Are the dams in China causing problems for the Mekong?

[Hard_done_by]

The Mekong is low - The Thai government says it's all about global warming - hasn't the leadership in Thailand caught up with the fact that it's all about climate change now? But, how about China and those dams? What's your view?

[LEFastheysay]

Hmm...don't upset China seems to be the flave

Thailand refuses visa to Dalai Lama's sister

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8551258.stm

As for AGW/Climate Change, that's another controversial issue. In 30 years time water will be more precious than oil.

[jeffrey]

It would be more logical to discuss and project theories regarding the current state of the Mekong during a normal seasonal pattern....remember, a great portion of China has been experiencing drought conditions for some time now, therefore causing low water throughout the greater regions. It quite possible that such 'new' dam projects have little to do with the extremities being displayed today throughout the broader Mekong tributaries.

[drake]

Are the dams in China causing problems for the Mekong?
YES

Anthropogenic Globul Warming is an imaginary villain and convenient scapegoats for every real issues politicians don't want to or can't deal with but it's also an Uber Paper Tiger that's being use to swindle the population of an entire planet just like the stupid H1N1-09 SNAFU which the drug companies made billions off (reads tax money).
The incompetent twit at WHO, incidentally the same twit who bungled the bird flue & SARS incidents in Hong Kong, is still not made accountable.
But I digressed.

Effect of dams on down-stream ecosystem had been studied to death in the past half century and the consensus is that
it robs the down-stream area of nutrients, impedes migration of fish and other organism, causes irregular and unseasonal flow of water, causes shallowing of down-steam tributaries (less/slower water volume allows sediment to settle).
The list goes on and on and that's just the down-stream portion.

A dam, by design, holds a volume of water so that it can be available for use when during drier period.
This means that while it can prevent flooding it also impedes the natural flow of water through the river system.
The large surface area of the reservoir also allows more evaporative loss than that of a normal river.

Anyone can say with a straight face that China is allowing as much water to flow out of the reservoir as what is flowing in during this dry spell (excluding the surface loss) ?
Apparently, not even the Chinese.

China claims they are only responsible for 4% reduction in the flow (public statement), if you can believe their number.
For the sake of discussion, let's say that 4% is an accurate guesstimation, that is still a HUGE number considering the actual volume of water which 4% represents.

Water is a resource that is much more important than petroleum and China had admitted to hogging at least 4% of it without consent of others down stream or compensation to the losses during time of need.

What else is there to discuss other than how much China gets to fork out for compensation ?