A Mekong River advisory body urged China on Tuesday to work with its experts in sharing year-round data on the lifeline waterway for the first time, rather than Beijing keeping a separate platform under its own new Mekong organisation.
Control of the waters is politically sensitive, and many farmers’ and fishermen’s livelihoods depend on the river. A report 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.
Tuesday’s statement by the Mekong River Commission, which groups Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, followed an assurance by China to share more water management data from its portion of the river with Southeast Asian nations, although details of its pledge were not immediately clear.
