Upon arriving at the Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday evening, Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said six GMS leaders had shown "a common will to equally use the Mekong River and enjoy mutual benefits" despite the fact that hydroelectricity development was not discussed at the GMS conference.
Most important would be "cooperation on when to open and close water [gates], and keep water," Cham Prasidh said, referring to planned hydroelectricity dams across the Mekong.
March 22 marks World Water Day, the United Nations General Assembly designated initiative observed since 1993. The event is held to urge the provision of clean water for all.
This year is the UN's Year of Sanitation, a coincidence that challenges the world "to spur action on a crisis affecting more than one out of three people on the planet," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message for World Water Day notes.
Deaths among Cambodia's fragile population of rare Irrawaddy dolphins have been gradually declining each year, with an average of 20 deaths in 2004 falling to just 6 or 7 in 2007, according to the Chairman of the Commission for Mekong Dolphins Conservation Touch Seang Tana.
He said that dolphin numbers have also increased from 100 to 140 or 150 in this timeframe, adding that last year the organization noted the birth of nine newborn dolphin babies, though two died in the first two months of 2008 when they were caught in gillnets.