Transboundary data sharing is widely recognized as a necessary element in the successful handling of water-related climate change issues, as it is a means toward integrated water resources management (IWRM). Since 2001, ministerial delegates of the MRC Council adopted a set of procedural rules on multilateral data sharing among the four Mekong riparian countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam (MRC) known as the “Procedures for Data and Information Exchange and Sharing,” also known as PDIES. PDIES data sharing has allowed, for example, the MRC to provide real-time water level information and more accurate flood forecasting. Another key mechanism, Mekong Lancang Cooperation (MLC) in 2015), has been identified as the most relevant to supporting and enhancing water data-sharing among the governments in the region. In terms of the PDIES, 12 major groups of data will be broadly gathered and shared on water resources including: topography, natural resources, agriculture, navigation and transport, flood management and mitigation, infrastructure, urbanization/industrialization, environment/ecology, administrative boundaries, socio-economy, and tourism. The MRC plays an important role in basin-wide coordination of flood mitigation activities and encourages an approach that benefits its Member Countries. However, sharing of other water data seems to be limited to only specific objectives and to be over-dependent on the MRC member countries’ approval. The fact is that sharing of water-related data has become of long-standing concern.The LMC, as the first new sub-regional cooperation mechanism with the participation of six countries (Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), has been expecting to make good progress on data-sharing among countries. The countries signed the first 5-year MoU in June 2019 on the provision of hydrological information during the flood season (June-October) from two hydrological stations in China to the five Mekong countries. After years of requests, hydrological data from gauges all along the Mekong may be said to be transparent, especially in MRC countries. But regular operational data from China’s upstream dams remains unshared, available only at China’s discretion. Other than notices of major changes in dam operations, China does not share data from its 11 upstream hydropower dams on the Mekong, which is known as the Lancang in China. Representatives of the US Government claimed that it evidenced that China was responsible for the severity of the 2019-2020 drought and had “turned off the tap” or was “hoarding water.” Regarding the causes of the 2019 low flows and drought, in December 2019 the LMC and MRC committed to a joint study although the status of this study is not publicly announced.In 2021, more data was shared about the Mekong than ever before. Yet despite the increased openness enabled by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism, the Mekong River Commission (MRC), and various NGOs, the wet season was still marred by low rainfall levels and controversy over the retention of water by dams. Now in the midst of another dry season, activists in the Lower Mekong Basin are wondering when China will share data on the retention operations of dams on the length of the river. Other than notices of major changes in dam operations, China does not share data from its 11 upstream hydropower dams on the Mekong, which is known as the Lancang in China. In 2021, dry season sandbanks were recorded in Thailand in the wet season; farmers around Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia fretted over the length of the flood pulse; and Vietnam continued to contend with salination and erosion of the Mekong Delta. All of these issues were at least in part attributable to upstream hydropower dams on the Mekong mainstream.In the context of the transboundary Mekong-Lancang River, it is also important that a strong and growing call for increased water data sharing among government agencies, funding organizations, and scientists.
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