For more than a decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pacific Ocean Division in Honolulu has been coordinating ongoing exchanges between experts in the United States and Southeast Asia’s Mekong River region to figure out how to better manage strained water resources on both sides of the Pacific.

The Mekong region has some of the world’s fastest-­growing economies, and the river itself is key to that growth. Boats and barges move up and down the waterway hauling goods, hydroelectric dams generate power, and local people have for centuries lived off the many fish species that call the river home and used its waters to irrigate their crops.

According to a 2020 report by researchers at the East-West Center and the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., American total trade with Mekong countries is worth around $116.6 billion. America exports $26.7 billion in goods and services to the Mekong region and imports $89.9 billion in goods.

But today the future of the river — and the communities that depend on it — is uncertain.

“The mighty Mekong is the world’s most productive freshwater fishery and its huge floodplain makes it a key zone for global and regional agricultural exports,” said Bryan Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program. “The river’s resources directly support the livelihood of tens of millions of people in China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and also underpin regional economic security. Unbridled dam construction, climate change and poor development choices are causing the river’s ecosystem to gradually collapse.”

It’s a challenge that the Mekong River Commission — which is made up of representatives from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand — faces every day.

“(New development) brings, of course, the positive benefits of economic growth and energy production, but it also brings costs,” said Anoulak Kittikhoun, CEO of the Mekong River Commission. “Costs to the environment, costs to the vulnerable people who are not protected, and — because of climate change — you’re getting more and more severe floods, severe droughts, unpredictability, all of these things.”

Part of a wider U.S. State Department-run program established in 2010 to bolster U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia, USACE has been coordinating the Sister Rivers Partnership, which has paired up the Mekong River Commission and the Mississippi River Commission, which is largely run by USACE and includes civilian presidential appointees from states up and down the Mississippi River.

“We formed this because the two commissions share a lot of similarities,” said Evan Ting, USACE Pacific Ocean Division’s chief of its Program Support Division, who has been deeply involved in the partnership for years. “The Mississippi River and the Mekong River share a lot of the same characteristics — the way it flows, the length of it all — so why not share best practices with the Mekong partners?”

Dwindling water resources have caused tension and in some cases fueled conflict in many parts of the world. Now as the Mekong runs lower, it brings fears of water and food shortages that could destabilize the region.

“That is a concern to not just for the U.S., but the entire globe,” said Ting. “It’s in the U.S. interest — as well as the interest of many of our allies and partners — that the Mekong region remain peaceful (and) that the basin is developing sustainably, because we want to minimize and mitigate that type of potential friction in the future.”

Gen. Charles Flynn, the U.S. Army’s top officer in the Pacific, touts USACE’s engagement in the Mekong as an example of how the service is helping engage countries in the region.

“Water is life. It’s powers, it’s energy, it’s transportation … it’s a central component of life everywhere, but it’s particularly true with the Mekong River,” Flynn told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser. “I’m very, very proud of what this (program) represents, because it really does foster stability in these countries and it helps prevent these situations from exacerbating into unrest.”

Hard choices

Every year, excluding a brief period of interruption brought on by the spread of COVID-19, the Sister Rivers Partnership has brought experts to various dams and water management sites across Southeast Asia and the United States. Most recently in August the Pacific Ocean Division brought members of the Mekong and Mississippi River commissions to Southern California to tour sites and meet officials in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

“I view this as one of the more critical relationships and partnerships that we have across the Pacific,” said USACE Pacific Ocean Division commander Brig. Gen. Kirk Gibbs.

Gibbs said that this year’s exchange in California was “unprecedented” as it included a trip down to the Mexican border to meet with the International Boundary and Water Commission — which has been operated jointly between the U.S. and Mexico since 1889 to manage water resources along the border.

“That’s three commissions at one time working together,” said Gibbs.

Kittikhoun called the program a “crucial partnership” as communities on both sides of the Pacific look for “different possibilities to have energy, but save the environment at the same time.”

The growing communities along the Mekong have growing needs. Hydroelectric power generates enormous amounts of energy with almost no emissions, in theory making it an ideal alternative to fossil fuel as countries around the world try to curb climate impacts. But the dams also reshape rivers and can cause problems for fish habitats, trap sediment that spreads nutrients downstream and even displace communities.

