Mekong River Commission issues warning about blue-green water
With parts of the Mekong River turning an unusual blue-green, an inter-governmental commission has warned of possibly serious consequences if water levels stay low in the increasing dammed river.
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday (Dec 9) the aquamarine hue currently seen in a part of the river in Thailand’s Nakhon Phanom province and the town of Thakhek in Laos was possibly due to the “extremely low flow, slow drop in the river sediments, and presence of algae on the sand and bedrock river bottom”.
“The analysis has indicated that the extremely low flows now being experienced in the Mekong, during one of the worst droughts ever experienced in the region, have changed the water colour,” said the organisation which facilitates cooperation among Mekong riparian states Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Tan Hui Yee
