Comprehensive Options Assessment in Hydropower Development

Intergovernmental co-operation between countries that share the Mekong River and its tributaries commenced in 1957 when the United Nations founded the Mekong River Committee. The Mekong was then one of the world’s largest unregulated rivers, and the Committee was to capitalise on the river’s economic potential. In 1995 a new Mekong Agreement established the Mekong River Commission (MRC), with a more holistic mandate: ‘to promote and co-ordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit and the people’s well-being by implementing strategic programmes and activities and providing scientific information and policy advice’. The 1995 Mekong Agreement also placed the MRC under the direct responsibility of its four member states: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The MRC also engages with two important upstream partners,, China and Myanmar, on its shared water courses.

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