Satellites to track Chinese dams on Mekong river, as US likens ‘threat’ facing Southeast Asia to South China Sea

The US-funded Mekong Dam Monitor will track water levels at 11 Chinese dams along the river, where Washington has blamed droughts on China

Increased transparency is a boost for downstream countries, but many are wary of one more move in the great power competition

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The sun sets over the Mekong River in Vietnam. File photo

Published: 6:19pm, 16 Dec 2020Updated: 3:01pm, 17 Dec 2020

Threats to Southeast Asian unity on the Mekong are as “existential” as those in the South China Sea, according to the United States, which this week launched a project that will use satellites to track water levels at Chinese dams along the river.

David Stilwell, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) there was strength in taking a common position on the Mekong. He likened their predicament to the situation in the South China Sea, where Beijing has overlapping territorial claims with several of the bloc’s members.

Washington has accused China of causing downstream droughts with a series of dams along the Mekong, which is a life source for 60 million people.

Speaking at the virtual launch of the Mekong Dam Monitor, which is funded by the US, Stilwell said droughts from last year had continued into this year and been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

He said satellite imagery of Tonle Sap, a freshwater lake in Cambodia, from April to August this year had revealed not only unusually low water levels for the season but also a 90 per cent reduction in fish catches.

The monitor is an open-source online platform that will provide weekly updates using remote sensing and satellite imagery on the levels of reservoirs at 13 Chinese dams along the Mekong’s main stretch, as well as at 15 tributary dams.

It will also circulate weekly visualisations and analysis of China’s 11-dam cascade on the upper Mekong, as well as maps and data on temperature, snow cover, precipitation and other indicators along the river’s full course, according to its website.