Agricultural Land in the GMS (thousand hectare) in ... - GMS-EOC

as a major source of food, mean that there areboth great opportunities and great risks. Increasinginfrastructure and withdrawals will inevitably—andpossibly irrevocably—change the way that riversystems function.Proposed hydropower development in the majorriver basins of the GMS will result in changes toriver flows at a previously unprecedented scale andrate. The importance of freshwater fisheries to foodsecurity in the region underscores the importanceof protecting the productive capacity of freshwaterecosystems from the impacts of these changes. Thisrequires attention not only to environmental flows,but also to habitat coherence and connectivity atthe landscape scale. Main stem dams are predictedto have substantial and prolonged consequences forMekong River system water resources and security.Projections indicate that the impacts of climatechange on water resources in the GMS over thenext 20–30 years are likely to be small comparedto the impact of economic, demographic, andenvironmental changes. This “breathing space”provides an opportunity for countries andcommunities to reshape their water managementsystems and to deal with the more extremechanges expected after 2050. The most effectivestrategies for adaptation will be those that promotemore productive water use, reduce water-relatedrisk and vulnerability, and build the overallresilience of rural and urban communities.In the water sector, the GMS countries needto move rapidly toward improving water useefficiency in the agriculture sector expandingand promoting traditional water conservationmeasures, improving irrigation efficiency,and improving water demand management.Elimination of demand side measures, such asthe recent removal of irrigation fees in Viet Nam,will make it more difficult to implement reforms.The countries in the GMS, particularly Viet Nam,need to increasingly prepare for climate changeadaptation. The focus needs to be two-fold: earlywarning and preparedness for extreme events, bothfloods and droughts; and investment in capacity,infrastructure, and research and development tocope with gradual, long-term changes in sea-levelrise and hotter weather. Given that all countriesin the GMS tend to be affected at the same timeby droughts and floods, as the 2010 and 2011events have shown, climate change has opened anopportunity for the GMS countries to work togetherto mitigate adverse and enhance positive impactsfrom a changing climate. Technology transfer andjoint learning and capacity building events wouldbe essential elements for such collaboration.Among the potential opportunities for irrigationdevelopment in the Lower Mekong River Basinare changes in the wet and dry season flowregime, resulting from the large number ofplanned storage projects, which will shift the riverdischarge (both in the Mekong main stem andmajor tributaries) from the wet to the dry season.These proposed developments would reduceflood peaks and result in higher water availabilityin the dry season. At the same time, rising waterlevels would reduce the current pumping lifts,on which much of the dry season irrigatedinfrastructure relies.As the urban cities and towns in the Mekongregion have grown over the past decades, sohas the level of pollution that these settlementsdischarge into the local waterways. Governments,both local and central, as well as serviceproviders, have not been able to adequatelymanage wastewater discharge from urban centers,Upper: Water for agriculture. Irrigationcanal, Can Tho, Mekong Delta, VietNam. Lower: Water for cooling. PhaLai thermal power plant near Ha Noi,Viet Nam.Water Availability, Demand, and Usage 183