The river drains an area of approximately 307,000 square miles and discharges 114 cubic miles of water annually. Welcome to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) website. China, which refers to the Mekong as the Lancang River, has been in the crosshairs of local and international environmentalists for the power it wields to reduce the water flow. China carefully controls and manages the data from its dams. China built its first dam on the upper Mekong in the 1990s and currently runs 11 dams along the river. The Mekong River is the word’s 12th longest river and Asia’s 7th longest with a length of about 2,703 miles. The Mekong River is a river in the south-east of Asia.It flows through many countries: China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and finally Vietnam.The Mekong begins in the Lasagongma Spring which is in the plateaus of Tibet, disputed part of China, and flows about 2,703 miles (4,350 km) south-east to the South China Sea.Its watershed covers 307,000 square miles (797,000 square kilometers). The upstream region of the River, viz. For communities living along the Mekong, unusual water fluctuations in the Mekong River are not new. Last week, it was reported that authorities in China notified the Mekong River Commission (MRC) that Jinghong Dam in Yunnan province will reduce its rate of water discharge by half from the beginning of the month until late January. A senior US diplomat, David Stilwell, said in an online webinar that China was "manipulating" the Mekong River "for its own profit [and] at great cost to downstream nations". Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand set up a Mekong River Commission in 1995. China dams; Lancang River; Mekong River Commission (MRC) Mekong River dams; COVID-19 In Asia C. April 16, 2021 India’s Biggest Cities Shut Down as New COVID-19 Cases Hit 200K April 14, 2021 BANGKOK—China has notified downstream neighbors it is holding back the Mekong River flow at a hydropower dam on the waterway’s upper reaches for 20 days, as part of a … The Mekong River flows some 5,000 kilometers from the Himalayas to China's Yunnan province and then to Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and then reaches to sea through Vietnam's Mekong … This map shows the status of Mekong mainstream dams for most of the 4300km length of the river. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) is an inter-governmental organisation that works with the Thai, Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese governments to jointly manage the sustainable development of … China claims that there was low rainfall last year on its portion of the 4,350-km (2,700-mile) river which is known as Lancang upstream. China is not a member of the MRC but operates a series of dams that affect the downstream riparian states. The Mekong, or Mekong River, is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia.It is the world's tenth longest river and the sixth longest in Asia. Around 60 million people depend on the Mekong for fishing and farming in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. A train track looms over the Mekong River, part of the 257-mile railway that will connect the Chinese city of Kunming to Vientiane, the Laotian capital. China is overtaking the United States in both spending and influence over lower Mekong countries. The Mekong River has become a new front in U.S.-China rivalry, environmentalists and officials say, with Beijing overtaking Washington in both spending and influence over downstream countries at the mercy of its control of the river's waters. Already China operates 11 of the world’s largest dams on the upstream portions of the map which combined store more than 47bn cubic meters of water and can generate 21,310 MW of electricity. the Yunnan province of China received more than average rainfall according to satellite measures of “surface wetness” and snowmelt was slightly above-average during the May to October wet season. Furthermore at the mercy of its control of the Mekong river’s waters. China’s unilateral manipulation of your shared river disrupts the natural flood pulse that replenishes bodies of water like Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, revitalizes the fishing and agricultural industry, and restores freshwater aquifers across the Mekong basin. 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