Multilevel Water Governance For Transboundary River

This research has the objective to understand the evolving concept of multilevel water governance for transboundary river, particularly, the Mekong River, through the regional level approach of the Mekong River Commission (MRC)’s Mekong Integrated Water Resource Management (M-IWRM) project.The research question of this study is how the MRC could improve the interrelationship among the riparian countries including China toward the Mekong River basin. It is valuable for the sustainable development in the Mekong region as well as the international cooperation intensification in Asia. This thesis hypothesize that the regional level approach such as MRC and the M-IWRM project in the multilevel water governance framework could be the alternative for its improvement.Hence, this paper explores what is the relationship between one of the regional governance institutions MRC, which includes Lower Mekong Basin countries; Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam, and China, and emphasize how much important the formation of water governance in the multilevel among the riparian countries with China.The water governance, which refers to the range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that is in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society, will be applied to analysis the M-IWRM project as a theoretical framework. It will be especially pointed out the regional or river basin level approach in the multilevel water governance framework figuring out the MRC’s M-IWRM project.Based on the theoretical framework, this research examines the performance and the future role of the China concerning Mekong River Basin with the case study. This study can benefit people’s understanding of China’s task in the international cooperation in this water governance project. Additionally, the multilevel water governance approach will be applied to other case to suggest as a new form of the water governance in the last parts.The structure of this research is taken at three parts. First phase of the study aims to understand the water governance concept in various levels. The conceptualization of water governance in which importance of water issues and interconnectivity to social, economic, and political fields are highlighted, is mainly explored in Chapter 2.Chapter 3 excavates the Mekong region in the frame of water governance as a second level of the study. Based on the overall understanding of the Mekong region, it emphasizes the rationale of water governance and analysis the relevant institutions as well as actors in the Mekong river basin. Understanding the relationship and interconnections between the different institutions will be essential for the chapter 3.The third level of the study selects the Mekong Integrated Water Resource Management (M-IWRM) project of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to investigate the good water governance. The study of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and MRC will enrich the perception of M-IWRM project. Above all, the impact of the relationship between MRC and China as well as the China’s performance in Mekong will be significantly considered. The motivation of the China’s participation in the MRC and their concerns on the Mekong region will be also discussed.In the chapter 5, it will look into the achievement and challenges of the MRC which is the multilevel water governance particularly focusing on the regional level. It will show the position of China in MRC as well as the project and fundamentally seek to the role of the China for the future development and cooperation. The multilevel water governance approach toward the transboundary river will be also appeared with the other case suggesting as a new form of the water governance.