Lancang-Mekong Cooperation: Present and Future of the Mekong River Basin

Grünwald, Richard

doi:10.24040/politickevedy.2020.23.2.69-97

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The establishment of the MRC under the signing of the 1995 Agreement has provided essential support for member states to cooperate more actively and closely, as also emphasised in research by Schmeier [119]. By facilitating communication between riparian countries and ensuring compliance with other international laws and rules [120], MRC helps to build mutual trust and provides a solid basis for further cooperation between countries. The findings provide evidence to dispel the doubt by previous researchers like I.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Transboundary Water Resource Development in Mekong River Basin: The Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Context of Water Cooperation

Lan¹

2021

JWARP

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Mekong River is one of the major international freshwater sources in the world. The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) comprised of four downstream countries, including Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The utilization of the basin's water brings not only substantial benefits to the region ranging from hydropower to navigation, but also negative impacts caused by the unbalanced water using. The essential role of Mekong River requires all member nations to cooperate effectively for the sustainable development of the region. One of the most popular methods in the field of water resource management is a trustable tool called the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is much appropriate for water resource policymaking. The literature, however, points out that there is no study to both structure the water using hierarchy and employ quantitative (objective) criteria to the AHP model in LMB case. With regard to water resource management, there are no previous studies applying AHP models to evaluating sustainable development of transboundary water resource in LMB case. This paper explores the evolution of water cooperation among Mekong countries and subsequently evaluates the water development scenarios in the LMB based on the water cooperation preferences of four LMB countries This study proposes a novel approach to analyzing, assessing water resource development scenarios characterized by sustainability indicators and to assisting in developing a suitable water policy in LMB according to the best cooperation scenario.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Transboundary Water Resource Development in Mekong River Basin: The Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Context of Water Cooperation

Lan¹

2021

JWARP

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“…Despite the fact that many scholars believe that these water insecurities were mainly driven by hydro-meteorological reasons rather than man-made projects [86][87][88], calling the Chinese hydropower dams as the main culprit for amplifying the environmental risks is a very popular preconception in recent years. Whenever both scientists and non-scientists applied this narrative to emphasize China's utilitarianism [89,90] and other geostrategic intentions in Southeast Asia [71,91], this narrative was more often used to transfer various responsibilities for joint river management and multiply the fears from upstream countries [16,17,21].…”

Section: Politicization Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the fact that many scholars believe that these water insecurities were mainly driven by hydro-meteorological reasons rather than manmade projects [86][87][88], calling the Chinese hydropower dams as the main culprit for amplifying the environmental risks is a very popular preconception in recent years. Whenever both scientists and non-scientists applied this narrative to emphasize China's utilitarianism [89,90] and other geostrategic intentions in Southeast Asia [71,91], this narrative was more often used to transfer various responsibilities for joint river Until 2016, many foreign observers claimed that China's government would highly unlikely join any initiative that would require further regulations of the upstream hydropower development [15,37,39]. The gradual behavioral change of China's government in its engagement in transboundary water governance appeared after the establishment of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) in early 2016.…”

Section: Politicization Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Politicization of the Hydropower Dams in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: A Review of Contemporary Environmental Challenges

2022

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To date, hydropower dams raise numerous interpretations about their impact on the Lancang-Mekong River. While most research studies analyze the negative aspects of hydropower development on people’s livelihoods and local environments, the hydropower sector was historically one of the most iconic economic segments facilitating transboundary water cooperation for decades. By using the constructive discourse analysis and critical political ecology approach, the presented text (1) outlines the current environmental narratives over the Lancang-Mekong hydropower development and (2) explores the politicization of the Chinese mainstream dams. The data were collected upon the multi-level content analysis of relevant sources and double-checked with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and Conflict Database (LMCCD) monitoring over 4000 water-related events among six riparian countries between 1990 and 2021. Our data show that (i) there is a stark contrast in positive and negative narratives over the rapid hydropower development, (ii) the impact of mainstream dams on the river is more often discussed than that of tributary dams, (iii) implications of the hydropower dams are often interpreted upon the non-traditional research inputs rather than widely accepted studies, and (iv) developing the contradictory arguments through social and public media contributes to greater polarization of the multi-stakeholders’ viewpoints in the accountable research dialogue.

