Boundaries, territorial disputes, and water insecurity: Evidence from the lower mekong basin

Abstract

On the basis of cross-section and time-series data, we find that water resources within the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB)-an area including large sections of Cambodia and Lao PDR, and the north and northeast regions of Thailand, and the Mekong delta of Vietnam-tend to be more seriously polluted in the transnational areas than in the other areas. Specifically, the estimated coefficients show that political influence on transnational water pollution is more significant in areas near the international border along which a river runs (denoted by BORDER2) than in places near the international border across which a river runs (denoted by BORDER1). In addition, transboundary water pollution is found to be very sensitive to the dummy of territorial dispute. The estimated result also shows that the chance of territorial disputes is higher in BORDER1 than in BORDER2 areas. Finally, ASEAN membership is found to reduce some water pollutants (such as total phosphate) though its effect on the reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) is not significant. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.