Food Security in the Mekong – The Water, Food and Energy Nexus Revisited

The Mekong river sustains a wide variety of livelihood systems, and is producing food for domestic consumption as well as for export. This constitutes a backbone for local communities as well as being vital for national economies in the region. There are however several contemporary challenges to the future of food production that needs to be observed and understood, including for instance the possible development of hydropower projects and the threat to region-wide fisheries.

The region is now facing rapid population growth, urbanisation and economic growth, increasing demand for energy, food and water. As a response, the countries of the Mekong Basin are increasingly considering hydropower as a solution to their growing energy needs. The construction of dams, and the subsequent alteration of the water regime, may pose immediate and long-term threats to food security unless food and water needs are taken into account. Moreover, the challenges go beyond the hydropower debate since other interventions and investments are increasingly claiming considerable portions of the available water and land resources. Solutions to food-, energy-, and water-security issues will only be sustainable when the three sectors work together.

The organisers

• The Shared Waters Partnership
• The International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
• Mae Fah Luang University

Keynote presentations

• Jamie Pittock, Australian National University
  “Hydropower and food along the Mekong River“
• Eric Baran, World Fish Centre
  “Food security in the Mekong – the contribution of fisheries“
• Mark Giordano, IWMI
  “The View from Walla Walla“

Parallel sessions

• Harmony Patricio, FISHBIO
  “Fisheries and livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin: benefits and challenges of community-based participatory research“
• Jannie Armstrong, City University, London
  “An Overview of Food Security: Conceptual Approaches, Global Issues and Institutional Architecture“
• David Blake, M-Power fellow, Ubon Ratchatani University, Thailand
  “Irrigation dilemmas, drivers and logics in Northeast Thailand in the early 21st century“
• Chanagun Chitmanat, Faculty of fisheries Technology and Aquatic Resources, Maejo University, Thailand
  “Aquaculture, food security and development in Thailand in a variable climate“
• David Dumaresq, Australian National University
  “Food Balance, Trade and Vulnerability in the Lower Mekong Basin: Moving to a Food Sovereignty Model for Food Systems Adaptation“
• Naho Mirumachi, King’s College London
  “Making sense of uncertainty and risk between and across sectors: Water allocation, dam development and food security in the Mekong“
• Diana Suhardiman, IWMI
  “Legal plurality: An analysis of power interplay in Mekong hydropower“
• Teigan Allen, Southeast Asian Group, IUCN Asia Regional Office
  “Mekong Water Dialogues”

Presentations of the key institutions in the region

• MRC: Theerawat Samphawamana
• MFU: Hansa Sanguannoi
• IUCN: Teigan Allen
• IWMI: Mark Giordano
• SEI: Eric Kemp-Benedict
• M-Power: Lilao Bouapao
• WWF: Peter Cutter