SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

11 - Trade and transport7. IWT traffic and modal share analysisThe LMB line agencies largely lack comprehensive and up-to-date records of passenger and cargotraffic plying the river and its associated waterways. As a result, estimates of traffic volumes had tobe made from a variety of different sources. In some member countries (notably in Lao PDR andCambodia), much of the authority for vessel licensing and port operation has been decentralised toprovincial offices, and with it, the responsibility for record-keeping. In most cases, records aremanually maintained and provincial staff are under no obligation to submit returns on a regularbasis to line agency head offices.In the case of Cambodia, not only was there an absence of reliable and consistent data on IWTpassenger and cargo flows, but information on traffic flows for some other transport modes wasalso practically non-existent. For example, data on road traffic flows were unavailable, becausetraffic counts have not been undertaken on the main roads since 1996. For the purposes of thisstudy, road traffic was estimated from vehicle crossing data supplied by the three main ferry operatorsin Cambodia, at Prek Kdam, Tonlebet and Neak Luong. While this data covered long distancetraffic on Highways 1,5, and 7, it did not cover traffic on Highway 4, which is likely to be substantial.Nor did it cover short-distance traffic on the major highways, which does not use the ferries. Forthese reasons, the estimates of road traffic flows are likely to understate significantly the actualvolumes of passenger traffic moving on the main road system. lEstimates of passenger and cargo trafficvolumes and modal shares for alltransport modes operating in the LMBindicate that only in the case of theMekong Delta in Viet Nam has IWTachieved dominance over other transportmodes, and then only for cargo transport(Table 2). Recently, however, IWTpassenger and freight volumes in LaoPDR have begun to increase, albeit froma low base. The declining trend in IWTpassenger volumes for all countries,except in Lao PDR, reflects the impactof an expansion of the region’s main roadnetworks. A negative impact on passengerRiver transport facilities are less expensive to build andmaintain than road and rail facilitiesvolumes carried by inland waterway vessels in Lao PDR must also be expected, both as a resultof the ongoing improvement of the main road network, and of the impending construction of anew bridge across the river between Mukdahan (Thailand) and Savannakhet (the second largestcity in Lao PDR).Despite road network improvements in the vicinity of the major ports of the Mekong Delta in VietNam, it is unlikely that the IWT mode will lose its dominance of cargo transportation in that region,due mainly to the advantages of IWT for bulk cargo movement.lHowever, if this omission could be rectified, it would have little practical effect on IWT mode shares, which arealready very low (at about 1.1 percent of traffic carried by all modes in Cambodia during the reference year of 2001).231