Cooperative Governance of Transboundary Water in Greater Mekong Subregion: Challenges in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation

Abstract

Rivers not only provide the most basic water resources but also pertain to national strategic resources with crucial implications. When it comes to international relationships, transboundary water management is a major topic under discussion. Nowadays, numerous riparian countries worldwide are involved in the issue of transboundary water governance. Better cooperative governance of transboundary water among countries could facilitate economic progress and enhance sustainable development. This paper took Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) as a case study, analyzed challenges in the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation, and put forward prospective solutions to address these problems in the hope of deepening the cooperation in managing the shared water resources within the river basin and further providing potential support for worldwide major river basin cooperative governance. By employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the paper found that current challenges for cooperation in the GMS are mainly: disputes over benefit distribution among countries upstream and downstream, different utilization of water resources and complex coordination, and multi-player games in the GMS.