s of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN). In the past five years, the river has
carried up to two million tons of goods, representing trade
worth more than 10 billion yuan (1. 28 billion US dollars).
However, because of the worse changes of the climate, Mekong also has witnessed the lowest water level in the past 50 years. The MRC(湄公河委员会)Summit has drawn a lot of attention since southwest China and some areas of the four
MRCmembers—Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam—
have been suffering severe drought since 2009. Here, the annual dry season started much earlier than usual,
produce building materials, medicines and food, provides
habitats for thousands of species of plants and animals and supports an inland capture fishery with an estimated