By Yoo Jung
August 3, 2025 · 6 min read
Every morning, Ms. Pim Boonratchsena, a 49-year-old Vietnamese Tamui villager, would walk down to the Mekong riverbank, basket in hand, to gather the day’s harvest: green onions, cilantro, cabbage, cucumber, and green beans. Her husband would return with enough catch to feed their family and to sell a few kilos at the local market. Today, the baskets are empty, fishing is no longer a stable income, and the water no longer follows the ancient rhythm of the seasons.
It has been around seven to ten years since her family stopped riverbank planting due to changes in the Mekong River. She notes that the “flood waters don’t come as we expected. When the water was supposed to decrease, it stayed the same.” Today, Ms. Pim must buy vegetables from the market that she once grew herself for free. She is concerned that conditions will worsen with yet another dam: “If it is built, will our village be relocated? Where will we live? What will we do to make a living? We grew up here.”
Her family’s story is not rare. It is a quiet tragedy shared by countless communities across Southeast Asia. The Mekong River’s pulse is disrupted further with each dam constructed upstream.
For millennia, the Mekong River flowed freely. The 12th-longest river in the world flows through China, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam until it drains into the South China Sea. In the past, it was a significant transportation route that facilitated trade and military movements. To this day, the Mekong feeds millions, providing food security and sustaining jobs. In Vietnam alone, it supports 80 million people and contributes to one-third of the country’s gross domestic product.
However, the Mekong has seen changes to its life-giving currents. China began construction on the Mekong in 1992 with the Manwan Dam in order to harness hydropower for electricity and economic growth. This has been a boon for Chinese citizens, as they now have greater energy access, expanded industrial capacity, and jobs in the energy sector. But since then, China has constructed 12 mainstream dams and countless tributary dams on the Upper Mekong. These dams altered the river’s flow, trapping nutrient-rich sediment and disrupting flood cycles that nourished farms and fisheries in downstream nations.
As downstream nations bear the brunt of the dams’ environmental damage, the Chinese government maintains that the negative impacts are negligible. It points out that the dams provide downstream users with hydroelectricity and flood control. However, with Southeast Asia’s population growing at an annual rate of 0.73 percent, a reliable river flow is all the more pressing.
Water is a fundamental natural resource: it crosses borders, nourishes crops, powers homes, and hydrates billions daily. The value of water is rising as climate change accelerates droughts and disrupts rainfall patterns. In a world where freshwater makes up less than three percent of Earth’s water supply, water must be recognized not as a given but as a guarded, finite treasure. Water is a global commons, a shared heritage that transcends political boundaries. However, despite its importance, water is often treated as an abundant, innate resource until it disappears or becomes weaponized.
One nation does not own the Mekong River. It is a shared lifeline that stretches across borders, nourishing fields and countless families. As millions depend on the Mekong River to thrive, the unpredictable water flow is getting even more concerning.
However, the Chinese government is planning for more dams. With its Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013, it aims to integrate water management into its infrastructure development strategy. This would help China gain leverage by expanding dam networks and increasing hydropower exports.
What’s more, China is not alone in its appetite for development. To increase their own influence over the Mekong, nations like Cambodia are joining forces with China to reshape its currents. On Thursday, April 17, 2025, Cambodia and China signed a deal to finance the Funan Techo Canal Project, a 180-kilometer-long waterway diverting water from Vietnam to link Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand. China is funding 49 percent of the project, seeing it as an opportunity to expand its Southeast Asian influence. However, Cambodia’s National Mekong Committee has released few details and avoided a detailed consultation process with neighboring countries, calling the canal a connection to a tributary despite maps showing it joins two main Mekong channels.
While this canal can boost Cambodia’s economy by reducing its reliance on Vietnamese-controlled trade routes, the altered water flow causes water shortages, increased salinization, and ecological disruption in Vietnam. Water, which was once seen as a shared resource, is now being controlled as a commodity by a certain few. It is increasingly wielded as a strategic tool, shaped by political alliances and shifting regional priorities. Without an accountable, multinational body to prevent the monopolization of the Mekong River’s water control, it will only continue to serve the few at the cost of many until those who depend on it run dry.
Current bodies of governance such as the Mekong River Commission (MRC) do not have sufficient impact to settle the issue. Established in 1995 by Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos to manage the Lower Mekong Basin’s water resources, the MRC has established Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation, and Agreement for water use. However, the MRC’s legal power is limited: it does not have the authority to veto projects, and there are no penalties for non-compliance. Moreover, China is not a member of the MRC but only a dialogue partner alongside Myanmar. China has disclosed very little information on its projects and develops its dams unilaterally without consulting other countries, limiting the MRC’s effectiveness. Even though upstream actions can have significant downstream impacts, China leveraged its upstream dominance and financial power to sidestep regional consensus.
This story is about how natural resources can trigger geopolitical friction when governed without collaboration. Countless wars throughout history have waged over territory, water, or food. Mekong’s current crisis might lead to another conflict. The Mekong River runs through six countries, yet alterations by upstream nations often go unchecked. This mirrors the case of the Nile River when Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam threatened Egypt, which relied on the Nile for 90 percent of their water. This evoked an international mediation with the African Union and the United States.
The Mekong River deserves similar levels of oversight. Water is a global commons, and it requires collective stewardship. Existing institutions like the MRC lack enforcement power and inclusivity, with China’s absence creating a governance asymmetry that must be addressed. A solution could be a new governance treaty backed up by the United Nations that would mandate greater transparency amongst nations, environmental impact assessments, and mandatory consultations for any dam projects with all affected states present. While the MRC already encourages information-sharing and ecological assessments, the Mekong River region needs legally binding processes.
Ultimately, the highest bidder cannot dictate the Mekong River’s future. Without fair management, its currents will not just carry water but also fuel conflict and irreversible environmental loss. Only when all nations with a stake in the river’s flow unite under a binding, enforceable framework can they protect the millions of livelihoods that depend on it.
Yoo Jung
Grade 11
International School of Ho Chi Minh City
Written on August 3, 2025 (Sunday)
