Underlying these three concerns are the livelihoods of people and the dependence of major populations on the ecological services, notably hydropower.

In recent discussions of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), these four elements were highlighted. A fifth, the most important, was cordially left untouched and was not a matter for discussion.

For the Mekong (known in China as Láncāng Jiāng) that springs from Tibet, snowmelt sustains the flow during the early part of the year. This in itself is a cause for serious concern due to climate change and reduced snowfall. The rains in the upper region start from May to September and the impact of the typhoons have a delayed overlap with this, resulting in natural flooding that occurs particularly in Tonle Sap and the delta area, allowing for extensive groundwater recharge. About 30% of the annual water flow is diverted for human use.

Sediments have a value in reducing bank erosion. In some cases, they maintain the delta and coastal outline and also the fish ecosystems. Depending on how the dams are designed and operated, this affects not only the water flow but also the sediment flow and aquatic ecosystem. Dams have to be designed to allow both the movement of sediment and of fish populations. Seventy-five percent of Vietnam's fish catch comes from the delta region where the annual outflow of two million tons of sediment sustains the coastal ecosystem. Maintaining a near natural sediment flux is critical in sustaining the Mekong.

The majority of sediments in the Mekong comes not from the agricultural lands and open forest areas but from erosion in the highest steep areas. This is known from the dominance of silt, not sand or clay particles, that make up 80% of the sediments. The severity of slope and rainfall, not simply farming, cause erosion; erosion is a natural process in these areas and has gone on for millions of years.

The many dams constructed along the Mekong have long-term implications for aquatic ecosystems and with the socioeconomic costs, and there are tradeoffs. But often the impact on ecosystems is not adequately incorporated in the calculations. Forty percent of the aquatic ecosystems connective of the Mekong is negatively affected and is especially impacted upon where the main river flows, rather than tributaries, are dammed.

Eight cascading hydropower dams were planned in China in 1987. Four are now operative, two are under construction, one is still in the works and one is postponed. Hydropower developments adhere to the good practices established in China with strict administrative and technical specifications.

In order to maintain the migratory passage of fish, the construction of Mengsong dam was suspended and Ganlaba dam adjusted its planning. Before the Ganlaba dam was completed, the Jonghong dam's base flows were sustained to meet navigational and aquatic environmental requirements downstream. The Nuozhadu dam adopted the stratified water intake measure to mitigate the adverse impact of discharge of low temperature water. At present three breeding and releasing hatcheries are planned at the Gongguoqia, Nuozhadu and Ganlaba dams for the middle and lower reaches of Lancang River.

Forests do take up water and therefore affect the base flow of a river but do not significantly reduce the disastrous impacts from major 50-year events. Deforestation increases river flow at the cost of surface runoff and reduced evapotranspiration. This has significant consequences managing a watershed, as rapid afforestation using monocultures of fast-growing species significantly reduces the river flow especially during the dry season. The importance of regenerating natural forest was very important in the Miyun watershed that provides 70% of the water of Beijing.

In all of this, there are over 100 cultures in the Mekong basin and 300 million people live in the greater Mekong region. Their lives are continuously affected by the river and changes in policies that often negatively impact their livelihood. While communities work out the de facto land management, policies increasingly impact on community options as nothing is entirely local and the complexities of land, water and other resource management needs much integration.

The estimated hydropower of the upper Mekong (China) is 29,000 MW while that of the lower Mekong is 30,000 MW. Thailand is a major investor in energy development in the lower Mekong, including tributaries in Lao RPD.

A trans-boundary river like the Mekong requires a high level of technical and political integration for successful management. Many small river systems are seeking to develop payment for environmental services (PES) mechanisms. Downstream must pay for the water received from upstream and sustained especially during the dry season. But on large rivers, the relations go both ways and upstream must also consider their interference with the systems both as ecological, including fish stocks and flow rates, as well as quality and seasonal flow of water.

The discussion of all these factors depends upon the openness and respect the different countries have for each other and must not create the management of such shared and complex resources into a political shambles. This fifth point was not directly discussed during the MRC meeting, which includes the countries of Thailand, Lao RPD, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar, and with the special relations with China.

Exchanges and cooperation between the upstream and the downstream have been more strategic in recent years where the hydrological data of the wet season in the Lancang River is shared with the downstream. In cases of extreme drought, the hydrological data in dry season is also shared. There is navigation cooperation between China and Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Thailand and an exchange expert from China is now working in MRC Secretariat.

Since its beginning in 2007, China's Ecosystem Study Commission for International Rivers (ESCIR) has conducted constructive exchanges and fruitful cooperation with the MRC Secretariat regarding the Lancang-Mekong River, under the direction of China's National Energy Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Water Resources. Beneficial interaction was achieved in the past two years.

In all countries, there is the awareness that disaster risk reduction takes immediate importance along with raising local resilience, though the action may be slow in coming. For the long-term, much more attention has to be paid to ecosystem changes driven both by human activities on the ground and the climate change impact of river systems. This is not to be seen, as in the past, as simply an infrastructural response and reactive management. This is reflecting a much greater understanding of the ecosystems' interplay and the necessary sensitive and integrated management of the different watersheds in the overall river basin management.