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Legal Aspects of the Mekong River System*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2009

H.G. Halbertsma
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The Mekong river, with a length of 4,200 km, is the main watercourse in South-East Asia, flowing from the north-eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau at an altitude of 5,000 m into the South China Sea near Ho-Chi-Minh Ville. Its drainage basin of nearly 800,000 km is larger in area than France and includes Kampuchea, most of Laos and parts of the other four riparian countries, i.e., the People's Republic of China, Burma, Thailand and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. In its course it constitutes parts of the boundaries between the People's Republic of China and Burma, Burma and Laos, Laos and Thailand and Laos and Kampuchea. Its flow increases considerably during the rainy season (May-October), raising the water level at Phnom-Penh by 16 m and flooding the Central Plain of that country, thereby trebling the surface of the Tonlé-Sap (Great Lake) and the Delta in Southern Vietnam. With an annual average discharge of about 475,000 million cubic metres, it is the eighth largest river in the world.

Type
Articles
Information
Netherlands International Law Review , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , May 1987 , pp. 25 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1987

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References

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12. See n.3 supra.

13. See n.4 supra.

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17. See n.15 supra.

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20. See n.14 supra.

21. See n.15 supra.

22. See n.3 supra.

23. See n.14 supra.

24. See n.15 supra.

25. See Art. 10, paras. 1–4, of the ‘Barcelona Statute on the Regime of Navigable Waterways of International Concern’.

Following the suspension of the Committee as from 1975, an Interim Committee was set up in 1978 to proceed - until the original Committee could resume its work - with water resources development activities in three riparian countries. See section 4.6 infra.

26. Development of Water Resources in the Lower Mekong Basin, UN Doc. C/E/CM.II/457, Bangkok 1958.

27. See Annex I at the end of this article.

28. ECAFE Annual Report (15 February 1956 - 28 March 1957) p. 37, Bangkok 1958.

29. Annual Report of the Mekong Committee, MKG/85001, p. 9, Bangkok 1985.

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38. See Annexes 2 and 3 at the end of this article.