“They’re building new dams right now,” said Ting. “So they’re incorporating new technologies. A lot of our dams we built, we have modified with new technologies. So by sharing best practices, technologies and things on water infrastructure — even on mistakes we’ve made — both sides benefit.”

In April at a summit attended by the leaders of the Mekong River Commission’s member countries, Kittikhoun laid out what the commission calls the “five troubling trends” impacting the river: abnormal river flows, flood and drought from climate change, saltwater intrusion, plastic pollution and trapped sediments.

China, which has significant stakes of its own in the Mekong but is not a member of the Mekong Commission, has built 11 large dams on the Upper Mekong without any consultation with neighboring countries downstream. Eyler said two of the dams rank among the world’s largest and that their reservoirs can reduce river flows by 10% to 30% all the way into Cambodia.

“The Mekong relies on a seasonal flood pulse to drive fisheries and agricultural production,” said Eyler. “China’s dams flatten the curve of that pulse and in some parts of the river closest to China — such as in Thailand’s Golden Triangle area — the pulse has completely flatlined, gutting fishing communities and reshaping local identities and cultural practices.”

Eyler said that “China’s dams are solely used for hydropower production and while I personally do not think they are intentionally used as some geopolitical ploy to bring the downstream to heel, the operation of these dams does produce an effect which puts the downstream countries in a victimized and passive position.”

Common ground

Tensions in the Pacific have simmered as the U.S. and China compete for power and influence across the region both on land and at sea. Eyler warned that this sort of competition risks compromising efforts like the Sister Rivers Partnership if American leaders begin to see it as a tool to gain influence and pit countries in the area against China.

“When countries in the region are forced to choose sides through military alliances or over-reliance on world powers, they tend to fail, collapse, and/or produce long-lasting conflict,” said Eyler. “This was the case of South Vietnam, which was created by the U.S. as a puppet state, and the Khmer Rouge regime which allied with China and carried out genocide inside of Cambodia.”

Flynn, who is among other things charged with preparing American soldiers in the Pacific to potentially take on the Chinese military in a conflict, said that the river management program shouldn’t be seen as part of that.

“This should not be something that is militarized,” said Flynn. “In fact, this is an area where we want collaboration, where we want coordination … these kinds of collaborative efforts to manage shared water resources is a way to enhance cooperation amongst nations and in reducing the potential for disputes.”

Sarah Quinzio, acting director of the State Department’s Regional Environment Office at the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, said that the role Army engineers play fits into “a really whole of government approach that the United States takes toward working with our Mekong partners to tackle transboundary challenges like natural resources management, water management, and being able to share expertise two ways. It’s just really, really valuable.”

Southeast Asia is not the war-torn region it was at the height of the Cold War, but it’s not quite peaceful today either. Myanmar is locked in a bloody civil war, and even in mostly peaceful areas, violence associated with extremist groups and transnational crime still occasionally flares. Countless unexploded bombs left behind by U.S. military Cold War misadventures also still litter the lower Mekong Basin.

Eyler said he believes the U.S. “has a moral obligation to engage the Mekong countries given our failed military 20th century interventions there which gravely set back the ability of governments in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to support their populations and promote peaceful development.”

Despite the U.S. military’s complicated legacy in Southeast Asia, Eyler said that in his experience “USACE does some of the most impressive U.S.-government supported work in Mekong countries and is seen as a reliable and constructive partner.” In particular he said that it has been very effective in helping regional governments with public outreach efforts.

“These priorities are underdeveloped in the Mekong, where top-down decision making often ignores the needs of individuals at the community level and also promotes ‘white elephant’ projects which can do more harm than good,” said Eyler.

There are tentative signs that China might be getting ready to cooperate more with the Mekong River Commission to better manage resources.

“We are seeing both sides share more data and engage in productive dialogue on difficult-to-discuss matters,” said Eyler. “This fall, the two sides will publish their first joint study, so I wait with anticipation to see if the Mekong countries are able to raise their priorities and express their needs for a fairer share of water from their oversized and powerful upstream neighbor.”

Flynn said that greater Chinese cooperation with Mekong River countries is a welcome development. He said he’s cautiously optimistic that environmental talks and cooperation could be “a way for us to take the temperature down and work together again, to look after people’s needs.”