China ready to share water data with Mekong nations, Thailand says

 

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Mekong river bordering Thailand and Laos is seen from the Thai side in Nong Khai, Thailand, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - China is ready to share data on water flows into the Mekong River, a longstanding request of downstream Southeast Asian countries, a Thai foreign ministry official said on Friday.

 

Control of the waters is politically sensitive, and many farmers' and fishermen's livelihoods depend on the river. A report published by a U.S. research company this year accused China of holding back large amounts of water during a drought last year, a finding Beijing disputed.

 

China has no formal water treaties with the lower Mekong countries - Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam - and is currently only sharing limited data during the monsoon season on flows to what it knows as the Lancang River.

 

"China stressed that it is ready to share information with us in a clear, meaningful and transparent way throughout the year," Nikorndej Balankura, a senior Thai foreign ministry official told reporters. "Information will be shared seamlessly."

 

China's Foreign Ministry said in response to a request for comment that it did not want to pre-empt an online summit on Monday of leaders of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) group, which includes China and the Mekong countries.

 

Lower Mekong countries already share water data through the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an intergovernmental body with headquarters in Vientiane in Laos. The LMC water center is based in Beijing.

 

The MRC this month called for better data-sharing between countries and companies that operate hydropower dams along the Mekong as flows hit record lows for a second consecutive year.

 

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in BANGKOK and Gabriel Crossley in BEIJING; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-23

 

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5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

China ready to share water data with Mekong nations, Thailand says

The problem is no-one believes anything that China says these days as the truth and China are strangers (They have never met) how about just sharing the water equally ...................LOL

China is fast learning that the bully ends up with no friends.

     All they done so far, is to share the water all over China. LOL

China will share water during this period of historic flooding, but come the next drought or economic dispute and somehow the water flow will mysteriously slow again.

 

 

What nation is going to believe any statistics (data) that China shares ?  

So Thailand is that naive to believe whatever the CCP tells them?  That doesn’t give me much confidence...

In Beijing the Chinese govt. only fessed up to the actual levels of air pollution after the American Embassy installed its own detectors on the roof and then, via the internet, made that info available. The only figures anyone should trust concerning levels of flow in the Mekong are those that are generated via an international agency not subject to Chinese control.

On 8/23/2020 at 2:05 PM, Mick501 said:

China is fast learning that the bully ends up with no friends.

China does not give a shเt about friends.  China doesn't give a shเt about its people. The CCP cares about power and wealth for its members. 

On 8/23/2020 at 1:42 PM, Geoffggi said:

The problem is no-one believes anything that China says these days as the truth and China are strangers (They have never met) how about just sharing the water equally ...................LOL

That's only a problem because even those who don't believe have not the will to dispute it. 

China has not and will not deviate from the course it has set without global intervention.