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“…However, since the proponents of the EoE Study predominantly focus on the negative effects of Chinese mainstream dams on the natural water flow and other non-water related security concerns, the debates about the solutions for downstream countries remains vague. To date, the popularity of the EoE Study conclusions is mainly driven by US research discourse, long-term preconceptions, particularly towards the Chinese actions and upstream multipurpose water projects (Grünwald, 2021(Grünwald, , 2020(Grünwald, , 2018. Other reasons for growing awareness of the EoE Study present high medialization (Van, 2020;Niseyi, 2020;Eyler, 2020;Eyler et al 2020b), simplified research jargon (e.g.…”

Section: Approaches Towards the Eyes On Earth Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LMWCIP, 2021a; MOFA PRC, 2020c) and raising the concerns about the objectivity of research that overlook the scientific responses (MRC, 2020b; Kallio and Fallon, 2020;Ketelsen, Sawdon and Räsärenen, 2020). Special attention from opponents of the EoE Study has been paid to Until now, the proponents of the EoE Study often perceive these activities as highly insufficient and too slow considering the vast potential of the LMC (Grünwald, 2020). Nevertheless, sharing the operational hydrological data is still controversial among riparian states (see Matthews and Geheb, 2015;Mirumachi, 2015;.…”

Section: Approaches Towards the Eyes On Earth Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-hydrology, politicization of water science and implication of the Eyes on Earth Study on the contemporary research dialogue in the Lancang-Mekong Basin

Grünwald¹,

Wang

Yan³

2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Since April 2020, the Eyes on Earth Study has received significant media attention for considering the Chinese mainstream reservoirs as one of the main drivers for changing the natural water flow and compounding the severe droughts in the Lancang-Mekong Basin. Unlike other hydrological studies, the Eyes on Earth Study polarized the international research community and received unusual media attention. While the Eyes on Earth Study raised public awareness about upstream water operations and motivated civil society to co-develop the water knowledge, there can be found numerous shortcomings and other irregularities in the current research dialogue over the research conclusions. By drawing on the politicization of scientific theories and combining the socio-hydrology with critical political ecology, the presented paper (1) conceptualizes the human-water interaction in the context of the politicization of the EoE Study, (2) reviews current development pathways in contemporary research dialogue in the Lancang-Mekong Basin, and (3) examines contemporary challenges for water science. To re-define the politicization of water science, the constructivist discourse analysis has been applied to investigate the argumentation patterns over the Eyes on Earth Study in the last 18 months (April 2020–September 2021). In addition, we applied the adapted Baker’s model to double-check the content of the EoE Study and degree of alignment with high-quality research inputs. Our data show that (i) benefits from ensuring the standard research procedures outweigh the benefits from using the alternative research procedures, (ii) gradual stratification of contemporary research channels and simplification of research findings contribute to political distrust towards the water science, and (iii) growing intervention of non-traditional actors in the research dialogue produce the gap in applied discourse practices and medialize the desirable water narratives. The topic is highly actual and beneficial for water experts and other interdisciplinary scientists who want to better understand the power of hydrological studies and clarify the incentives undermining the trust in science.

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Lancang-Mekong Cooperation: Present and Future of the Mekong River Basin

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Evaluation of Transboundary Water Resource Development in Mekong River Basin: The Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Context of Water Cooperation

Evaluation of Transboundary Water Resource Development in Mekong River Basin: The Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Context of Water Cooperation

Politicization of the Hydropower Dams in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: A Review of Contemporary Environmental Challenges

Socio-hydrology, politicization of water science and implication of the Eyes on Earth Study on the contemporary research dialogue in the Lancang-Mekong Basin

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