Fish-Friendly Irrigation: Guideline on Fishway Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance and Adjustment (Vietnamese)

The ‘Guidelines on Fishway Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance and Adjustment’ describes design principles and key design criteria when installing fishways on irrigation facilities as well as common mistakes in design. In addition, the Guidelines describes the processes and key considerations on construction, operation, maintenance, and adjustment of fishway.

Fish-Friendly Irrigation: Fishway Monitoring Manual (Vietnamese)

The Fishway Monitoring Manual focuses on assessing fish migration with method of fishway monitoring as a complementary document of the Fishway Guidelines for Irrigation Facilities. The Manual is intended to be used for practitioners on-site with the Fishway Guidelines.

Guidelines for Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the Lower Mekong River Basin (TbEIA)

The Guidelines for Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment in the Lower Mekong River Basin (TbEIA) is designed as a flexible document with perspective of its further elaboration based on gradually accumulated experience of Member Countries with a TbEIA application. It is also designed as a supporting tool applicable with respect to the different national EIA legislation systems in Member Countries. It builds on and supplements five MRC procedures, including the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement; Procedures for Data and Information Exchange and Sharing; Procedures for Water Use Monitoring; Procedures for Maintenance of Flows on the Mainstream, and Procedures for Water Quality in addressing potential transboundary environmental impacts of development projects.

Preliminary Design Guidance for Proposed Mainstream Dams in the Lower Mekong River Basin (PDG)

The new Preliminary Design Guidance is an updated version of the original PDG introduced in 2009. It incorporates not only what the MRC Member Countries have learnt from their own experience with hydropower, but also from examples and best practices around the world. It also includes the most current knowledge regarding design criteria, science and technology. While the older PDG spanned this range of construction and operation elements (hydraulics; sediment transport; geomorphology; water quality; aquatic ecology; fish and fisheries; dam safety; and navigation), the new PDG now includes hydrology and socio-economic impact to reflect the greater attention paid today to riparian communities and riverine livelihoods.

Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender into the Mekong River Commission’s Core Functions and Activities: A Guidebook for a Gender-Responsive and Resilient Lower Mekong River Basin

The Handbook for Gender Mainstreaming into the MRC Core Functions and Activities offers a supporting tool – or a guiding note – to assist the MRC to effectively integrate a gender perspective into all aspects of its work, from the development, update and application of strategic tools, procedures, normative guidelines, studies, and organizational strengthening to designing and advocating for joint actions. It also provides a working aid to integrate gender perspectives during the course of the BDS 2021–2030 and SP 2021-2025 implementation, and beyond

Handbook on Mainstreaming Gender into the Mekong River Commission’s Core Functions and Activities (Khmer)

A Guidebook for a Gender-Responsive and Resilient Lower Mekong River Basin

The Handbook for Gender Mainstreaming into the MRC Core Functions and Activities offers a supporting tool – or a guiding note – to assist the MRC to effectively integrate a gender perspective into all aspects of its work, from the development, update and application of strategic tools, procedures, normative guidelines, studies, and organizational strengthening to designing and advocating for joint actions. It also provides a working aid to integrate gender perspectives during the course of the BDS 2021–2030 and SP 2021-2025 implementation, and beyond

Guidance for Improving Irrigation Systems to Address Climate Change and Food Security

This guidance gives a preliminary guidance for applicable irrigation techniques and technologies in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). This guidance was developed for the MRC Member Countries to use for mitigating impacts of climate change and natural disasters, addressing problems in irrigation sector, and improving irrigation systems in the LMB. This guidance also indicates the defects of irrigation techniques and technologies being utilized in the LMB and suggests where improvements could be made for better utilization.

The status and trends of riverine plastic pollution in the Lower Mekong River Basin

This report explains the status and trends of plastic waste pollution in the Lower Mekong River Basin from the perspectives of plastic pollution itself as well as the frameworks and capacity of each Member Country to address the issues of plastic pollution. The report estimates that in 2020, its four countries had produced about 8 million tons of plastic waste – of which, some 70% to 90% were plastic bottles, plastic bags and Styrofoam. Yet this debris does more than adversely affect the Mekong and its tributaries.

Joint Environmental Monitoring Programme at Two Mekong Mainstream Dams: The Don Sahong and Xayaburi Hydropower Projects

The report provides an overview of activities conducted and resulting recommendations from monitoring two mainstream dams: Don Sahong and Xayaburi hydropower projects. It summarizes the pilot monitoring results from the first pilot site report for each hydropower project and the Combined Annual Report in a way that illustrates how findings in hydrology, sediment, water quality, aquatic ecology, and fisheries can be interpreted together. Based on the findings, it provides some initial suggestions for mitigation and adaptive management of construction and operation of hydropower projects. It also concludes with recommendations for revisions to the guidelines and monitoring protocols that can then be incorporated into the JEM Programme document.

Sustainable Hydropower Development Strategy: A Basin-wide Strategy for a Changing Mekong River Basin

The Sustainable Hydropower Development Strategy 2021 presents the MRC’s approach toward mega infrastructure project development including hydropower projects in the Lower Mekong River Basin. It provide a framework for how to “avoid, minimize and mitigate” the transboundary impact of hydropower projects. It defines three strategic areas for the MRC to work on: Consideration of Integrated Water Use, Environmental and Socio-economic Factors; Efficient Hydropower Generation and Distribution Mechanisms; and finally, Information System and Capacity Building.