The Mekong River, dubbed "Danube of the East", runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, for a total distance of 4,661 km. The 2,160-km section upstream in China is known as the Lancang River, which traverses southwest China's Yunnan Province for more than 1,000 kilometers.

The latest statistics at the hydrological monitoring stations along the river show that the water quality of the Mekong River meets the international standard for drinking water, indicating an absence of water pollution in the river.

China has launched a comprehensive project for environment protection of the Lancang River drainage area. According to the project, a major afforestation drive kicked off in 1999, with the aim of increasing the forest coverage rate in the area from 38 percent at present to 50 percent in 20 years.

"The afforestation project will cost a total of 200 million yuan (US$24.1 million) and the tree-planting area will cover about 630,000 hectares by the year 2020," said a local forestry official.

So far, about 33,333 hectares of trees have been planted in the area, the official said.

The Lancang-Mekong River is considered a promising route for linking west China with the southeast Asian countries. At the same time, the river area is rich in hydropower, non-ferrous metals, tourism and biological resources.

Since 1986, a number of hydropower stations such as those at Manwan, Dachaoshan and Xiaowan, have been established on the Lancang River, and five more hydropower stations will be built within 20 years.

Meanwhile, the Simao Paper Plant and Lanping Lead-Zinc Mine have also been built along the river banks.

In addition, hundreds of historical and scenic sites there attract flocks of domestic and overseas tourists.

How to protect the ecological environment of the river while further developing it is a long-term concern for officials of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, who have hosted a series of international conferences in recent years to discuss economic development and pollution-control on the Lancang-Mekong River.

The officials agreed that the development of the Mekong River Basin will help promote economic growth along the river, and narrow the development gap among East Asian countries.

"This also dovetails with the strategy of developing China's western areas, which is well underway now," they said.

The Lancang-Mekong River Basin development should focus on transportation, environmental protection and tourism, they noted.

The first phase of the joint development program between the countries is to develop the river into a leading international water navigation route, the officials added. The river will be an important transportation link between China and Southeast Asia.

Addressing worries about problems brought about by the development projects on the river, such as water pollution and imbalance of the ecological environment, the Chinese government has decided to list environmental protection in the area top priority while carrying out development.

"There are at least two standards we must meet," said Zeng Guangquan, senior engineer with the Yunnan Provincial Environment Scientific Research Institute. They are: the water volume of the river's lower reaches must be equal to the period before development and the water quality of the reaches must meet the standard of drinking water.

He added that every development project in the area must prove that it will not cause any pollution to local environment.

He explained that the pollution sources of the river are urban sewage and garbage, which contain too much nitrogen and phosphorus.

Last December, Yunnan inspected 1,042 industrial enterprises in the river basin area. Four of them which did not meet the pollution-control standard were shut down.

At present, the province is constructing four major sewage treatment plants and three nature reserves.

To date, over 20 hydrological monitoring stations have been set up on major tributaries of the Lancang-Mekong River.

Zeng also pointed out that the hydropower stations on the Lancang River will help adjust the water flux of the Mekong River, decreasing disasters from droughts and floods in dry and rainy seasons.

When there are fewer droughts and floods, mud-rock flows and landslides will also be reduced, leading to a sparklingly clean Lancang-Mekong River, Zeng asserted.

(Xinhua 02/21/2001)