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International Seminar on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development in the Mekong River Basin 24

Introduction

According to (P.G. Whitehead et. al, 2019), the Mekong delta is recognized as one of the
world's most vulnerable mega-deltas, being subject to a range of environmental pressures
including sea level rise, increasing population, and changes in flows and nutrients from its upland
catchment. With changing climate and socioeconomics there is a need to assess how the Mekong
catchment will be affected in terms of the delivery of water and nutrients into the delta system. In
this research works, the study area of the Mekong River is Wan-Pon village, Mine-Phone area,
Eastern Shan State, Golden Triangle Area, using two time series, 2010 and 2017, Latitude-
20°21'8.39"N, Longitude- 100° 5'5.94"E. (Figure 1). In this area, the upstream is China and
neighboring borderline with Laos and Thailand, and downstream countries are Cambodia, and
Vietnam where the Mekong River is accomplished with the touch of the sea.
Regarding (MRC, 2008); water quality is one of the key factors affecting the environmental
health of the Mekong river system. As the livelihoods of most of the 60 million people who live
in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) wholly or partly depend on aquatic resources, the
environmental health of the river is a major concern to the governments of the countries in the
basin. In 1985, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) established the Water Quality Monitoring
Network (WQMN) to provide an ongoing record of the water quality of the river, its major
tributaries, and the Mekong Delta. In this research works, it was taken the collections of the water
to understand degree of the water quality and the physicochemical indicators were checked at
Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC). In current, there are not much deterioration of
water quality although many developmental projects including hydropower dams are
implementing along the Mekong River.
Chea R, Grenouillet G, Lek S (2016) mentioned about the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB)
water resources are extremely important for the four riparian countries downstream of China and
Myanmar, i.e. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Today, the basin serves for a variety of
water-related activities—watershed management, agriculture, fisheries, navigation and transport,
hydropower development, tourism and recreation, which support the livelihood of more than 60
million people living in the basin. Apparently, among the largest great rivers around the world, the
Mekong River is probably the largest river to feed vast numbers of people relying on it for
nutritional needs (e.g. fish and other aquatic organisms). Actually, Mekong River conveys all-
natural resources from the upstream side from China to sharing together with Laos and Thailand
and then touches with Cambodia as well as Vietnam, in doing so; lots of precious water-related
activities are steady carrying among Mekong countries through China.
Minoru Kamoto and Muanpong Juntopas, mentioned in 2011; the Mekong River and its
tributaries comprise one of the largest river systems in the world. However, living among this
natural wealth, 40 million of the Mekong people still live in poverty because of decades of war
and long isolation. Yet the Mekong’s water and related resources, ones of the regions’ greatest
assets, are far from full utilization. The volume of Mekong’s natural discharge is still vast, despite
some diversion for irrigation and dams, and the water quality is still good overall. In the present
study, as the Mekong River is an international river, which runs through 6 countries from China,
Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia, to Vietnam, in doing so, water quality is vital
importance for all communities’ development as the local indigenous groups’ socioeconomic
incomes as well as incomes are absolutely relying on Mekong River, therefore, it is necessary to
be sustainable state.

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