, e.g., 3).
48. The recommendations provided in this chapter are largely based on the author's experience from the WUP-FIN Project as well as from the IBFM process and the Built Structures Project. For more information on these, please have a look at (4, 21, 23, 49, 50).
49. Sarkkula, J., Keskinen, M., Koponen, J., Kummu, M., Nikula, J., Varis, O. and Virtanen, M. 2007. Mathematical modelling in integrated management of water resources: Magical tool, mathematical toy or something in between? In: Democratizing Water Governance in the Mekong Region. Lebel, L., Dore, J., Daniel, R. and Koma, Y.S. (eds). Mekong Press, Chiang Mai, 127-256.
50. Ratner, B.D, Käkönen, M., Rahut, D.B., Keskinen, M., Navy, H., Sambo, Y., Leakhena, S. and Chuenpagdee, R. 2007. Influence of Built Structures on Local Livelihoods: Case Studies of Roads, Irrigation, and Fishing Lots. Study of the Influence of Built Structures on the Fisheries of the Tonle Sap. Cambodian National Mekong Committee and the World Fish Center, Phnom Penh, 50 pp.
51. Commonly, the former kinds of assessments are carried out, for example, by NGOs and/or academic researchers, while the latter, more regional assessments are mainly implemented by the regional organizations such as the MRC.
52. Indeed, the experiences from different case studies carried out within the WUP-FIN Project (21), for example, indicate that local-level analyses can help to reduce the risk for misinterpretations of macrolevel data.
53. The assessment frameworks proposed by the MRCS/WUP-FIN as well as by the IBFM provide examples of these kinds of broader assessment frameworks (21, 23).
54. In this context, multidisciplinary approach means viewing the research topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives but yet producing a set of disciplinary results from it by using methods available within each discipline. Interdisciplinary approach is seen to be more problem-oriented and holistic as it seeks to integrate both knowledge and methods from different disciplines into new kinds of methods and interpretations to be able to better understand and assess a particularly complex problem.
55. Käkönen, M. 2007. Participation at Crossroads? Experiences from Decentralised Natural Resources Management in Tonle Sap. Proceedings of the Mekong @ Crossroads Workshop, 14-15 May 2007, Chiang Mai, Thailand, pp. 56-57.
56. MWBP and IUCN. 2005. Thai Baan Research on the Ecology and Local History of the Seasonally-Flooded Forest in the Lower Songkhram River Basin. Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use Programme (MWBP) and The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
57. The author is thankful for the lively discussions with large range of colleagues working in the Mekong region. Special thanks are due to Olli Varis, Matti Kummu, Mira Käkönen, Juha Sarkkula, Jorma Koponen, Yim Sambo, as well as the entire WUP-FIN team and counterparts. Thank you very much also to Louis Lebel, John Dore, Dirk Lamberts, Pertti Vakkilainen, Kanokwan Manorom, and David Hall for your insightful comments. Financial support from Foundation of Technology (TES) and the Academy of Finland (Project 211010) is acknowledged.