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dam-l LS: Donors pledge $10.6 million for Mekong projects
Donors pledge $10.6 million for Mekong projects
CAMBODIA: October 20, 1999
PHNOM PENH - International donors agreed on Tuesday to
provide the four-country Mekong River Commission with
$10.6 million in aid next year amid concern Thailand was
using too much water from the river, Cambodian officials
said.
"Donors have promised to help us with $10.6 million for three main
projects next year," Cambodia's minister of public works and transport
Khy Teng Lim told reporters at a commission meeting.
"This will help countries in the region in terms of the development of
economic, social and environmental issues," he said.
The Mekong River Commission, which includes representatives from
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, works to promote sustainable
development of water and resources in the lower Mekong basin.
One of the projects the aid will go to will be a study of water use by the
four member countries, Khy Teng Lim said.
Another Cambodian official said Vietnam and Cambodia were
concerned about Thailand's use of an increasing amount of water from
the river.
"Vietnam and Cambodia...have been concerned about Thailand using too
much water," a Cambodian adviser to the commission, Vichea Lam,
told reporters.
"This (aid) money will be used to help monitor the use of the Mekong,"
he said.
Vietnam faces the threat of increased salination in its Mekong delta
rice-basket region if too much water is pumped out of the river upsteam,
he said.
Representatives from 20 organisations and countries including the
World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and Japan
attended the meeting.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE