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TRANSBOUNDARY WATER MANAGEMENTdevelop the Basin Development Plan (BDP), establishing a set ofprocedures for information exchange, water use monitoring, maintainingminimum flows, notification and consultation on wateruse projects and maintaining water quality. Parallel work wasundertaken on transboundary Environmental Impact Assessments(tbEIA), navigation protocols, regional fisheries management,flood warning and several different monitoring protocols.Practical experiencesA key area of active engagement between the MRC member countriesis the Basin Development Strategy. The mandate for the BDPis clearly framed in the Mekong Agreement. However, practicalengagement in developing the BDP did not begin until late 2001,six years after the agreement was signed. This was attributed todifferent perceptions on basin planning among riparians, weaknessesin the MRC Secretariat and differing views of developmentpartners on the BDP.The BDP’s first phase focused primarily on planning processesand tools including a knowledge base and modelling capability, onnon-controversial projects, and on building relationships. These arenecessary but insufficient conditions for cooperation and development,which also requires products – actions and outcomes.By 2006, when the second phase of the BDP was launched, theLMB had changed greatly, with water investments in nationalprogrammes taking place due to rapidly increasing water, foodand energy demand and growing private sector involvement,particularly in hydropower and commercial agriculture. Thisshift from dependence on multilateral banks and their safeguardsunderscored the need for strengthened national regulatory frameworks.The BDP moved beyond process alone to focus on waterdevelopment at national and regional levels, without returning tothe earlier almost exclusive focus on water infrastructure. Mekongdevelopment was happening and it was imperative toensure that the move to coordinated and cooperativedevelopment took full account of transboundary,social and environmental impacts and led to substantive,positive development outcomes.The primary products at the end of the BDP werea basin-wide cumulative impact assessment of thecountries’ water resources development plans and theBasin Development Strategy. The latter was a consensusproduct that described strategic priorities for basindevelopment and management, specifically in order tomove identified development opportunities to implementation.The difficulty encountered in the BDP isnot surprising considering the differences between thecountries – sovereign nations, national developmentplans, water and non-water sectors, differing developmentpriorities, varying levels of socioeconomicdevelopment and different political systems.In January 2011 15 years after the Mekong Agreementwas signed, the MRC Council adopted the integratedwater resources management (IWRM) based BasinDevelopment Strategy, which sets out the shared understandingsof the opportunities and risks of the nationalplans for water resources development in the LMB. Thestrategy established 15 strategic priorities to addressknowledge gaps, optimize development opportunitiesand minimize uncertainties and risks associated withthem. It is implemented through a Basin Action Plan.This was an important milestone, reintroducing a focuson water development to support poverty reductionand economic growth, and complementing the focus ofwater management.Image: MRCWater resources in the basin will play an important role in the development of the LMB countries[ 71 ]