China says dams not to blame for low Mekong levels

By Ambika Ahuja, Editing by Alan Raybould and Ron Popeski
HUA HIN, Thailand
Mon Apr 5, 2010 8:41am EDT (Reuters) – China on Monday denied that its dams were reducing water levels on the Mekong River and blamed problems along the river on unusually dry weather, but it also offered to share more data with its neighbors. Leaders of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, badly hit by the Mekong’s biggest drop in water levels in decades, met in the Thai coastal town of Hua Hin to discuss management of Southeast Asia’s longest waterway. Some 65 million people depend on the river. China sent vice foreign minister Song Tao to rebut criticism of the eight hydropower dams it has built or is building in its south. “Statistics show the recent drought that hit the whole river basin is attributable to the extreme dry weather, and the water level decline of the Mekong River has nothing to do with the hydropower development,” Song said in an official statement after the meeting. The Mekong originates in the Tibetan plateau and flows 4,800 km (2,980 miles) through rice-rich areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia before emptying into the South China Sea off Vietnam. Song said southwestern China was suffering its worst drought in decades. Beijing says the drought has left about 18 million people and 11 million animals with insufficient drinking water and affects 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of crops. Activists said giving data was a step in the right direction. …