April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Leaders of six nations along Asia’s Mekong River meet today to bolster cooperation as a severe drought heightens concerns that dams in China have distorted water flows, depleting the world’s largest inland fishery.
The dry weather has reduced Mekong water levels to their lowest in three decades, affecting more than 60 million people in the lower basin, an area larger than the U.S. state of Texas. China agreed on March 25 to share water-level data at two dams to ease pressure from nations downstream, including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Water is life,” Jeremy Bird, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission, said in a statement over the weekend, after a meeting of more than 200 activists, government officials and scientists. “Our increasing demands for food and energy depends on our ability to work together to develop and manage this precious resource.”
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