Dry and Dusty

This yarn [Drought-stricken Southeast Asia seeks assistance] from the Taipei Times tells of concerns over crop losses in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Highlights include:

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday called for assistance from the international community as well as fellow Cambodians for a national campaign to help farmers who are short of water.

In Cambodia, about 700,000 villagers are reeling from water shortages, authorities there said. Serious droughts have badly affected impoverished Cambodia for the past two years.

Poor farmers in remote areas may be driven deeper into debt as they are forced to borrow money to survive, said Nhem Vanda, chairman of Cambodia's National Disaster Management Committee.

But of particular interest in this article is the opposing views about the possible cause for the shortfall in the Mekong's supply to farmland irrigation.

Scientists debate what is to blame.

Seasonal fluctuations in rainfall are at the heart of the problem, but the situation has become more difficult in recent years with a decline in water levels of the mighty Mekong River, which runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The decline has a knock-on effect, as the Mekong's tributaries experience lower water levels or in some cases dry up entirely.

"Global warming has caused rainfall to decrease and the land to become hotter, which makes water evaporate more quickly," said Kansree Bunprakob, a scientist at Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University.

Other environmentalists say that new dams upstream in China -- built primarily to generate electricity -- obstruct water flow on the Mekong sufficiently to disrupt the river's ecosystem and harm agriculture and fisheries in the lower basin.

"The water level in the Mekong River has continued to drop in dry season since China built the first dam in 1992," said Chainarong Setthachua, director of the Southeast Asian Rivers Network, an environmental group based in Thailand.

Is it a sign of global warming, or the direct result of neighbours?

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