Project Summary

Affected by tropical monsoons, typhoon, climate change and El Nino, Mekong River Basin countries are often subject to flood or drought disasters to a varying degree. Effectively preventing and coping with flood and drought disasters is a problem about socio-economic development and human well-being and also a common challenge facing all countries. The Chinese side recognizes that carrying out joint assessment of flood and drought management together with all basin countries is an important measure for commenly understand the flood and drought situation in the Mekong River Basin, enhance mutual trust and remove misgivings, cope with flood and drought risks jointly and build neighborly international relations. In view of this, the Chinese side takes the lead to apply for the “Joint Assessment on the Current Status of Flood and Drought Management in the Mekong River Basin (Phase I)” project as sponsored by the LMC fund. This project is of great significance for bringing benefit to people of Lancang-Mekong countries and promoting regional sustained stability and shared prosperity and development because we will carry out communication and cooperation in water resources field, especially in disaster prevention and mitigation. 

Ⅰ Objectives 

Deepen the understanding of the characteristics and current status of flood and drought disasters in the Mekong River Basin, share disaster prevention and mitigation technology and experience and join hands to cope with flood and drought risks and challenges.  

Ⅱ main activities 

With guidance of the JWG Water of LMC, and joint efforts of experts from all LMC member countries, the joint assessment expert group finally formed a report with general consent of the LMC member countries, and ready for sharing and publication in early 2019.  The activities that carried out by the experts from LMC countries include: 

（1）5-11 August 2018,the Chinese expert group carried out, at the invitation of Thailand’s leading unit (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) and Viet Nam’s leading unit (Viet Nam National Mekong Committee), a seven-day field investigation in Thailand and Viet Nam, with in-depth understanding of structural measures and non-structural measures for flood and drought management in Mekong River Basin countries. 

（2）13-17 August 2018, experts of five Mekong River Basin countries came to China to have a week’s technical exchange on current status and technical need of floods and droughts in the Mekong River Basin. 

（3）Chinese experts formulated the first draft of the joint assessment report and submitted it to the experts of the member countries for discussion and further improvement, and invited them to have technical exchange in China in 22-24 October.  

Ⅲ Expected Outcomes/Achieved Results and Prospects 

The report of this project was conceived as a product of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism. The LMC Fund supports work in flood and drought mitigation in the Lancang-Mekong Basin, which is the common concern of the six member countries. This report draws together relative resources and materials on the flood and drought topic of this region, as well as analysis and modelling, so that all member countries and a wider group of people could benefit from them. The report was polished and then published by Springer in 2020, titled 《Flood Prevention and Drought Relief in Mekong River Basin》. 

Publishment

Ⅳ project contact 

Hui LIU 

Senior Engineer 

China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research 

Email：wuyouliuhui@163.com