I've often said that widespread water shortages are among the biggest threats we face in future. For some parts of the world, however, the future is now. Here is a note I received from reader "JD" on a recent development in Southeast Asia:
A Laotian friend told this evening she had just learned this afternoon that the Mekong River has stopped flowing ... ZERO water separating Laos and Thailand at Vientiane, and I immediately asked if it was because of the new Chinese dams ... she said yes ...
I have read water wars are the future. Turkey is securing its at the expense of loss of those down stream ........ what is gearing up in Africa is control of the source of the Nile itself .... so when I returned home tonight I found the following:
"Fall in Mekong's Water Level Not China's Fault, Says Smith" (Bangkok Post)
The drastic drop in the level of the Mekong River has nothing to do with China retaining water upstream, says Smith Dharmasarojana, the director of the National Disaster Warning Centre (NDWC).
Rather, the decline is a result of global warming, he said yesterday.
Mr Smith explained that dams in China have to release water to generate electricity. Therefore, it was not the upstream dams but the effects of global warming that were causing the glaciers in the Himalayas to melt rapidly. A lot of the water from the melting has already flowed into the sea and there is not enough of it to sustain the water level in the Mekong River, Mr Smith said.
The river is a natural bfoundary as well as a major transport route. Cargo traffic, however, has fallen to a trickle in recent weeks because the river has become much shallower.
Mr Smith added that the El Nino phenomenon means a longer and hotter summer, particularly in the Northeast. Water also evaporates faster, aggravating water shortages.
He said reservoir water must be saved for use at the height of the dry season.
Pramote Maiklad, former irrigation chief and deputy director of the NDWC, also said China should not be blamed for the drop in water in the Mekong River. The quantity of water flowing in the Mekong was more or less the same as that measured during the same period in previous years, he said.
Mr Pramote said he believed the drought spreading in many areas of the country is a normal weather pattern.
"Mekong River Runs Dry; Cargo Ships Grounded For 10 Days" (Bernama)
Thailand's exports via Chiang Sean district in this northernmost province have been affected by a severe drought affecting the Mekong River, the 12th-longest river in the world and the 7th-longest in Asia, according to Thai News agency on Thursday.
According to Winai Chintongprasert, head of the Chiang Saen customhouse, the river, which forms the border of Thailand with Laos and Cambodia, and Laos with China, has run completely dry, with a very long line of sand dune islands in the middle of the river.
With such conditions, it forced freighters from Thailand's Chiang Saen Port to China's Guanlei Port in Yunnan province and vice versa to have halted their runs for over 10 days.
Thai cargoes valued at more than Bt150 million are stranded aboard ships. The cargoes included palm oil, energy drinks and dehydrated longan.
The water level in Mekong River has fallen since the end of December and continued to decrease dramatically during February.
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