Impacts of Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal and Implications for Mekong Cooperation

Picture: The Stimson Center

In an article by The Stimson Center, Brian Eyler, Regan Kwan, and Courtney Weatherby examine how the Belt and Road initiative may weaken the 1995 Mekong agreement between Vietnam and Cambodia, and recommend actions to prevent a deterioration of Mekong cooperation.

The proposed 180km Funan Techo Canal project in Cambodia will deliver significant transboundary impacts to water availability and agricultural production in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, with acute impacts to An Giang and Kien Giang provinces. The project will convert many existing narrow, low-levee canals in Cambodia which currently do not alter wet season flooding pathways into wider, high-levee canals which will reduce wet season flooding in both Cambodia and Vietnam. Wet season flooding provides positive benefits to both Cambodia and Vietnam by driving agricultural production and creating large, natural wetlands that provide economic security to millions of people and robust biodiverse habitats. Floodplain alterations will cause wet season flooding to attack the canal’s high levees and result in higher than anticipated construction and maintenance costs across the life cycle of the canal.

Currently the only document outlining the project’s functions, impacts, and blueprints is the August 8, 2023 CNMC notification document to the MRC. In the notification document, the project is incorrectly designated as a “tributary” project even though the project connects to two Mekong mainstream channels. The incorrect tributary designation allows the Cambodian government to avoid 1995 Mekong Agreement prior consultation protocols and hastily commence construction without subjecting the project to a technical review and other processes which could improve the design and operation of the canal.