Marko Keskinen

The Lake with Floating Villages: Socio-economic Analysis of the Tonle Sap Lake

Increasing complexity and multidisciplinarity of water management has resulted in the development of broader approaches such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This paper discusses the IWRM and particularly its social and participatory dimensions based on the practical experience gained from the socio-economic analysis within a modelling project in Cambodias Tonle Sap Lake. It is argued that water-related socio-economic analysis can significantly contribute to water modelling and impact analysis work because it helps to link modelling with the most relevant social and economic issues. This way modelling is also better able to answer to the needs of integrated water resources management.

The Mekong: IWRM and Institutions

During recent years, numerous events and documents in the water sector have endorsed integrated water resources management (IWRM) and a basin-wide approach to river management. The Mekong River is a good example of an international river basin that involves multiple sectors and actors and thus needs integrated management. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has partly adopted this task, but faces many constraints such as the absence of the two upstream countries.

Mekong at the Crossroads.

Abstract The Mekong region is undergoing rapid transitions, socially, economically, and environmentally. Economies are stabilizing after the political turbulence of the last several decades, and development pressures as well as ambitions are vast. Water is related to these social, economic, and environmental changes in many ways and in a very profound manner. This article summarizes the approach and major conclusions of the research project title “Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) on the Mekong River.” The concept of IWRM is elaborated in the setting of these major transitions, and the roles of academic research and education are highlighted.

Policy Analysis for the Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia: A Bayesian Network Model Approach

The starting point of the policy analysis of the Tonle Sap Area in Cambodia was the Mekong Agreement of 1995. It specifies three development goals for the Mekong Basin: economic growth, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. The possibilities to find combinations of sector policies for achieving these often conflicting goals were analysed systematically using a probabilistic, Bayesian network model. Four policy scenarios were constructed, one promoting each of the three development goals separately and one integrated, compromise scenario. The results indicate that a compromise policy is possible, being radically more balanced and acceptable than any of the policies that target only one of the three goals at a time.

Water Resources Development and Impact Assessment in the Mekong Basin: Which Way to Go?

Abstract The Mekong River Basin is facing rapid changes, including intensive plans for water development. While the different development projects are considered to be important for economic development, the negative impacts that they are likely to cause for ecosystems and livelihoods are estimated to be remarkable. Yet, existing impact assessment processes seem in many cases to be inadequate to capture even the actual magnitude of the impacts at different levels. This article looks at the different impact assessment processes and their challenges in the basin. It is argued that impact assessment in this kind of dynamic and complex setting requires better coordination between assessments at different levels. Basinwide impact assessment would benefit from a more adaptive, multilevel approach that makes better use of assessments from local levels up to the regional level and builds on more participatory and interdisciplinary methods. Successful impact assessment also requires the recognition of the highly political nature of water development and related planning processes.

Integrated water resources management: horizontal and vertical explorations and the ‘water in all policies’ approach

Water constitutes a sector that overlaps with many other sectors and within itself has an array of quite different interests, stakeholders with varying mind-sets and consequently notable governance challenges. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is the recommended approach to tackle this situation. Integration – both vertical (within the sector) and horizontal (across different established sectors) – is seen as fundamental to balanced governance and policy making. IWRM has a long history, and rich experiences, both positive and negative, have been reported. This article summarizes some of this experience and concludes that both vertical and horizontal challenges are ample. To contextualize and systematize integration, a flow chart is presented for various tasks and phases of water governance, and the challenges of integration are embedded into that framework. Because water is not the only sector that overlaps with other sectors and has integration challenges, the health sector is considered to learn from its approaches. Particularly interesting is the ‘health in all policies’ approach. This is helpful in further developing IWRM, in particular with respect to horizontal integration, in which IWRM may particularly need development.

Tonle Sap Pulsing System and Fisheries Productivity

1 Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Mechelininkatu 34a, 00260 Helsinki, Finland juha.sarkkula@environment.fi 2 World Fish Center, IFReDI, PO box 582, Phnom Penh, Cambodia – e.baran@cgiar.org 3 Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI), Cambodia – chhengp@yahoo.com 4 Laboratory of Water Resources, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 5200, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland marko.keskinen@hut.fi & matti.kummu@iki.fi 5 EIA Ltd., Tekniikantie 21B, 02150 Espoo, Finland – koponen@eia.fi

Socio-economic Analysis of the Tonle Sap Region, Cambodia: Building Links and Capacity for Targeted Poverty Alleviation

Cambodia is recovering from three decades of violence. The Tonle Sap region is the poorest part of this deprived country. Its economy now suffers from substantial informal and destructive activities. A socio-economic analysis of the region--a part of the Mekong River Commissions Water Utilization Programme, which serves the lower Mekongs Basin Development Plan (BDP)--is documented. Besides the multifaceted collection and analysis of data and information from participatory fieldwork, various databases, mathematical models, expert interviews and so forth, a crucial part of the work is to build up and reinforce links between the Mekong River Commission, ministries, provincial authorities, non-governmental organizations, universities and ultimately local communities, and thereby root the BDP into the emerging civil society. Otherwise, the BDP is at high risk of sharing the fate of its predecessors on the Mekong as well as in many other parts of the world. This fate has too often been a failure of the plan, however integrated it has attempted to be.

Model-Based Assessment of Water, Food, and Energy Trade-Offs in a Cascade of Multipurpose Reservoirs: Case Study of the Sesan Tributary of the Mekong River

AbstractThe Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia is undergoing rapid development in the exploitation of its water resources. Although hydropower is the most dominant driver for water development, t...

China's southbound transboundary river basins: a case of asymmetry

An overview is presented of the contemporary societal and environmental development situation in the six major transboundary river basins that drain south from China: the Red River, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Indus. The overall societal and environmental vulnerability of the basins is assessed using multidimensional river basin vulnerability analysis. The analysis shows that while China has a fairly low level of vulnerability in these basins, its downstream influence is substantial. This setting offers a plethora of opportunities for transboundary cooperation and calls for a high level of responsibility from the upstream riparian countries.